Pope Leo XIV attends a ceremony marking the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea held within the ruins of submerged basilica, revealed in 2014 after water ranges receded in Lake Iznik.
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IZNIK, Turkey —On the second day of his inaugural international journey, Pope Leo XIV visited the positioning the place early Christian leaders met 1,700 years in the past for the First Council of Nicaea — the gathering that produced the creed nonetheless spoken in church buildings right now.
The primary American pope prayed alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the religious chief of the world’s Jap Orthodox Christians, amid the archaeological ruins of the lakeside church the place bishops met in 325 to resolve divisions threatening to tear the early Church aside.
“We should strongly reject the usage of faith for justifying battle, violence, or any type of fundamentalism or fanaticism,” Pope Leo stated in his speech on the website on the shore of the tranquil Iznik Lake. “As an alternative, the paths to comply with are these of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.”
Pope Leo has used the journey to press for unity — amongst Christian denominations, and likewise amongst different religions and communities. In a speech alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, the Pope warned that the division and polarization seen on the earth right now is inserting the very way forward for humanity at stake.
Emperor Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea, bringing bishops from throughout the Roman Empire to resolve a doctrinal disaster over easy methods to clarify Jesus’ relation to God. Christians had been persecuted for some 250 years, till a choice by Emperor Constantine allowed the devoted to worship in freedom throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine noticed a unified Church as important to stabilizing an empire rising from civil battle.
Pope Leo XIV takes half in a prayer service with Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, close to the excavations of the traditional Basilica of Saint Neophytos on Nov. 28, 2025 in Iznik, Turkey.
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The fiercest dispute got here from Arius, an Alexandrian priest who argued that Jesus, although exalted, was the very best created being, however not equal to God.
The council, whose bishops had gathered from throughout the Roman Empire, finally rejected his teachings and affirmed that Jesus is “of 1 substance” with the Father — language that varieties the premise of the creed recited by catholics right now, which begins: “I imagine in a single God, the Father almighty …”.
This aerial {photograph} exhibits stays of the sunken Byzantine Basilica of Saint Neophytos on the shore of Lake Iznik, which Pope Leo XIV visited on Friday, Nov. twenty eighth.
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The precise location of the council was solely found about 11 years in the past, when public staff taking aerial pictures of Lake Iznik shared photos with Turkish archaeologist Mustafa Sahin. “It was underneath about eight ft of water,” he advised NPR.
Locals know the ruins nicely; in low water, swimmers generally relaxation on the stones. Because the shoreline has since receded, the complete footprint of the basilica — its apse and dozens of graves — now sits on dry land.
The Church remained principally united till the Nice Schism of 1054, which cut up Catholic and Jap Orthodox Christianity over theological disputes and energy struggles between Rome and Constantinople – modern-day Istanbul.
On the historic website on Friday, Pope Leo XIV and Patriarch Bartholomew held a joint silent prayer over the uncovered ruins. Forward of the anniversary, Leo launched an apostolic letter emphasizing the creed as a “widespread heritage of Christians,” written when “the injuries inflicted by the persecutions of Christians have been nonetheless recent.”
On Saturday the Pope and the Patriarch will signal a joint declaration in a contemporary present of unity.
