Patrick Comerford
Today is the Third Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany III, 25 January 2026), and is also the Festival of the Conversion of Saint Paul, which also marks the last day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Because this feast falls on a Sunday this year, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship recommends transferring its celebration to the tomorrow (Monday 26 January). But I still thought it would be worth marking this day in the Church Calendar this afternoon with a ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen churches dedicated to Saint Paul.
Many churches with Saint Paul’s name have double dedications to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, from Athlone and Ennis in Ireland, to Buckingham, Newport Pagnell and Olney in this part of England, to Aston in Birmingham and to churches I know in Iraklion in Crete and in Singapore. The little chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Vlatádon Monastery stands on the very spot where the Apostle Paul preached when he visited Thessaloniki in the year 50.
I know too of one peculiar double dedication, to Saint Catherine and Saint Paul, in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, originally built as Saint Paul’s and close to the High Leigh Conference Centre.
Churches with Saint Paul’s name alone are still many in number, though. In Ireland, for example, I have visited churches named after Saint Paul in Ardmore, Co Waterford, Glin, Co Limerick, Cahir, Co Tipperary, Emo, Co Laois, and Glenageary, Co Dublin, although Saint Paul’s at Mount Argus in Dublin is probably named after the Passionist monk and preacher Saint Paul of the Cross.
The chapel at the former Saint Paul’s School in Stony Stratford is now an Indian restaurant.
The churches I am looking at this afternoon are in England, Scotland, France, Greece, Malta and Scotland, and are a small selection of many churches I know, so this is a very limited selection indeed.
1, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London:
For many years, I strolled through London, from Liverpool Street Station to the USPG offices on my way to meetings of trustees. These walks offered opportunities for early morning or late afternoon visits to Wren churches, the sites of former Wren churches, churches designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, or guild and city churches. They gave me views of buildings such as Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, the Mansion House, the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern, and allowed me to enjoy the cafés, buskers and bookshops, with new opportunities on each walk to discover parts of London I had not known before.
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) restored 51 churches in the city, concluding with Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, which he rebuilt in 1695.
Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the cathedral of the Diocese of London, sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City. Its dedication to Saint Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on the site, founded in the year 604.
The present cathedral, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Wren; it was built in 1669-1711 and was completed in Wren’s own lifetime.
The earlier Gothic cathedral, Old Saint Paul’s Cathedral, largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for mediaeval and early modern London, including Paul’s Walk and Saint Paul’s Churchyard being the site of Saint Paul’s Cross.
The dome of Saint Paul’s, framed by the spires of Wren’s City churches, has dominated London’s skyline for over 300 years. At a height of 111 metres (365 ft), it was the tallest building in London from 1710 until 1963. The dome remains among the highest in the world, and Saint Paul’s is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.
2, Saint Paul’s Church, Bedford:
Saint Paul’s Church on Saint Paul’s Square, Bedford, is the largest Church of England parish church in Bedfordshire. The former mediaeval collegiate church is a grade I listed building of cathedral proportions. With its size and tall spire, Saint Paul’s dominates Bedford.
During World War II, Saint Paul’s was the home for the BBC’s daily worship and hosted the Service for the National Day of Prayer in 1941.
Today, it is the Civic Church of the Borough of Bedford and of the County of Bedfordshire. It works closely with three other churches in Bedford – Saint Peter de Merton, Saint Martin’s and Saint Andrew’s – and welcomes thousands of visitors and pilgrims throughout the year.
Saint Paul’s is in the Diocese of St Albans. It has a cathedral-style choral tradition with a modern catholic liturgy, and it is a member of the Major Churches Network and of the Cathedrals Plus network.
Evidence suggests that Saint Paul’s Church was founded as a new minster by King Offa, who died in 796 CE, to serve the inhabitants of his new fortified urban burgh. Offa is said to have been buried in Bedford, and his minster church of Saint Paul has been identified as a probable site of his grave.
