07 October 2021

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021:
131, Saint Theodore Trichinás, the Fortezza, Rethymnon

The Church of Saint Theodore Trichinás is one of two surviving small churches in the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme for these few weeks is churches in Rethymnon on the island of Crete, where I spent two weeks last month.

My photographs this morning (7 October 2021) are from the Church of Saint Theodore Trichinás, one of two surviving small churches in the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

Inside the Church of Saint Theodore Trichinás on the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Fortezza towers above the city of Rethymnon. It was built by the Venetians during their rule in Crete (1204-1669) to protect the city and people from Ottoman invasions. It is built on the hill of Paleokastro and the site the acropolis of ancient Rithymna.

During the Ottoman period, from 1646, the form of the Fortezza did not change significantly, apart from minor extensions and additions, and the number of residents increased. During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, the German garrison settled in the Fortezza and turned some of the buildings into prisons and dormitories.

After World War II, the residents gradually started moving from the Fortezza and down into the town below. Today, the Fortezza is managed by the Municipality of Rethymnon. Many of the buildings have been restored, and the Fortezza remains the landmark of Rethymnon.

The Church of Saint Theodore Trichinás is a single-aisle, barrel-vaulted chapel situated between the bastions of Saint Nicholas and Saint Paul.

Saint Theodore Trichinás, a fourth/fifth century monk from Constantinople, is so-called because of his practice of wearing a hairshirt throughout his life. His feast day is on 20 April.

The church was dedicated on 21 March 1899 in the presence of the Russian commander of the allied forces in Rethymnon, General Theodor de Chiostak, during the period of the Cretan State (1898-1913). The general also renovated the bishop’s palace on Mousoúrou Street, near the cathedral, at his own expense.

The biggest bell in Saint Barbara’s Church in the old town also has the name of Theodor de Chiostak, and the other six bells have the names of six Russian regiments.

However, Saint Theodore’s Church was probably not a new church, and the building project may have involved repairing an older, original Venetian church.

Today, many couples in Rethymnon choose a simple, plain wedding in this little church in the setting of a pretty pine copse.

Votive candles burning in the Church of Saint Theodore Trichinás (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 11: 5-13 (NRSVA):

5 [And Jesus] said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

The church was dedicated in 1899 in the presence of the Russian commander in Rethymnon, General Theodor de Chiostak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (7 October 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for Lumad communities across the Philippines. May they be free from persecution and enabled to live as they wish.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The church is a venue of choice for couples in Rethymnon seeking a simple, plain wedding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Rethymnon, with its churches and former mosques, spreads below the fortifications of the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Johnstown: a Georgian
town in Kilkenny has been
bypassed but not forgotten

Johnstown village in Co Kilkenny was planned by the Hely family in the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

In my childhood days, the village of Johnstown in Co Kilkenny was a stopping point on the road journey between Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and Dublin. As children, we thought it was unique as a small village with such broad streets, a square and a tall church tower. But it must have been a stopping point for many other families too, halfway way between Cork (130 km) and Dublin (120 km).

Johnstown stands at the crossroads of the R639, the R502 and the R435 regional roads. But it is now longer familiar to families and so many motorists since it was by-passed by the M8 in December 2008.

During this year’s summer ‘road trip’ two of us returned to Johnstown, to see its broad streets, its square and the parish church, known as Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, with its landmark tower.

Johnstown is in the Barony of Galmoy, which takes its name from the River Goul. The village of Johnstown was first laid out in the early 1700s by either Sir John Hely (ca 1650-1701) of Foulkscourt Castle or his eldest son, George Hely of Foulkscourt House.

Sir John Hely, who gave his name to Johnstown, obtained a grant of the old estate of the Purcell family at Foulkscourt in 1697. He had become Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1695, and he acted as Speaker of the Irish House of Lords in 1696-1697.

The planned village was developed in 1770 by John Hely of Foulkscourt, who was inspired by his estate village at Winterbourne Stoke in Wiltshire. The square became the nucleus of the village, with three houses in each quadrant, or 12 in all. The village developed and expanded from this square.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh dating back to the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

For many years, the Irish name of Johnstown was rendered as Cuirt a’ Phuca, meaning ‘the Haunted Court.’ But the legend of a ‘Pooka’ or ghost arose from a misinterpretation of the Gaelic name for Foulkscourt, Cuirt Phuco.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh, which dates back to perhaps the sixth century. The old Irish name of Fertagh was Fertae Caerach, which may mean ‘Circular Grave,’ and the name was retained through the centuries.

The tower of Fertagh was said to have been built by a mythical character known as the Goban Saor. But rhe area has long been associated with Saint Ciarán, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory, who is said to have lived in the locality and to have watered his cow at Tobar an Phuicin. A pattern was once held in the area on Saint Ciarán’s Day, 5 March. Kieran’s Road ran from Fertagh Church by the old churches at Borrismore and at Rathealy to Callan.

The early Celtic Church and the mediaeval priory at Fertagh were both dedicated to Saint Ciarán. The tower and an old wall dated from the 10th century. The limestone tower is 100 ft high and 50 ft in diameter at base.

