Commemorating VE Day in Crete and Stony Stratford, and remembering Comerfordswho died in World War II

The Suda Bay Commonwealth War Cemetery in Crete, near Chania and Chania Airport (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

At 6:30 tomorrow evening (8 May 2025) the church bells at Saint Mary and Saint Giles are ringing across Stony Stratford, like church bells and cathedral bells across the land, marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Victory in Europe Day.

The fragile peace we have had in Europe for the past 80 years has been marred and broken constantly, and even shattered on many occasions, with the civil war in Greece (1946-1949), the false stability and tensions of the Cold War, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in former Yugoslavia’, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Every town and village in Crete has monuments and memorials that are reminders of how every family on the island suffered during World War II. As I passed the Souda Bay War Cemetery on my way from Rethymnon to Chania Airport, I was reminded of the horrors of war, that peace in Europe has been bought with a heavy price, and how all too often we take our liberties, rights and systems of justice for granted.

The road to the airport climbs high above a horseshoe bay, the busy port and the cemetery at Souda Bay in a peaceful setting in an olive grove and surrounded by eucalyptus trees, about 5 km east from the centre of Chania. There are 1,500 Commonwealth war graves from World War II in the cemetery, along with 60 or so other graves. These graves bring home with force the calamity that was the Battle of Crete in 1941.

In May 1941, the Commonwealth force in Crete was organised in five widely separated defence areas along the north coast – around the three airfields at Iraklion, Rethymnon and Máleme, and at Souda Bay and the port of Chania.

The Germans launched their attack on Crete on 20 May with airborne troops. The airfield at Máleme was quickly captured and used for landing German reinforcements. The remainder of the Máleme position was given up on 23 May and its defenders fell back to Chania. The Allied line west of Chania was broken on 26 May, Suda Bay became indefensible and the troops from these two positions, with the remainder of the Maleme garrison, withdrew across the island to Hora Sfakion, where many of them were evacuated by sea on the nights of the 28-31 May.

The airborne attacks on the Iraklion and Rethymnon positions on 20 May were repulsed. Iraklion was defended until the night of 29 May when the garrison was evacuated by sea. Orders for the garrison in Rethymnon to fight its way southward for evacuation did not arrive, and it was overwhelmed on 31 May. Of the total Commonwealth land force of 32,000 in Crete, 18,000 were evacuated, 12,000 were taken prisoner and 2,000 were killed.

Among the graves at Soudha is that of John Pendlebury, the archaeologist who took over at Knossos after Arthur Evans retired.

Being a pacifist does not stop me from wanting to remember on VE Day and to honour the sacrifices so many people made so that we would have democracy, freedom and justice 80 years later. For example, without the extraordinary work at Bletchley Park, would World War II have dragged on for another six years? Would Britain and Ireland have been invaded? Would six million more have been murdered in the Holocaust?

Patrick Comerford, Dungulph, Co Wexford, Derek Comerford, West Hartlepool, Hugh Brown Cumberford, Glasgow, and Patrick Comerford, Arklow, are named on the Merchant Sailors’ Memorial on Tower Hill, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This evening, in anticipation of the VE Day commemorations tomorrow, I am recalling all those names of the dead from World War II from the Comerford, Commerford and Cumberford families that I have found recorded on memorials and graves by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The 19 members of this extended family I have found to date on Commonwealth War Graves are from many parts of Ireland and Britain, including Wexford and Arklow, from Glasgow, Hartlepool, Hastings, London, Manchester, Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and Shrewsbury, and also from Australia, Canada and South Africa.

They include soldiers and officers, with ambulance units in the medical corps, drivers, able seamen, civilian casualties, soldiers in the D-Day landings, merchant seamen torpedoed in Atlantic convoys, brothers and sisters, and prisoners of war of the Japanese in Borneo, Burma (Myanmar), Hong Kong and Japan.

They are buried or commemorated in the Phaleron War Cemetery near Athens, in Normandy, Borneo, Burma, Japan, Nottinghamshire, London, Sydney, Durban and Montreal.

Five Comerfords who were Prisoners of War of the Japanese are remembered in the Sat Wan Memorial in Hong Kong, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery and the Rangoon Memorial in Burma (Myanmar), Yokohama War Cemetery in Japan, and the Labuan Memorial on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah in Borneo, Malaysia. Four Comerfords are named on the Merchant Seamen’s Memorial on Tower Hill in London and two are named on the Plymouth War Memorial.

