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.
Chris McGrath/Anadolu through Getty Pictures
cover caption
toggle caption
Chris McGrath/Anadolu through Getty Pictures
IZNIK, Turkey —On the second day of his inaugural overseas journey, Pope Leo XIV visited the location 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 immediately.
The primary American pope prayed alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the non secular chief of the world’s Japanese 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 must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism,” Pope Leo stated in his speech on the web site on the shore of the tranquil Iznik Lake. “Instead, the paths to follow are those 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 immediately is putting 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 clarify Jesus’ relation to God. Christians had been persecuted for some 250 years, till a choice by Emperor Constantine allowed the trustworthy to worship in freedom throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine noticed a unified Church as important to stabilizing an empire rising from civil warfare.
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.
Chris McGrath/Getty Pictures Europe
cover caption
toggle caption
Chris McGrath/Getty Pictures Europe
The fiercest dispute got here from Arius, an Alexandrian priest who argued that Jesus, although exalted, was the best created being, however not equal to God.
The council, whose bishops had gathered from throughout the Roman Empire, in the end rejected his teachings and affirmed that Jesus is “of one substance” with the Father — language that kinds the premise of the creed recited by catholics immediately, which begins: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty …”.
This aerial {photograph} reveals 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.
OZAN KOSE/AFP through Getty Pictures
cover caption
toggle caption
OZAN KOSE/AFP through Getty Pictures
The precise location of the council was solely found about 11 years in the past, when public staff taking aerial images of Lake Iznik shared photos with Turkish archaeologist Mustafa Sahin. “It was under about eight feet of water,” he advised NPR.
Locals know the ruins properly; in low water, swimmers typically relaxation on the stones. Because the shoreline has since receded, the total footprint of the basilica — its apse and dozens of graves — now sits on dry land.
The Church remained largely united till the Nice Schism of 1054, which break up Catholic and Japanese Orthodox Christianity over theological disputes and energy struggles between Rome and Constantinople – modern-day Istanbul.
On the historic web site 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 “common heritage of Christians,” written when “the wounds inflicted by the persecutions of Christians were still fresh.”
On Saturday the Pope and the Patriarch will signal a joint declaration in a contemporary present of unity.