Most of the present church – the fifth on the site – was built or rebuilt in the 15th century in the Perpendicular style. The roofs were raised, clerestories added, windows enlarged, a second storey was added to south porch, as were the north and south windows, the oak roofs, the parclose screen, the priest’s two-storey vestry, misericords in the quire or chancel and the Trinity Chapel.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, preached in Saint Paul’s on 23 May 1656. In the 19th century Saint Paul’s became part of the Anglo-Catholic tradition, in which it remains. The architectural work in the church in the 19th century includes the tower and spire, transepts, choir stalls, quire and quire roof.
Late 19th and early 20th century work in the church includes the rood screen designed by the Gothic Revival architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907), who also reordered the chancel and restored the choir stalls. The Trinity Chapel was restored by the Bedford-based architect Charles Edward Mallows (1864-1915), who was part of the Arts and Craft movement. The English Altar and altar rails were designed by the Bromsgrove Guild, a company of artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement and founded by Walter Gilbert (1871-1946).
Later in the 20th century, from the mid-1970s to 1982, the church was restored and improved. Further work was completed on a narthex at the west end of the church in 2014.
3, Saint Paul’s Church, Lisson Street, Marylebone:
Saint Paul’s Church, on Lisson Street and Rossmore Road in North Marylebone, was designed by JW Higgins and was built by voluntary contributions as Saint Paul’s Chapel in 1837-1838, soon after the closure of the Bentinck Chapel on Lisson Street. It was consecrated in 1838 and was assigned a district.
After World War II, Saint Paul’s parish was united with Emmanuel, Maida Hill, and Saint Matthew, Maida Hill, to form the parish of Saint Paul with Saint Matthew and Emmanuel. The parish was united with Christ Church, Cosway Street, in 1971. Saint Paul’s Church became one of the parish churches of the parish of Christ Church and Saint Paul, St Marylebone, until Christ Church was closed in September 1977.
In recent years, the interior of Saint Paul’s has been subdivided and refurbished, the galleries have been removed, and the worship space is in part of the nave and the sanctuary area. The reredos and the windows remain in place.
Canon Clare Dowding is the Rector of Saint Paul’s, Priest in Charge of Saint Cyprian’s and Area Dean of Marylebone; the Revd Rachel Sheppard is the Assistant Curate; and the Revd Michele Lee is the Associate Priest.
The Parish Eucharist is celebrated in Saint Paul’s on Sunday sat 10 am, Morning Prayer is said on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9:15, Evening Prayer is said on Mondays at 4:30, and Holy Communion is celebrated on Friday at 8:30 am. Through a partnership with West London Synagogue and Foodcycle, Saint Paul’s offers a free community meal every Wednesday night to over 70 people at the church.
4, (former) Saint Paul’s Church, Walton Street, Oxford:
The former Saint Paul’s Church is a distinctive building that looks like a Greek temple on Walton Street, Oxford, facing onto Great Clarendon Street. It stands opposite the Oxford University Press and beside the Blavatnik School of Government. It is surrounded by the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter of the University of Oxford, formerly the Radcliffe Infirmary site, and in recent years it has been a café and arts venue.
Saint Paul’s was the first new parish to be created in Oxford and the first new church to be built in Oxford since the Reformation. The church and the parish came as responses to the first outbreak of cholera in this part of Oxford in 1831, and to serve both the growing new suburb of Jericho and the new industrial area growing up round the University Press.
Saint Paul’s Parish was carved out of the parishes of Saint Thomas and Saint Giles. It covered an area from Saint Giles Road West (now the south end of Woodstock Road) to the canal, and from Workhouse Lane (now Little Clarendon Street) to the end of Walton Street, which then turned west to end outside Carter’s Ironworks.
When it was formed, the parish included the University Press the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Radcliffe Observatory with Observatory Street. The Radcliffe Trustees made a gift of part of the old burial ground of the Radcliffe Infirmary as a site for the new church. The church was built in 1834 at a cost of about £3,500, and the money was raised by public subscription.
Saint Paul’s is a rectangular stone building in the Greek Classic style with a west portico of the Ionic order and a bell turret. The church was designed by the Oxford-based architect Henry Jones Underwood (1804-1852), best known for his Gothic Revival architecture, and his church at Littlemore for John Henry Newman became a model for other churches. The church was enlarged in 1853 with the addition of an apsidal chancel at the east end designed by the Oxford architect Edward George Bruton (1826-1899).