Michael John Comerford from Manchester is buried at Phaleron War Cemetery, near Athens

These 19 people from World War II are:

Derek Comerford: United Kingdom; Ordinary Seaman, Merchant Navy, S.S. Empire Engineer (West Hartlepool). Age: 17. Date of death: 2 February 1941. Family information: son of Peter and Mary Hannah Comerford, of North Shields, Northumberland. His father, Peter Comerford, was born in Glasgow, and his father was from Ireland. Grave/memorial reference: Panel 40, Tower Hill Memorial.

Edward William Commerford, United Kingdom; Private, Home Guard, 18th County of London Bn. Age: 39. Date of death: 4 February 1944. Family information: son of Edward and Matilda Commerford; husband of Minnie Commerford, of Dulwich. Grave/memorial reference: Sec. 86. Grave 39695, West Norwood Cemetery and Crematorium.

Ernest Edward Comerford: Australian; Lieutenant, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 3 Rec. Trg. Bn. Age: 28. Date of death: 18 July 1945. Service number: QX.35506. Family information: Son of John Edward and Rosina Comerford, of Townsville, Queensland. Grave/memorial reference: 2W. D. 8, Sydney War Cemetery.

Frank Comerford: United Kingdom; Company Quartermaster Serjeant, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Age: 40. Date of death: 3 April 1944. Service number: 3514928. Family information: son of William and Margaret Comerford; husband of Doris Mary Comerford, of Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Grave/memorial reference: Sec. A 2 D. Grave 1. Beeston and Stapleford (Chilwell) Cemetery.

Gerald Francis Commerford, Australian; Private, Australian Army Medical Corps, A.I.F. 2/10 Field Ambulance. Age: 25. Date of death: 9 February 1945. Service number: NX33246. Family information: son of Denis and Margaret Sarah Commerford, of Lower Lawrence, New South Wales. Grave/memorial reference: Panel 26, Labuan Memorial, Malaysia.

Hugh Brown Cumberford, United Kingdom; Radio Officer, Merchant Navy, SS Kellwyn (Swansea). Age: 19. Date of death: 27 July 1941. Family information: son of John Brown Cumberford and Agnes Cumberford, of Dalmarnock, Glasgow. Grave/memorial reference: Tower Hill Memorial.

James Matthew Comerford, Australian; Corporal, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 2/26 Bn. Age: 26. Date of death: 25 May 1943. Service number: QX17117. Family information: son of Edward Tobias and Ellen Cecelia Comerford, of Paddington, Queensland, Australia. Grave/memorial reference: A1. B. 19, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma (Myanmar).

John Commerford, United Kingdom; Lance Corporal, Middlesex Regiment, 1st Bn. Age: 27. Date of death: between 1 and 2 October 1942. Service number: 6010413. Family information: son of Serjeant TJ Commerford, The Royal Fusiliers, and of Mary Commerford, of Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, England. Grave/memorial reference: Column 14, Sat Wan Memorial, Hong Kong.

Lilian Rose Comerford, United Kingdom; civilian casualty. Age: 62. Date of death: 30 September 1940. Family information: of Rose Cottage, The Ridge, Hastings; daughter of Francis Thomas and Charlotte Comerford. Died at Robertson Street. Reporting authority: Hastings County Borough.

Mary Agnes Comerford, United Kingdom; civilian casualty. Age: 17. Date of death: 16 December 1940. Family information: daughter of Thomas and Mary Agnes Comerford, of 26 New Allen Street, Collyhurst, Manchester; died at Ancoats Hospital, New Cross, Manchester; her brother, Michael John Comerford (see below), died in 1944, and is buried near Athens. Reporting authority: Manchester County Borough.

Michael John Comerford, United Kingdom; Gunner, Royal Artillery, 165 Field Regt. Age: 22. Date of death: 5 December 1944. Service number: 1144779. Family information: son of Thomas and Mary Agnes Comerford, of Manchester; husband of Sabina Comerford, of Manchester; his sister, Mary Agnes Comerford (see above), was a civilian casualty in 1940. Grave/memorial reference: 16. E. 12, Phaleron War Cemetery, near Athens.

Noel Patrick Commerford, South African; Able Seaman, South African Naval Forces, HMS Cornwall. Age: ?. Date of death: 5 April 1942 (off the coast of Ceylon/Sri Lanka). Service number: 66493. Family information: son of Mrs P Commerford, of Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa; brother of Terence Commerford (see below), who died five months later. Grave/memorial reference: Panel 74, Column 1, Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Patrick Comerford, United Kingdom (Ireland); Able Seaman, Merchant Navy, SS Clune Park (Greenock). Age: 52. Date of death: 12 February 1941 (200 miles south-east of the Azores, in Convoy SLS-64 from Freetown to Liverpool). Family information: husband of Catherine Comerford, of Dungulph, Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford. His brother, Laurence Comerford, was a casualty in World War I. Grave/memorial reference: Panel 31, Tower Hill Memorial.

