SCP-9453

"Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent."

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  SCP-9453: A Locked Room in Istanbul
  Word count: 1741 words

  Author: feathersnake

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2/9453 LEVEL 2/9453

CLASSIFIED

Item #: SCP-9453

Safe

View of the south-eastern corner of SCP-9453, showing ceiling fresco.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9453 has been sealed with a biometric padlock. A notice is to be posted on the exterior of the door in Turkish, English, and Greek, stating that the room contains an asbestos hazard and must not be entered. Surveillance cameras, acoustic monitors, and seismographic sensors have been installed within the room and around the church perimeter.

Description: SCP-9453 is a 3.5 x 5 m room located under the Church of St. Mary of the Mongols¹ in Istanbul, Turkey. It is believed that the room had not been accessed from the 15th century until its rediscovery in 2026. At the time when the door was reopened, all surfaces were coated in a uniform layer of fine dust. All the walls except the western wall are plastered. A description of the room's contents follows:

• Eastern side: An iconostasis² inlaid with silver which has fallen down due to rotting wood. The six icons recovered are of the Theotokos³ in the "Hodegetria" style⁴. Two incense burners containing frankincense and myrrh.
• Northern side: A plain walnut scriptorium desk. A quill and several sheets of silk paper, upon which Text 9453-A was found, lie upon the desk. Carbon dating of these sheets indicates that the silk was harvested in 1430±20 CE. A drawer in the desk contained 12 Genoese testoni⁵, 4 Venetian ducats⁶ and 5 Ottoman akçe⁷. There is a stool standing in front of the desk and a second, which was lying overturned at the time of discovery.
• Southern side: The oak door to the room. A clay oil lamp lies on the floor, with a black stain around it left by evaporated oil. The remains of a crossbow of Genoese manufacture are resting against the wall.
• Western side: The western wall is marked by a 2 m diameter circular area of bare stone. The mortar between the stones here has vitrified, though no fire damage or soot is present. There is a roughly circular area on the floor in front of the western wall 1.2 m in diameter where the stone is lightly bleached, and seven candle-holders are placed equidistantly around the circumference.

Every 16-25 minutes, observers within SCP-9453 may experience a series of three muffled sounds: a sharp crack, followed by a loud slamming sound closer to the observer, followed by a noise resembling the sound of stressed masonry. Mechanical detectors perceive no such sounds in the room. 3-6 times per day, a similar series of events occurs which is preceded by the sensation of a slight trembling of the floor and includes a much louder slamming sound.

Text 9453-A:

[four lines illegible]

…and I was commanded to record all that was spoken between them. The learned father performed the rite and called upon the Name⁸ to intercede. When the light…

[three lines illegible] …the father and I trembled…

[two lines illegible] …a face impossible to look upon…

[three lines illegible]

I write as quickly as I can that I might not forget his words:

