IPHBAU
INTERNATIONAL PHILO~BYZANTINE
ACADEMY AND UNIVERSITY
WESTERN CIVILIZATION reached maturity with the founding of the Byzantine Empire. History evolved to a point when its varied and distant past converged to form an alliance of cultures and civilizations unequaled before. (See related history)
Beyond Ancient Greece and subsequently Rome, Byzantium was the center of cultural achievement that included influences from the Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian civilizations. Coupled with the Christian ideal, Byzantium ushered the world into its highest level of universal self awareness, a fact that prevails even today.
A critical time in human history occurred when Constantinople fell in 1453. But, despite the setback, and true to its worth, the underlying influence of Byzantium continues unabated to the present. It existed in Europe throughout the life of Byzantium and was further entrenched when the erudite thinkers of the great Polis* [City], upon its fall, migrated there bringing with them their knowledge and skills to France, Ireland, Spain, and other countries where they settled. This activity triggered a newly found interest in the Classics and the great thinkers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who once more were inspiring the minds of many in an intellectual rebirth.
Athens remained the center of learning for studies in antiquity up to the fifth century of the Christian era. This preeminence deteriorated, however, onward of the fourth century with the invasions of the Goths. The Athens School of Philosophy was diminished and the center of gravity shifted to the Polis [the City of Constantine: Constantinople from the Greek Constantinou-Polis] where a University had come into being since the founding of the City, attracting several of the learned intellectuals who arrived from Syria, Africa, and parts of Europe either to teach or to learn. In the year 425, the Emperor Theodosius II reorganized the University, establishing norms as to the number of professors assigned to the teaching of Grammar, Rhetoric, Law and Philosophy. Two main departments comprised the University -- one of Philosophy and the other of Jurisprudence. The University was housed in a special building with grand conference rooms and also maintained a salaried faculty. It became, therefore, the most advanced and influential Intellectual and Spiritual center of the Empire and was known as the Superior School of Christianity or the University of Constantinople.
Contrary to dubious attempts to minimize the immense contribution of Byzantium toward the preservation and expansion of civilization, the reality is that Byzantium, the same as before, is to this day continuing to exert its influence on the Western mind and not less on the mind of the rest of the world.
The University of Constantinople was preserved under the auspices of several of its Imperial heads. In the course of its history its importance extended to several fields of learning -- Art, Literature, Music, Science -- up to the time of the Renaissance. Thus, in a contemporary setting, and in keeping with the tradition and practice of his predecessors, countering the adversity of 1453 and its aftermath, Prince Eugene II Lascaris Comnenus confirmed the continuity of the University of Constantinople on September 15, 1950 by restoring and renaming it, INTERNATIONAL PHILO BYZANTINE ACADEMY AND UNIVERSITY; and by maintaining it under his protection as hereditary Grand Master of the SOVEREIGN IMPERIAL ORDER OF SAINTS CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AND HELEN, A.D. 312 -- first Dynastic Christian Order of Chivalry.
The Academy comprises a forum of prestigious personalities in the world of Science, Religion, Culture and the Arts. The University symbolizes the historical importance of an Institution which marked the way for the contemporary world as a center of learning and of human progress and edification.
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City-bound suburbanite New Yorkers or San Franciscans, when asked where are they going, more likely will respond: "to the City." These are the exact same words a Byzantine would utter in Greek when responding to the same question. Namely, "ees-teen Pohleen" or "to the Polis" (that is, "to Constantinople"). The refined elegance and euphony of the Greek enunciation deteriorated under the brusqueness of the language of the substitute occupants of Constantinople and became what we hear today, the grotesque "is-tan-bool."
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[The reader needs be aware of the misguided interpretation of the word istanbul as given on the televised program, "The History Channel”—an unfortunate major infraction in the conveyance of correct public information: The program makes a portentous claim that the word is . . . Turkish! Moreover, it is regretful that the same source (namely, The History Channel), during another documentary (?) on the subject of Byzantium, compounds the error of misguided information. In this instance, the viewing public is exhorted to believe that they are of Roman blood!
It would be difficult to comprehend how the British people, for example, may consider themselves to be of . . . Roman blood—whatever that means—for the simple reason that it was a mere military contingent that formed the outpost of the Roman Empire in that area. It was that contingent that proclaimed Constantine an Emperor. The plausibility of the program's claim may be somehow acceptable in the Hellenic world, due to the affinity of the two peoples in their cultural and physical closeness. The Greeks even called themselves Romioi. However, this was not in repudiation of their Hellenic identity (their blood!), but a matter of civil identity. (Amazing how vigorous the beautiful and rich Greek language is even this very day. It is spoken and heard, written and read, and preserved with the same fervor as it was by its ancestral creators—the lasting Roman, Ottoman, and sundry other invasions and occupations notwithstanding.) The reality of Hellenism was present in the Roman Empire from its inception and again at the time of the Tetrarchy, when the Macedonian Greeks invested themselves into power, first inspired by Diocletian. The unfortunate conveyance by The History Channel fails to tell the viewers that Byzantium was an evolving Hellenistic Rome. The cycle was complete: The culture was Hellenic; the implementation was Roman—organizational and militant; the conclusion was Hellenic.
Given the above cited program's premise that, expanded cultural influence renders blood heredity, it follows that the viewing public is Roman in blood and, therefore, by logical regression Greek in blood! An absurdity.
