Patrick Comerford
After a bank holiday weekend in England, this is an ordinary working day. Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Lanfranc (1089), Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury and Scholar.
The week began with Trinity Sunday (26 May 2024), and during this week after Trinity Sunday, I am illustrating my prayers and reflections with images of six churches, chapels, cathedral or monasteries I know in Greece that are dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
3, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 10: 28-31 (NRSVUE):
28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Holy Trinity Monastery, Meteora:
This week I am reflecting on churches, cathedrals and chapels named after the Holy Trinity. These Trinity-themed reflections continue this morning (28 May 2024) with images of Meteora in central Greece, where the Monastery of the Holy Trinity (Μονή Αγίας Τριάδος, or Agia Triada), is one of the six surviving cliff-top monasteries.
The monastery is in the Peneas Valley north-east of the town of Kalambaka, at the top of a rocky precipice over 400 metres high. It is one of the 24 monasteries originally built in Meteora and one of the oldest of the surviving monasteries that form the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites at Meteora.
The name Meteora means ‘suspended in the air’ in Greek. Six of the 24 monasteries atop ‘heavenly columns’ are still active and open to visitors.
The monasteries of Saint Stephen and Holy Trinity are separated from the main group, which are further to the north. Before the 20th century, the entrance Holy Trinity had a very difficult approach that involved crossing a valley and climbing through the rock outcrop. Provisions were placed in baskets drawn up by rope-ladders, but are now provided by using a winch.
Today, one can walk from Kalambaka for 3 km along a foot track to reach the monastery, or use a winch-operated lift. It is reached through tunnels and 130 steps of stone, and at the summit the grounds include a 2 acres (0.81 ha) garden.
Dometius is said to have been the first monk at the site of Holy Trinity and to have arrived in 1438. Holy Trinity is said to have been built in 1475-1476, although some sources say the dates for building the monastery and its adjoining chapel, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, are of a much earlier date.
By end of the 15th century, there were 24 such monasteries in Meteora, but only six are still inhabited today – Holy Trinity, Saint Stephen, Rousanou, Saint Nicholas Anapafsas, Varlaam, and the Great Meteoron – and they make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Meteora.
The main church in Holy Trinity is cruciform in shape, with a dome supported on two columns. This church was built in the 15th century and decorated with frescoes in 1741 by two monks. A pseudo-trefoil window is part of the apse. There are white columns and arches, as well as rose-coloured tiles. The small chapel of Saint John the Baptist, carved into the rock, has 17th century frescoes.
At one time, 50 monks lived at Holy Trinity, but by the early 20th century there were only five. When the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor visited the monasteries as a guest of the Abbot of Varlaam, Holy Trinity was one of the poorest monasteries in Meteora. Holy Trinity was once richly decorated and had precious manuscripts, but its treasures were looted by the Nazis when they occupied the monastery during World War II.
Holy Trinity Monastery features in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981). In the climax to the film, Bond climbs the rock cliff and finds upon Aristotle Kristatos and Erich Kriegler who are using the monastery in the film as a hideout.
The monastery also features in the film Tintin and the Golden Fleece (1961) and the film Boy on a Dolphin (1957) was partly shot in Meteora, where Clifton Webb’s character goes up to Holy Trinity monastery to do some library research.
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 28 May 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Renewal and Reconciliation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (28 May 2024) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we pray for the countries of the Caribbean and their peoples. May they stand strong under the weight of their colonial history and find freedom to grow their identity and prosper.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given us your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:
keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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