The parish was committed to the liturgical and social values and ideals of the Oxford Movement, emphasising the importance of personal responsibility in promoting education, health reform and social justice, and raising awareness of the living conditions of many people.
The Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows in were installed in 1888-1889. Six of the windows are by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), three depicting the Nativity, two the Resurrection and one the Ascension. As more people moved out of Jericho in the post-war decades, the congregation dwindled to a handful. The decline was hastened in the 1950s by the rise of the neighbouring church of Saint Mary Magdalen as the centre of Anglo-Catholicism in Oxford.
The parishes of Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas were united in 1963, and Saint Paul’s was closed in 1969. The building was acquired in 1988 by Secession Ltd to prevent its demolition, and it opened that year as Freud’s Arts Café, a café bar created by David Freud that offered live music, including jazz, punk, post-punk and blues. The name is written in Roman-style capital letters as ‘FREVD’ above the main entrance door.
5, Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Marais, Paris:
the Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on rue Saint-Antoine, the Catholic parish church in the Marais. The church gives its name to Rue Saint-Paul Place Saint-Paul and the nearest Metro station, Saint-Paul.
A shrine dedicated to Saint Paul in the Fields, Saint-Paul-des-Champs, was built on this site in 632-642, and served as a chapel for the cemetery of a convent founded by Saint Eloi and Saint Aure on Ile de la Cité during the reign of King Dagobert. Prominent figures buried in the old cemetery included François Rabelais and the architect François Mansart. The monastic cemetery disappeared and the old church was demolished in 1799.
The chapel was replaced by the first church on the site, Saint-Paul-des-Champs, built ca 1125, when the neighbourhood became a parish, and the dedication of the church was changed from Saint Paul the Hermit, a monk in Egypt in the third-fourth century, to Saint Paul the Apostle.
Charles V designated the Hôtel Saint-Pol on Rue Saint-Paul as his royal palace in 1358. Charles VI and Charles VII were baptised at Saint-Paul. The church was rebuilt in the Gothic style in 1431, and remained as the king’s parish up to 1559, when Henry II was mortally wounded in a jousting tournament on rue Saint-Antoine.
Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, uncle of Henry IV, bought the Hôtel de La Rochepot in 1580 and donated it to the Jesuits, who established their first house in Paris there and built a chapel dedicated to King Louis IX (Saint Louis) close to the present church.
The first stone of a new building was laid by Louis XIII in 1627. The new church was given the name of the king’s ancestor, Louis IX, and became the église Saint-Louis de la maison professe des Jésuites, a reference to the Maison Professe des Jésuites beside it. The first Mass in the new church was celebrated in 1641 by Cardinal Richelieu in the presence of Louis XIII.
The new church was designed by the Jesuit architects Étienne Martellange, who drew the initial plans, and François Derand, who was responsible for the design of the façade. The plan is inspired by the Chiesa del Gesù in Rome.
The dome which is 55 meters high was an unusual feature for a Jesuit building and was one of the first domes built in Paris. Both the dome and the bell tower are largely hidden from view from the street by the very high façade. The dome served as a model for other domes, including those of Les Invalides and Val-de-Grace.
During the French Revolution, the church was closed and used to store works of art and books plundered from other churches in the area. Five priests were killed in the church during the September Massacres on 2 September 1792. They are commemorated with a plaque.
The church was then used as a temple of the Cult of Reason and the Supreme Being. In 1793, Robespierre preached the cult of the goddess Reason in the church against the atheism promoted by Hébert. The chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was an important patron of the church, was guillotined in 1794. The old Saint Paul’s Church was demolished in 1798, but a section of the wall of the square tower is still visible on rue Saint-Paul.
Under the Concordat of 1801, the church was restored as a Catholic parish church in 1802, with a new dedication to Saint Paul and Saint Louis, recalling the older church that had been demolished in 1798. A bell from old Saint Paul’s was salvaged as well as the great clock on the façade.