Grangefertagh, a sixth century round tower 3.5 km north-east of Johnstown, is associated with Saint Ciarán of Saigir and was attacked by the Vikings in 865. A Viking Age brooch found in Ballyspellan in 1806 is now in the National Museum of Ireland.

The tower at Fertagh is said to have been attacked and burned in 1136 by Muirceartach O Loughlin of the Northern Ui Neill, who plundered and burned the churches of Upper Ossory. The chief master of Fearta, Eochaidh O Cuinn, fled to the tower with the community and church valuables, but the door was forced and the occupants and contents of the tower were destroyed by fire.

The ornamental entrance doorway was moved from the earlier church to Saint Mary’s Church in 1799 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During the Anglo-Norman reforms of the Church in the 13th century, the Blanchfield family founded at a priory dedicated to Saint Kieran at Fertagh for the Regular Canons of Saint Augustine.

Royal letters in 1251 granted protection to the Prior and Canons of Fertakeragh and Ackidm Acarth (Aghmacart). The rectories of Fartagh and Donoughmore were appropriated to the priory, which had an estate of about 1,000 acres, including a grange or farmhouse by the River Goul.

At the suppression of the monasteries in 1540, the Prior of Fertagh, Robert Shortall, was given a pension of five marks. In 1567, the priory and its lands were granted to a branch of the Ormond Butlers.

The Church of Ireland parish continued to use the church of Fertagh from the Reformation until 1731, when the church was repaired and rebuilt as a parish church.

The church roof collapsed in 1780 and the church was abandoned. The ornamental entrance doorway of the west gable and the perpendicular style tracery East Window were moved to Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, in 1799. A small tracery window from the north wall and a carved polygonal baptismal font were later moved to Johnstown Roman Catholic church.

The decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, is a well-composed modest-scale church with the standard arrangement of a nave that are typical of churches sponsored by the Board of First Fruits. The church tower and parapet stand out against the skyline.

The cut-stone dressings include a finely-carved doorcase of mediaeval provenance, and it is said the decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church.

This is a three-bay, double-height church built by the Board of First Fruits between 1796/1799 and 1801. It has a single-bay, single-storey vestry at the north-east, and a single-bay, three-stage entrance tower with a parapet at the west end.

The pitched slate roofs have clay ridge tiles, there is cut-limestone coping and cast-iron rainwater goods on squared rubble stone eaves. The random rubble stone walls may have been rendered originally rendered.

The squared rubble stone advanced corner piers on the tower have square-headed slit-style blind apertures, there are cut-limestone stringcourses at each stage on the tower, and the rendered battlemented parapet on a moulded cornice has stepped corner pinnacles and cut-limestone coping.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side. They have cut-limestone sills, squared limestone voussoirs, Y-mullions in the nave forming a bipartite pointed-arch arrangement.

The East Window, with cut-limestone dressings, is said to have been salvaged from the mediaeval church of Fertagh. It has Y-mullions forming a four-part elliptical-headed arrangement with decorative overlights to the arch that have hood moulding over supporting squared limestone voussoirs.

The church is well maintained outside and inside, with stained-glass windows of artistic importance and a timber gallery at the west end. The surrounding churchyard has an array of gravestones with high quality stone masonry.

The other interesting antiquity at Fertagh is Kilpatrick’s Chapel, founded in the 15th century by the Mac Giolla Padraig alias FitzPatrick alias Kilpatrick, of Upper Ossory, to house the ‘Kilpatrick Tomb.’

Fertagh is in the Diocese of Ossory, but is grouped with Kilcooley, Saint Mary’s, Littleton, and Crohane in the Diocese of Cashel. The parish is vacant at present.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Soon after Johnstown had been laid out, its reputation grew in the early 18th century with the popularity of the mineral spa at Ballyspellan Spa Well. When Thomas Sheridan and Jonathan Swift visited the spa in 1728, Sheridan wrote a poem praising the medicinal qualities of the spa.

Sheridan wrote, in part:

All you that wou’d refind your Blood
As pure as fam’d Llewellyn
By Waters clear, come ev’ry Year
To drink at Ballyspellan

Tho’ Pox or Itch, your Skins enrich
With Rubies past and telling,
T’will clear your skin before you’ve been
A month at Ballyspellan …

If dropsy fills you to the Gills
From Chin to Toe tho’ swelling
Pour in, pour out, you cannot doubt
A Cure at Ballyspellan.

Swift penned a retort that read, in part:

Dare you dispute,
You Sawcy Brute,
And think there’s no rebelling
Your scurvey Lays,
And senseless praise,
You give to Ballyspellan.

Howe’er you bounce,
I here pronounce
Your Med’cine is repelling
Your water’s mud
And sowrs the Blood
When drank at Ballyspellan.

Those pocky Drabs
To cure their scabs
You thither are compelling
Will back be sent
Worse then they went
From nasty Ballyspellan

Ballyspellan Spa is no more but the water that made it famous still flows into the well house at Ballyspellan.

Johnstown has been bypassed by the M8 since 2008 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)