Yet, the so-called History Channel moves unabated in spewing out its transparent propagandistic emissions. Witness the statement that, because of the victory at Actium (31 B.C.), history stopped on its track and at once ceased to be a continuum of events. The laughable notion is tendered that, as of that moment Western Civilization is born and that, this is what all of us are today. Of course, we must ask who all of us are? Then, we must also ask, for example, how is it that Octavian (known also as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus or Augustus Caesar) rushed to erect Nikopolis in the shadow of the practice of Alexander the Great? History is not compartmentalized in its essence but only for purposes of reference. Western Civilization has a far greater depth than what the myopic pronouncements of the History Channel would have us believe. (See: "Historiotropy" [pp. 71 and 89]. A. C. Karras, (2001). Leadership Style of Constantine the Great: Significance for Leadership Development in the Church. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Trinity Theological Seminary. Newburgh, IN).
NEW BYZANTIUM is a cultural and ideological notion. It does not warrant any racial identity.]
HAGIA SOPHIA
The
(Holy Day of The Annunciation
against the Turk
by
PRINCE
"NATIONAL HERO"
________
The Directorate of the National Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Costa Rica on March 21, 1998 at Seven O'clock in the Evening unveiled and placed the Portrait of Prince Constantine Lascaris Comnenus in the Hall of Ex-Presidents.
The solemn Act was emotionally attended by the Princes Theodore IX and Gabriela Lascaris Comnenus who traveled from Venezuela for the occasion. Prince Theodore IX, senior brother to the Honoree, is the Grand Protector and Head of the Dynastic Byzantine House of Lascaris Comnenus of Constantinople.
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(Translation)
UNIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA
SCHOOL OF
PHILOSOPHY
Manifest their pleasure
NATIONAL HERO
of
Dr. Constantine
The Plaza Constantino Láscaris
on the Bronze bust of
Professor Prince Constantino Lascaris Comnenu _________________________________________ VENEZUELA At The University of Andres
Bello Honors
Bestowed Upon
(Translation) THE VENEZUELAN
ARAGONESE GROUP GRANTS THE TITLE OF ILLUSTRIOUS
ARAGONESE TO Dr. Theodore E.
Lascaris-Comnenus M. FOR HIS VALUABLE ACADEMIC
CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONS OF
LATIN AMERICA Signed: MANUEL ESTEBAN
F., ESQ.,
Secretary Signed: JOSE TORAN I., Public Relations Caracas, June 14, 1998 ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ __________________________________ THE
REPUBLIC OF
COLOMBIA Assigns Formal Status
to INSIGNIAS of the ORDER (Translation) REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL
RELATIONS
RESOLUTION NUMBER
070 OF 19
12 DEC. 1997 By means of which permission is
conceded to accept THE PRESIDENT OF
THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA RESOLVES FIRST ARTICLE: To concede
permission to Doctor HERNAN ALEJANDRO SECOND ARTICLE: This
Resolution is effective as of the date of its publication.
(signed) (signed) ________________ On the above occasion, the Governing
Council of the CENTER OF HISTORICAL
STUDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS functioning under the auspices of the
Republic of Colombia together with the Law and
Medical Faculties of the UNIVERSITY DE LA
SABANA have extended courtesies to the ORDER OF SAINT EUGENE OF TREBIZOND. __________________________________
THE REPUBLIC
OF CHILE
"Estabilidad Gubernativa Constituye una Garantía a los
Capitalistas Extranjeros." La Nación, Santiago de Chile, Martes 5 de
Noviembre de 1957, p. 12.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
"Notiziario
Riguardante il Sovrano Ordine Imperiale di Costantino il Grande." Artis
Templum, Rivista di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti. Sassari Vicolo Sassun. 5 Cas.
Post 147 Tel. 32173 - C.C.P. N. 103890 intestato a Prof. Wally Ferraris Corso
Vittorio Emanuele n. 51 07100 SASSARI. (Registrato al Tribunale di Roma al N.
6675 del 17 gennaio 1959.)
At the Presidential Palace in San Jose, Costa Rica, May 28, 1993
The
unveiling of the portrait of the
President of the Republic Rafael Angel Calderón Furnier
(right).
Painting done by the renowned Spanish Artist Jesús María Del Rincón
(middle).
Remarks extended by the House Delegate, Dr. Mark Athanasios C. Karras
(left).
campus square of the National University
of Costa Rica.
at Plaza
Constantino Láscaris on the campus square of the
National University of Costa Rica. The site
commemorates his
outstanding cultural and spiritual contribution to that nation.
Prince Constantino gave to Costa Rica of his knowledge and
wisdom the same as
his predecessors and other Byzantine thinkers
gave theirs to Europe
to form the basis of the Renaissance.
to accept and use the "ORDER OF SAINT
EUGENE OF
TREBIZOND IN THE GRADE OF KING
OF ARMS", of
Greece.
IN
CHILE
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September, 2000
George Athos Adamson (Adamopoulos) a native of Souvala at Mt. Parnassos, Greece (the area known as Roumeli)
together with his brother Alexander and his cousin Dr. George Lucas Adamson
founded the prestigious ADAMSON UNIVERSITY in Manila, Philippines.
The
institution began as a School of Industrial Chemistry in 1932
directed toward the developmental needs of the Philippines. It was granted
University status on February 5, 1941 by the Department of Education of the
Philippines, and on December 4, 1964 it was turned over to the Vincentian
Fathers of the Congregation of the Mission.
Today, the University is one of the leading centers of
quality education in the Philippines. As a Catholic university it promotes
a meaningful Christian presence in the academic world. It actively pursues
its educational mission of empowering people, especially the socially
disadvantaged. It enjoys universal recognition for Graduate Education and
offers an extensive number of academic disciplines.
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Author:
The work is presented in a Spanish language 267 page book
published
In his Preface to the book, General of the Army
Gonzalo
de Porras y R. de León
|
Expansion of Western Civilization: from Constantine the Great to Constantinople and Byzantium and onward to America |
NEW BYZANTIUM
is The AMERICAS