THE patron saint of the cathedral, St Euphemia, had been martyred shortly before the Empire turned Christian in 314, suffering dreadful tortures for defying a government order to offer sacrifice to Ares, god of war. After neighbouring Constantinople became the Imperial capital in 330, the chapel her family built over her grave grew into one of the great cathedrals of the now Christian Empire.

When the bishops of the Council, assembled in her church, opened Euphemia’s tomb again after three days, they found that the documents they had put there had both moved. One lay rejected at her feet; the other was in her right hand.

The deadlock was broken. The majority now signed Euphemia’s chosen text and despatched it, together with an account of the part she had played, to Pope Leo in Rome.

Thanks to St Euphemia and the Bishops gathered in her church, nearly sixteen centuries later the Christmas message remains unchanging: ‘Today the Virgin gives birth to the Maker of all’.*