The church was restored by the architect Victor Baltard in 1850, and the white marble high altar was moved and rebuilt under Louis-Philippe I with fragments from Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides. On the right side of the nave, one pillar has an inscription that is almost erased, République française ou la mort (‘French Republic or death’), scrawled during the Paris Commune in 1871.
The two clam-shell holy water vessels or stoups at the entrance were donated by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables(1862). They mark the baptism of his daughter Adele in 1830 and in memory of his daughter Léopoldine. She was 18 when she secretly married Charles Vacquerie, then 25, in the church on 15 February 1843. Seven months later, Léopoldine was pregnant when she drowned after their boat capsized on the Seine . Her wet, heavy skirts pulled her down, and Charles drowned as he made six attempts to save her. They were buried in the same coffin. The tragedy had a significant and measurable impact on the work and personality of Victor Hugo, and he dedicated numerous poems and a book to the memory of his drowned daughter.
6, Saint Paul’s Monastery, Mount Athos:
Saint Paul or Aghiou Pavlou is one of the working monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece, and has a community of 30 monks. It was founded by Saint Paul of Xeropotamou, who also founded Xeropotamou. The monastery was deserted in the 14th century, but was restored by Serbian nobles, Byzantine emperors, Danubian princes and Romanian and Greek benefactors. Catastrophes in 20th century included a fire in 1902 and a flood in 1911.
The monastery’s oldest building, the chapel of Saint George, has frescoes painted by members of the Cretan School. The monastery treasures are said to include the gifts of the Three Wise Men, donated by the Serbian-born wife of the Sultan Murat II. She is said to be the only woman to have set foot on the shore at the monastery harbour. Other relics include the foot of Saint Gregory the Theologian, and a piece of the True Cross.
One of the spiritual writers associated with Saint Paul’s is Saint Sophrony (1896-1993), was the disciple and biographer of Saint Silouan the Athonite. He was born Sergei Symeonovich Sakharov in Russia in 1896, and it is said that as a child he experienced the Uncreated Light. He was ordained a deacon in 1930 and became a disciple of Saint Silouan.
After Saint Silouan died in 1938, Saint Sophrony left the monastery at Saint Panteleimon and went to live in the wilderness on Mount Athos, first at Karoulia and then at a cave near Saint Paul’s Monastery. He was ordained priest in 1941 and became the spiritual father of many monks on Mount Athos. He was a founding figure in the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights in 1959, and died there in 1993. He was proclaimed a saint in 2019.
7, Saint Paul’s Church (Anglican), Athens:
Saint Paul’s Church Anglican Church in Athens is an early Victorian Gothic church on the corner of Philellenon Street and Queen Amalia Avenue, opposite the National Gardens. The early story of Saint Paul’s is intimately associated with the life of a Cork-born hero of the Greek War of independence, Sir Richard Church.
For decades, the congregation has included a considerable number of Irish, Americans, Canadians, Australians and South Africans, and in recent years they have been enriched by new arrivals. In recent years, Saint Paul’s has provides 800 meals a day for homeless people on the streets of Athens, and raised huge sums to help victims of the Greek crisis and refugees.
The church was built on land bought from the Turks before the Greek War of independence, and the foundation stone was laid on Easter Monday, 1838, by the British Minister in Athens, Sir Edmund Lyons, later Lord Lyons (1790-1838), whose family had emigrated from Ireland to Antigua in the previous century. Saint Paul’s stands within sight of Hadrian’s Gate, which marked the end of the old Hellenistic and classical city of Athens and the new city built by the Emperor Hadrian.
Philellenon Street was only laid out in 1855, so the church once had an unimpeded view of the Acropolis rising over the old city. Today, Saint Paul’s is within easy walking of many of the main tourist attractions in Athens, including the Plaka and the Acropolis, and is only a block away from the Greek Parliament and Syndagma Square.
Philelleon Street is an appropriate location for an English-speaking church – the street was named after those English-speaking lovers of Hellenic civilisation and culture, including Palmerston, Codrington and the poet Byron, who actively supported the Greek struggle for independence.
