Patrick Comerford
The day I was born was the Saturday of a key rugby international between Ireland and France. Ireland beat France 11-8 in a Five Nations Championship match in the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir (Stade Colombes) in Colombes, France. It was Ireland’s third consecutive win against France at the time, although the 1952 championship was ultimately won by Wales, who achieved their fifth Grand Slam.
My mother wanted to name me Paul, because the previous day was the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. The uncle and aunt who brought me to be baptised decided against her wishes to name me Patrick, but my mother persisted in calling me Paul privately for the rest of her life.
But the Church Calendar on 26 January actually remembers Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, companions of Saint Paul. Timothy, we are told, had a Jewish mother and a Greek father, whilst Titus was wholly Greek. It was because of Titus that Paul stood out against compulsory circumcision but, to avoid suspicion from other Jews, Timothy was circumcised.
Of course, my mother never called me Timothy or Titus. But I was reminded of Saint Titus this week, and remembered how grateful I was that I had not been named Titus by my mother, when the lectionary provided for two readings from the Letter to Titus on Christmas Day: Titus 2: 11-14 and Titus 3: 4-7. We used one of those Christmas readings (Titus 2: 11-14) at Midnight Mass in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, on Wednesday night:
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 14 He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. (NRSVA)
Saint Titus Cathedral is one of the many cathedrals and churches I visited in Iraklion, the main city in Crete, at Easter earlier this year, including Saint Minas Cathedral; the older, much smaller Church of Saint Minas that sits in its shadow; Saint Catharine of Sinai, which stands in the same square and is now the impressive Museum of Christian Art; the Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites, which also has connections with Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai; Saint Peter’s Church, a former Dominican foundation now reopened as Saint Peter and Saint Paul; and the former Saint Mark’s Church.
Saint Mark’s and Saint Titus sit beside each other, and both had cathedral status at various times. Saint Mark’s, which no longer functions as a cathedral, dates back, as its name indicates, to Venetian times.
Saint Titus, on the other hand, dates back to Byzantine times, and is probably the church in Iraklion that is most visited by tourists because of its location, the fact that it is open daily as a church, and because it enshrines the head of Saint Titus, the most celebrated relic in Crete.
Saint Titus is the patron saint and the first bishop of Crete. His feast is celebrated on 25 August throughout the Orthodox Church. He was only added to the Calendar of the Western Church as late as 1854, when he was assigned to 6 February.
The Roman Catholic Church moved his feast to 26 January in 1969 so he could be linked with Saint Timothy and celebrated on the day after the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Saint Timothy and Saint Titus are named on 26 January in the calendars of many Anglican churches, including Common Worship in the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church, but not in the calendar of the Church of Ireland.
However, 25 August remains the feast of Saint Titus in the Orthodox Church, and his head is the most important relic in the Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion in Crete.
Saint Titus (Αγιος Τίτος) was a companion and disciple of the Apostle Paul and an early missionary. He is referred to in several of the Pauline epistles, including the Epistle to Titus, and he brought a letter from Saint Paul to Corinth to collect for the poor in Jerusalem. He is believed to have been be a Greek from Antioch. Tradition says he was the first Bishop of Crete and appointed priests in every city in Crete.
The first church dedicated to Saint Titus in Crete was in the old capital Gortyn, until its destruction by earthquake and the Arab transfer of the capital of Crete from Gortyn to Chandax (Iraklion) in the year 828.
Nicephorus Phocas drove the Arabs from Crete in 961, bringing the island back under Byzantine rule. The first Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion may have been built then, and the skull of Saint Titus, the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mesopanditissa and other sacred relics from Gortyn were moved to the new church, which was a single-aisled building.
The Venetians took control of Crete in 1210 and a Roman Catholic archbishop was installed in the church. It underwent some modifications, including the opening of a circular skylight and the construction of a bell tower.
This first building was destroyed before the middle of the 15th century. The church was then rebuilt in the style of a three-aisled basilica and was dedicated by the Archbishop of Crete, Fantino Dandolo, on 3 January 1446.
It was slightly damaged by the earthquake of 1508, and was destroyed by a fire on 3 April 1544, although the relics held in the church were saved. The church was rebuilt in the same style in 1557.
When Iraklion was captured by the Turks in 1669, the Venetians removed all the relics from the church and took them to Venice.
Under Turkish rule, the Church of Saint Titus was taken over by Vizier Fazil Ahmet Kiopruli, who converted it into a mosque known as the Vizeir Mosque.
A major earthquake devastated the city in 1856 and totally destroyed the mosque or former church. It was rebuilt as an Ottoman mosque in 1872 by the architect Athanasios Moussis, who also designed the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Minas. The rebuilt mosque was known subsequently as the Yeni Cami or New Mosque.
After the integration of Crete into the modern state of Greece, it ceased being a mosque and the minaret was demolished in the 1920s, when the last Muslims left Iraklion with the ‘exchange of populations’ between Greece and Turkey under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne.
Restoration work on the church began in 1925, and it was consecrated as the Church of Saint Titus in 1926. The relics of Saint Titus remain in Venice to this day, but his skull was returned to Iraklion in 1966 and is now kept in a silver reliquary in a side chapel in the church.
The church was stored and refurbished in a project that lasted from 1974 to 1988. Archbishop Irenaeus made the church of Saint Titus the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Crete in 2013.
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