The last Emperor of the Roman Empire in the East also known as the Byzantine Empire.
The Turks murdered him.
He was martyred by the forces of Sultan Mehmet during the assault on The City on May 29, 1453. His feast is celebrated on May 29 (e.g., St. Herman Calendar 2000, p.38).
He is venerated among Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics alike, for his deep faith, his steadfastness to his people and to his duties as Emperor in the face of certain death at the hands of the Sultan’s forces.
A lesser Christian and man not only could have, but would have escaped, abandoning the people to their own fate. However Emperor Constantine remained steafast, stood with the body-polity and died willingly for his faith and imperial legacy.
Emperor Constantine’s heroic death and the shock of the fall of The City, the capital of Rome in the East Constantinople, combined with the fact that his place of burial remains a mystery to this day, led to several pious legends about the Emperor.
Many claimed that he never died, but was hidden by God. Some others renamed him the sleeping Emperor, secluded by God.
It was generally believed by many that he would one day return to drive out the invaders and restore the Faith and the Empire.
Oguejiofo Annu
See
Nichols, Donald, The Immortal Emperor, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 66-69.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costantino_XI_di_Bisanzio
Cheers!
This is a generous assessment of the man which is based on his role in the formation of Christainity as the state religion within the Empire rather than the historical facts like it is reputed that he murdered his wife and son
A similar story can be told off Pontius Pilate who has also been painted in a good light in the Bible and even revered in later religious tradition when the history books depicts him as otherwise
Opps… Do forgive me…after calming down…OOOh I do hate that man…I realise your post is not about Constantine. So do forgive me and any inconvenience caused.
Egg on face!! Ha ha
J
we should look at the book, the prince by machieavelli. from this book we will have to acknowledge that with power we would have to do a lot,of things that ordinarily we would never do.