Patrick Comerton (Comerford), United Kingdom (Ireland); Able Seaman, Merchant Navy, SS Newbury (London). Age: 49. Date of death: 15 September 1941 (torpedoed by U-94 and sunk 800 miles south-east of Cape Farewell, carrying coal from Cardiff to Buenos Aires). Family information: son of James and Mary Comerton (Comerford); husband of Mary Ellen Comerton (Comerford), of Arklow, Co Wicklow. Memorial: Panel 72, Tower Hill Memorial, London,

Terence Commerford, South African; Ordinary Seaman, South African Naval Forces, HMS Express. Age: 21. Date of death: 19 September 1942. Service number: 330258. Family information: son of Pierce and Wilhelmina Commerford of Cape Town; brother of Noel Patrick Commerford (see above), who died five months earlier. Grave/memorial reference: Block F. Grave 275, Durban (Stellawood) Cemetery.

Thomas Matthew Commerford, United Kingdom; Trooper, Royal Armoured Corps, 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars. Age: 36. Date of death: 19 August 1944 (Normandy Landings). Service number: 7927353. Family information: son of Thomas James Commerford and Mary Commerford; husband of Phyllis Ettie Mary Commerford, of Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex. Grave/memorial reference: III. F. 13, Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery.

Thomas Michael Comerford, Australian; Private, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 2/20 Bn. Age: 39. Date of death: 26 October 1943. Service number: NX55519. Family information: son of John and Bridget Ann Comerford. Grave/memorial reference: Aust. Sec. A.B.1, Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan.

William Comerford, United Kingdom; Fusilier, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Bn. Age: 22. Date of death: 18 January 1943 (POW). Service number: 6981836. Family information: son of Edward William Comerford and Harriet Comerford, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Grave/memorial reference: Face 11, Rangoon Memorial, Burma (Myanmar).

William Michael Commerford, Canadian; Private, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps. Age: 36. Date of death: 30 November 1944. Service number: D/142978. Family information: husband of Muriel Commerford, of Montreal. Grave/memorial reference: Sec. I. Lot 1498. Grave 5957, Montreal (Notre Dame des Neiges) Cemetery, Canada.

Behind each of these names and numbers are real-life stories … but more of these stories tomorrow evening.

Patrick Comerford of Dungulph, Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexfor, named with members of the SS Clune Park crew on Panel 31 on the Tower Hill Memorial in London

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 18, Wednesday 7 May 2025

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery on Tamworth Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

Tomorrow is VE Day (Victory in Europe), and as thia weeks commorations continue, there is a special coffee morning with a VE Day theme in Stony Stratford Library. Later this evening, I hope to be at the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church. Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread in a shop window in Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 6: 35-40 (NRSVA):

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35) … bread on the shelves in the Bretzel in Portobello in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

When the people push their questions onto Jesus, he insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14). In the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of God’s name is closely related to the emphatic statement ‘I AM’ (see Exodus 3: 14; 6: 2; Deuteronomy 32: 39; Isaiah 43: 25; 48: 12; 51: 12; etc.). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, most of these passages are translated with as ‘I AM’, ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi).

The ‘I AM’ of the Hebrew Bible and the ‘I AM’ of Saint John’s Gospel is the God who creates us, who communicates with us, who gives himself to us.

But what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as ‘the Bread of Life’?

I spent some time at Easter ten years ago in Cappadocia, in south-central Turkey, because of my interest in sites associated with the three Cappadocian Fathers: Saint Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, his brother Saint Gregory (335-395), Bishop of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus (329-390), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.

They challenged heresies such as Arianism and their thinking was instrumental in formulating the phrases that shaped the Nicene Creed, and we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed this year.

Saint Basil is also remembered for his challenging social values. He wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’

So faith and belief must be related to how we live our lives as Christians.

Bishop Frank Weston, who was the Bishop of Zanzibar from 1908, held together in a creative combination his incarnational and sacramental theology with his radical social concerns formed the keynote of his address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. He believed that a true sacramental focus gave a reality to Christ’s presence and power that nothing else could.

However, he concluded: ‘But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then … you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.’

So, from Basil the Great in the fourth century to great mission pioneers in the Anglican Communion in recent generations, sacramental life is meaningless unless it is lived out in our care for those who are hungry, suffering and marginalised.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry’ (Saint Basil) … the rock-hewn Chapel of Saint Basil at Göreme in Cappadocia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 7 May 2025):

My prayers today include the Papal Conclave which begins today (7 May), when members of the College of Cardinals start voting for a new Pope in a secret ballot, with four rounds of voting per day until one candidate receives two-thirds support.