Two windows in Saint Paul’s commemorate one of those Philhellenes, the Irish adventurer, Richard Church (1784-1875). Sir Richard Church was born in Cork, the second son of Massey Church, a prosperous Quaker butter merchant and exporter. Church ran away from his Quaker school to join the army, and served under Abercrombie in Egypt in 1801. Later that year, he accompanied the expedition to the Ionian Islands, where he raised a Greek regiment that included Theodoros Kolokotronis and other future Greek leaders.
In vain, Church pleaded the Greek cause in London and at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. He lived in Naples and Sicily until his expulsion in 1820, and in 1822 he was knighted by King George IV. But he soon returned to Greece, to join the War of Independence, and in April 1827 he was appointed commander in chief of the Greek forces.
Church insisted on Greek unity before accepting his command, and his pressure resulted in the election of Kapodistrias as president in 1827 and the adoption of a new, liberal constitution. Church played a conspicuous part in the revolt of 1843 and lived on in Greece becoming a Greek citizen, a senator and member of the council of state, inspector general of the Greek Army, and a pillar of the Anglican church in Athens. When he died in Athens on 20 March 1873, he was buried in the First Cemetery, alongside great Greek heroes and leaders.
Two windows in Saint Paul’s Church, the north window and the south window, are dedicated to his memory.
The two-light north window, presented by the British Government in 1875, depicts the figures of Caleb and Joshua. It is said that the inscription on the brass tablet beneath was written in honour of Church by the British Prime Minister, Gladstone, a personal friend of his nephew, the Very Rev Richard William Church, Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, from 1871 to 1890.
Dean Church (1815-1890) and other members of Sir Richard’s family presented the south window in 1875. The window depicts Gideon and David, the story of the dew and the fleece, and David slaying Goliath.
Dean Church, who became the leader of the High Church party in the Church of England after Pusey’s death, was a reforming force in Saint Paul’s Cathedral along with Liddon and Lightfoot, who were two of his canons.
A previous treasurer of Saint Paul’s has been Dr David Green, an Irishman working in Athens for the University of Glamorgan and married to a Greek woman. Recent Irish members of the congregation included John O’Carroll, general manager of the Inter-Continental Hotel, and his Esther, and Geoffrey Mayes, who was a lay assistant in Saint Paul’s. When I first visited the church, the organist, Dr Richard Witt, a classicist working with the Open University, greeted me with the news that he was a great fan of Myles na Gopaleen and The Irish Times.
8, The Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, Valletta, Malta:
Saint Paul the Apostle is the patron saint of Malta, the country with the most holidays in the European Union, and 10 February is the Feast of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck in Malta (‘Nawfraġju ta' San Pawl’).
The Collegiate Parish Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, Valletta, also known as simply the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, is a parish church in Valletta and one of the oldest churches in the Maltese capital. Saint Paul’s shipwreck on Malta is described in the Acts of the Apostles, where Saint Luke writes: ‘After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta’ (see Acts 28: 1).
The Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck traces its origins to 1570s. It was designed by the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, and completed in December 1582. The church was handed over to the Jesuits and a new church was started in 1639.
The church hosts fine artistic works, including a magnificent altarpiece by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio and paintings by Attilio Palombi, and Giuseppe Calì. A wooden statue of Saint Paul was carved in 1659 by Melchiorre Cafà, a brother of Lorenzo Gafà, who designed the dome. The statue is paraded through the streets of Valletta on the feast day of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck (10 February), sometimes during heavy rain.
The church also claims to hold the relic of the right wrist-bone of Saint Paul, and part of the column from San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, on which the saint was beheaded in Rome. The façade of the church was rebuilt in 1885 to a design by Nicholas Zammit. The church building is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.
9, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Mdina:
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Paul (Il-Katidral Metropolitan ta’ San Pawl), commonly known as Saint Paul’s Cathedral or the Mdina Cathedral, is the Roman Catholic cathedral in Mdina, in central Malta. The cathedral was founded in the 12th century. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta, although since the 19th century it has shared this function with Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
According to tradition, the site of Mdina cathedral was originally occupied by a palace belonging to Saint Publius, the Roman governor of Melite who greeted the Apostle Paul after he was shipwrecked in Malta. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul cured Publius’ father and many other sick people on the island (see Acts 28: 1-10).