Spake the visitor:	Spake Gennadios:
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who preserve Plato's dialogues in purple-clad codices, teach your orphans to read by reciting homilies that curse the poor for the sin of iconoclasm, and justify your exclusion of the lowest of the city from the hospices with theology?	Is it not true that we Romans, with our flawed pedagogy, have preserved the wisdom of the ancients and the church fathers, and that our orphans can read the Liturgy, Aristotle, and Homer, while the foreign lands dwell in ignorance?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, the children of philanthropia9, ration medical wine by rank in your hospital wards, such that the soldiers of the themes die sober of gangrene while the patricians use that same vintage to rinse the taste of lampreys from their teeth?	Is it not true that we Romans built hospitals where there were none before, such that a common soldier lying in our wards is tended by trained physicians who have learned from the school of Galen and Hippocrates, while the kings of barbarian countries may die from minor injuries?
Is it right and proper that you Romans send your surplus village girls to the Italians as dancers to entertain them at their banquets, selling off the fame and elegance of your empire along with their dowries?	Is it not true that we Romans have preserved marriage as a blessed sacrament, such that even the poorest bride stands before the priest and holy icons as an image of the union between Christ and his Church, while elsewhere marriage is mere exchange of property?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who venerate the Theotokos as protector of widows, register your war widows as 'married' upon your tax rolls in order that the state might continue collecting their dead husbands' assessments, seizing coins from hands still wet with tears?	Is it not true that we Romans grant to our widows the legal rights to petition the courts and appeal against injustice, whereas in other lands a widow without sons is like a sailor in the storm?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, whose law allows any slave to petition for freedom in the shadow of Hagia Sophia, set the price of manumission greater than the cost of replacement, and force those of your household to choose between their liberty or the liberty of their children?	Is it not true that we Romans alone among the nations have held sacred the ancient right of manumission, and that we inscribe in our law codes the principle that slavery is contrary to nature, though our practice may fall short?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who demand that each circus faction must hymn the Trinity before each race, allow the factions to collect the rent for their rotting tenements on the Lord's Day, and thus fund your golden liturgies with the coins of the destitute?	Is it not true that we Romans have raised churches in every quarter of the Ecumene10, so that even the beggar can hear the divine liturgy sung in gold, stand beneath the same mighty dome as the emperor, and know that he is himself created in the image and likeness of the very same God?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who process through the streets honouring the relics of saintly women, tax your brothels with such efficiency that you can predict your revenues by counting the ships at port, such that the costs of sanctity are raised from the Pelagias and Theodoras of the harbour quarter?	Is it not true that we Romans have inscribed in law that these women retain their rights as citizens, that they may leave their profession, that they may inherit and own property, and that they are protected by the courts?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who venerate icons as windows into the age to come, speak of 'Hebrew blindness' in your homilies while Jewish artisans and their children squint through smoke to gild the halos of your panel-paintings?	Is it not true that we Romans have allowed the Hebrews to dwell within our walls for over a thousand years, to practise their faith and maintain their synagogues, and even to hold positions in the administration of the state?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, whose law forbids the exposure of infants and declares each child made in the image of God, allow the Orphanage of St. Paul to accept only healthy newborns, such that not a speck of the grain dole is delivered to the sickly and they shall be left to starve?	Is it not true that we Romans perform the sacrament of Chrismation11 upon every child with the same holy oil and that we all receive the Holy Mysteries12 in equality before God, and that we have established public orphanages maintained by the state and Church together, and have enshrined in law the principle that orphan and foundling are the responsibility of the commonwealth?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who mandated that each city house must front a public street so that all might enjoy the light and air, granted to Venetian creditors the right to re-mortgage these houses such that the neighbourhoods become warrens of darkness owned by foreigners who speak not one word of Greek?	Is it not true that we Romans built the greatest city in Christendom, with paved roads and aqueducts, public fountains and many forums, such that even after long decay our poorest quarters are a match for Frankish cities?
Is it right and proper that the emperors, whose pearled crown is said to touch the floor of heaven, set up such tariffs on your pearl-divers that the starving boys cannot even afford the oil to keep their candles lit?	Is it not true that we Romans have maintained the ancient roads and sea-lanes along which the blessed Apostle Paul walked and sailed, and that pilgrimage and commerce flow outward from our city all the way to Taugast13 and Hispania?
Is it right and proper that the emperors, whose image is on every coin because Christ your Lord fused church and state into a Christian empire, allowed the coinage to debase from generation to generation until the poor women of the market found a nummus14 no longer brought a bite of bread to dip in the communion wine they weren't allowed to drink?	Is it not true that we Romans maintain harmony between the imperial and ecclesiastical powers, between temporal and spiritual authority, providing an example of how two swords may work in synchrony for the salvation of souls?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, lords of a single city, claim to be the katechon15 spoken of by the Apostle Paul, the power that holds back the lawless one until the appointed time?	Is it not true that we Romans have maintained an unbroken chain of ordination from the Apostles themselves, that our bishops may trace their authority hand by hand back to Peter and Paul, and that if Constantinople falls, the Apostolic succession in the East would be severed, leaving millions of souls without shepherds?
Is it right and proper that you Romans, who pray to the Christ who took on human flesh to sanctify all of creation, have built a city where icons and relics sit side by side with the desecration of humanity?	Is it not true that our city, though it may be a flawed mirror, reflects dimly the City of God?
Is it right and proper that Rome endure?	Lord, have mercy on us sinners: is it not right that Rome should live?

The name 'Gennadios' is believed to refer to Saint Gennadius II, who was invested as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II in January 1454.

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Footnotes

1. The only building in Istanbul which has served continuously as a Christian church since the time of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is located in what was the Byzantine suburb of Blachernae, within the walls of the old city.

2. A screen upon which icons and religious wall paintings are displayed.

3. A Greek term meaning 'Mother of God', referring to the Virgin Mary.

4. In this style of icon, the Virgin Mary holds the infant Jesus by her side and points at him to indicate that he is the source of humanity's salvation. Four of these icons were determined to be manufactured locally; one was produced in Kyiv, and the last in Serbia.

5. A silver coin of 12.5-13 g, struck by the Republic of Genoa.

6. A gold coin of around 3.5 g struck in Venice from 1284, and emulated by many other states.

7. A silver coin of 1.15-1.18 grams that was minted by the Ottoman Empire from 1441.

8. Likely a reference to invoking the Holy Name of Jesus. In Orthodox theology, invoking the Name is believed to allow the speaker to participate in the Divine Energy.

9. φιλανθρωπία - a Byzantine concept meaning love of humanity, often used to describe both divine mercy and the imperial duty to care for their subjects.

10. οἰκουμένη - a Byzantine term for the civilised, Christian world.

11. A practice of anointing with oil, which must be performed during baptism in Orthodox christianity.

12. Τὰ Ἅγια Μυστήρια - the Eucharist/Holy Communion.

13. A name for China, derived from the name of the Xianbei clan who ruled over Northern Wei and other states in the region.

14. A bronze coin of 1 g or less which served as the smallest denomination of Byzantine coinage. The mention here may be polemic, as by the 15th century, Byzantine coinage was in a chaotic state, consisting largely of silver stavrata and bronze coins based on Italian denominations.

15. τὸ κατέχον, sometimes translated as 'the restrainer', the force that must be overcome before the arrival of the Man of Sin as mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7.

‡ Licensing / Citation

Cite this page as:

"SCP-9453" by feathersnake, from the SCP Wiki. Source: https://scpwiki.com/scp-9453. Licensed under CC BY-SA.

For information on how to use this component, see the License Box component. To read about licensing policy, see the Licensing Guide.

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