| In the mid-17th century, a prelate named Paisios Ligarides collected oracles on Constantinople from Byzantine sources and oral tradition, interpreting them as foreshadowing Russian intervention within the Ottoman Empire on behalf of Greek Orthodox populations. His work, the Chresmologion Konstantinoupoleos [Book of Prophecies on Constantinople] is accompanied by a letter dedicating it to Alexios, Emperor of Russia. A copy of the text, which Ligarides gave to Makarios, Patriarch of Antioch in the Danubian Principalities in 1658, survives in the main Patriarchal Library at Jerusalem (Codex 160). A second copy from the early 18th century is contained in Codex 23 at the Metochion of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople. Oracles concerning Crete are here selected and published from the older and better witness to the text. |