The first cathedral on the site is said to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. But it fell into disrepair during the Arab period, when the churches in Melite were looted after the Aghlabid invasion in 870. In Arab times, the site was used as a mosque.
After the Norman invasion in 1091, Christianity was re-established on the Maltese Islands, and a cathedral dedicated to Saint Paul was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. The cathedral was built in the Gothic and Romanesque styles, and was enlarged and modified a number of times.
Bishop Miguel Jerónimo de Molina and the cathedral chapter decided in 1679 to replace the mediaeval choir with one built in the Baroque style. The architect Lorenzo Gafà was designed and oversaw the new building.
The cathedral was severely damaged a few years later in the 1693 Sicily earthquake. Although parts of the building were not damaged, it was decided to dismantle the old cathedral and rebuild it in the Baroque style to a design of Lorenzo Gafà, incorporating the choir and sacristy, which had survived the earthquake, into the new cathedral. Work began in 1696, and it was consecrated on 8 October 1702. The cathedral was fully completed on 24 October 1705, when work on the dome was finished. The building is regarded as Gafà's masterpiece.
Saint Paul’s Cathedral is built in the Baroque style, with some influences from native Maltese architecture. The main façade faces Saint Paul’s Square and it is set on a low parvis approached by three steps.
The frescoes in the ceiling depict the life of Saint Paul and were painted by the Sicilian painters Vincenzo, Antonio and Francesco Manno in 1794. The altarpiece by Mattia Preti depicts the Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus.
10, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Valletta, Malta:
Saint Paul's Pro-Cathedral (Il-Pro-Katridral ta’ San Pawl) in Independence Square, Valletta, is officially the Pro-Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Paul. It is an Anglican pro-cathedral of the Diocese in Europe situated in Independence Square, Valletta.
Saint Paul’s is a pro-cathedral in the Anglican Diocese in Europe, and one of three cathedrals of the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. The main cathedral of the diocese is Holy Trinity Cathedral, Gibraltar, and there is a second pro-cathedral, Holy Trinity Cathedral, in Brussels.
The cathedral was commissioned by the Dowager Queen Adelaide during a visit to Malta in the 19th century, when she learned there was no place of Anglican worship on the island. Before her visit, Anglican services were held in a room in the Grand Master’s Palace.
Saint Paul’s was built on the site of the Auberge d’Allemagne, or the conventual home of the German Knights Hospitaller. The cathedral was designed by William Scamp and was built in 1839-1844.
Queen Adelaide laid the foundation stone on 20 March 1839 and her banner hangs above the choir stalls. The original plans were designed by Richard Lankasheer. However, when the building proved unstable, work had to resume on plans by William Scamp in 1841. Scamp's designs located the altar on the west side of the church, but the Bishop of Gibraltar had a more conservative view. The designs were altered, and Scamp designed an apse inside the great doors to hold the sanctuary on the east side.
The cathedral is built with Maltese limestone in a neo-classical style. The cathedral has columns with capitals of the Corinthian order while the capitals of the six columns of the portico are of the Ionic order. The internal dimensions of the building are 33.5 metres x 20.4 metres.
The cathedral is a landmark in Valletta, thanks to its spire rising to a height of over 60 metres, and is clearly visible in the Marsamxett Harbour.
During World War II, the cathedral suffered minor damage and the roof collapsed, but most of the structure remained intact. During restoration works, the original designs by Scump started to take shape. A quire and rood screen were built on the west side of the cathedral. A pulpit was also incorporated with the screen dedicated to Sir Winston Churchill.
The organ came from Chester Cathedral, where there is a long-held tradition that it was played by George Frederick Handel when he was on his way to Dublin for the first public performance of his Messiah.
The painting behind the High Altar, Ecce Homo, is the work of AE Chalon and was donated in 2014. The oak panels around the High Altar are a memorial to the Allied units that took part in the defence of Malta in 1940-1943. Twelve flags in the aisles represent, among others, the Royal Air Force, the British Merchant Navy, and the Royal Navy.
