Yesterday - November 30th, 2006 - the feast of St Andrew, may go down in history as the high point of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
On that day he took part in two events which can only mean better relations between east and west. His visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque - a highly symbolic building in Christianity and Islam - and a joint declaration with the Orthodox archbishop of Constantinople supporting a rapprochement between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches bolstered ties not only between the two churches but also between Christianity and Islam.
Pope Benedict's visit to the Blue Mosque was not announced until last week, and may have been intended to mollify outraged Muslim opinion over his Regensburg address in September. But judging by his reception at the mosque, it seems he has been forgiven just by going there to pray.
While others wore slippers, the pontiff wore his white woollen socks as he walked along the carpeted interior of one of Islam's major shrines. Moments earlier he had been welcomed warmly by the city's leading Muslim cleric Grand Mufti Mustafa Cagrici, who explained the calligraphy on the mosque's domes and blue-tiled walls to a clearly interested guest as they walked around.
Then, at ease, and both standing together facing east, they prayed for a moment, the pope closing his eyes in contemplation. Afterwards they exchanged gifts. The pontiff received a painting of a view of the Sea of Marmara from Istanbul and a blue tile with a dove on it, and gave a picture of four doves drinking from the rim of a copper vessel.
It may not have happened but for Regensburg.
Before visiting the mosque the pope went to the Hagia Sophia museum, where he was escorted around what was once the major church in Christendom before it was turned into a mosque in 1453.
There he avoided the temptation to pray even as frescoes of Jesus and Mary were pointed out to him. He would be aware that Islamic fundamentalists were saying he was trying to get the building back, and of how this erroneous view was fanned when pope Paul VI prayed there in 1967.
Earlier, the pope attended a divine liturgy at the Orthodox St George Cathedral. He exchanged a kiss of peace with the archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and recited the Lord's Prayer in Greek and in Latin.
Afterwards the pope and patriarch sat in the patriarchate, a bowl of white and red flowers in front of them, as a joint declaration of their wish for both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches "to move towards full communion" was read in French and in English.
"The Holy Spirit will help us to prepare the great day of the re-establishment of full unity, whenever and however God wills it."
At one point both men appeared, in colourful regalia, on a balcony at the patriarchate with their hands clasped above their heads like two companionable champions.That image, along with another of the pope praying alongside Mufti Cagrici, are the most memorable moments of this papal visit.
To that persistent question of recent weeks - why is the pope going to a country of 72 million people, 99 per cent of whom are Muslim and only about 32,000 Roman Catholics? - Pope Benedict's reply came yesterday.