The new chancery was dedicated by Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher of Canterbury on 2 December 1949 in the presence of Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II.
The undercroft was built from the remains of the basement of the Auberge d’Allemagne, and was used as a gas-proof air raid shelter during days War II.
11, Saint Paul’s Church, Saint Paul’s Bay, Malta:
The town of Saint Paul’s Bay (San Pawl il-Baħar) is about 16 km north-west of Valletta. This is the largest town in the Northern Region and the seat of the Northern Regional Committee, along with being the most populous town in Malta.
The name of the town refers to the shipwreck of Saint Paul as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles on Saint Paul’s Islands near St Paul's Bay, on his voyage from Caesarea to Rome. Saint Paul’s stay is said to have laid the foundations of Christianity on the island.
Saint Luke recounts in Acts 27 to 28 how Saint Paul’s ship was lost at sea for two weeks during winter storms. Eventually, the ship ran aground on the island of Malta and was dashed to pieces by the surf, but all of the occupants survived and made it to shore.
Saint Paul’s Island, an uninhabited, rocky islet at the entrance to Saint Paul’s Bay, is thought to be the site where the ship wrecked. Acts 27: 41 states the ship ran aground on a piece of land ‘with sea on both sides.’
Saint Paul’s Church stands on the water’s edge in the town of Saint Paul’s Bay. The church is also known as St. Paul’s Bonfire Church and commemorates the traditional site where the shipwreck survivors, including Saint Paul, swam ashore and a bonfire was built for them.
The church was first built in the 14th century, but was rebuilt after a bomb destroyed the original building during World War II. The parish is run by the Franciscan Conventuals.
12, Old Saint Paul’s Church, Edinburgh
The Diocese of Edinburgh is one of seven in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC),, although Edinburgh was originally part of the Archdiocese of St Andrews. When Charles I formed the Diocese of Edinburgh in 1633, William Forbes became the first bishop and Knox’s former church, Saint Giles’, became the cathedral.
When episcopacy was abolished yet again in 1637, Saint Giles’ lost its status as a cathedral, but it was restored as a cathedral when episcopacy was reintroduced in 1661. When the Church of Scotland reverted to Presbyterianism in 1688, Saint Giles’ became the ‘High Kirk’ once again.
The last bishop at Saint Giles’, Bishop Alexander Rose of Edinburgh, left the cathedral in 1689 accompanied by much of his congregation, finding a new place of worship in an old wool store in Carrubber’s Close, close to the present site of Old Saint Paul’s Church.
Later Bishops of Edinburgh included Daniel Sandford (1806-1830), who was born in Dublin in 1766, and John Dowden (1886-1910), who was born in Cork in 1840.
For centuries, the SEC had no cathedrals and many churches, including Old Saint Paul’s and Saint Paul’s in York Place, served as the ‘pro-cathedral’ in Edinburgh until Saint Mary’s Cathedral was built in Palmerston Place in the 1870s.
The sisters Barbara and Mary Walker left all their property for building a new cathedral, and Sir George Gilbert Scott was chosen as the architect. Scott’s design was inspired by the early Gothic churches and abbeys of Scotland. The foundation stone was laid in 1874 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1879. The Chapter House was added in 1890 and the west spires in 1913-1917.
There were so many other churches named after Saint Paul that I could have looked at this afternoon. I have often passed by Saint Paul’s Church in Cambridge on my way from the railway station to Sidney Sussex, and its story includes an interesting Irish connection that I must write about at some stage. I have memories of visiting Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome in 2005 when I was chair of the Dublin University Far Eastern Mission (DUFEM) and took part in a conference on the Church in China.
There are memories too of visiting Saint Paul’s, Cordoba, and of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Nicosia, where they named me in the intercessions on the mornings of my ordination as deacon in 2000 and priest in 2001.
The small Church of Saint Paul (Agios Pavlos) in the Rethymnon region in Crete is near a secluded bay and beach associated with the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome. But my closing image this afternoon is of sunset at Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon, on the north coast of Crete.
30 seconds at sunset at Pavlos Beach in Platanias, east of Rethymnon on the north coast of Crete (Patrick Comerford)