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides 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). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 7 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we ask for ample provision for refugees, that food, clothing, essential gear will be given to them along the way.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Aghios Vassilios (Saint Basil) in traditional icon-style on a door in Koutouloufári in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The Greeks have a word (or two) for it: 52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish

A variety of fish on display in a seafood restaurant at the harbour in Rethymnon in Greece … there is more than one word in Greek for fish (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was back in Crete two weeks ago, I realised not how much I had learned over the years, but how much I had forgotten in recent years.

When I was at theological college in 1984-1987, I soon dropped in the elective in Biblical Hebrew, but I kept up the elective in Biblical Greek and Koine Greek with enthusiasm. I was so enthusiastic, I followed it up immediately with a Cambridge course in classical Greek organised by Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy in 1987, and then took private tutorials in modern Greek. Ever since, I tried to read the Bible in Greek on a daily basis and to encouraged students to take up Biblical Greek.

When I was in Greece almost every year over the past 40 years or so, I tried not only to read menus in Greek, but to read daily newspapers and poetry, watch television news, and to listen to Greek songs, even to sing along, and I try to join the liturgical prayers in Greek.

But over the last year or two, I have noticed how my conversational Greek is slipping, and it is difficult to maintain it, let alone improve it, without regular interaction. I noticed it back in Crete at Easter, and where I could once follow an everyday conversation, I was stunned into silence in one conversation within the Greek community in Milton Keynes last weekend.

However, rather remain mute, I have become more resolute about recovering and improving my conversational Greek before I return to Crete soon again.

A variety of fish at a fish shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

One of the difficulties many people find in learning Greek is how so often there seem to be two words where English has only one. For example, there are two words for wine, οίνος (oinos) and κρασί; two Greek words for bread, ἄρτος (artos) and ψωμί (psomi); and two Greek words for beer, μπύρα (bíra) and ζύθος (zythos).

Why, there are even three words for one: ένας (énas) is masculine, μία (mia) is feminine, and ένα (éna) is neuter; and three definitive articles: ο (o), η (i), and το (to), for the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. And I often get them mixed up.

They are grammatically determined, but they come instinctively and intuitively to every born Greek speaker. I find it a compliment that many Greeks think I look Greek, but once I open my mouth they know that I am not.

Aghia Galini, a colourful fish shop or Ιχθυαγορά in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

There are at least two different nouns in Greek for fish: ἰχθύς (ichthus), and ψάρι (psari). A third word, ὀψάριον (opsarion), means fish or small fish. It is a diminutive of the word opson, which refers to anything eaten with bread, especially fish, or a cooked dish. In the New Testament, opsarion is used to describe the fish that Jesus provided for his disciples after his resurrection.

In the Gospel reading in the lectionary yesterday (John 21: 1-19), we find a number of Greek words related to fish and to fishing, including: ἁλιεύω (halieuō), to fish or to catch fish (John 21: 3), the only usage of this word in the New Testament; ἰχθύς (ichthus), a fish (verses 6, 8, 11); ὀψάριον (opsarion), a little fish (verses 9, 10, 13); and δίκτυον (diktyon), fishing net (verse 11).

The fish or the ἰχθύς fish, became a symbol of early Christianity. The word ἸΧΘΥΣ or also ἸΧΘΥϹ with a lunate sigma was read as an acronym or acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ (Iēsoûs Khrīstós, Theoû Huiós, Sōtḗr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. But the early Christians saw symbolism too linking baptism in water with fish in the water, so fish and bread came to represent Baptism and Communion.

Fish on the menu at Captain’s House in Panormos near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The word word ἰχθύς (ichthus) is name used only in Katharevousa or very formal, stilted Greek. But there are words derived from it in everyday use in Greece today, including ιχθυαγορά (ichthyagorá), fish market, so that the Traditional Fishmarket by the old Venetian Harbour in Iraklion is the Παραδοσιακή Ιχθυαγορά (paradosiakí ichthuagorá); and ιχθυοπωλείο (ichthyopoleío), fishmonger or fish shop, so that Aghia Galini, a colourful fish shop in Rethymnon, is a παραγωγικό ιχθυοπωλείο (paragogiko ichthuopoleio), a traditional fishmonger.

But the normal, everyday word for fish in Greek, and the one used in everyday conversations, in shops and restaurants, is ψάρι (psari). This is the word used on their signs and menus when restaurants say they sell φρέσκα ψάρια (phreska psaria) or fresh fish.

I don’t know that I have ever seen the words ἰχθύς or ὀψάριον on a menu. But this not because my conversational Greek is slipping a little these days. It’s probably just because I’m a vegetarian and probably would not notice.

Fresh fish (φρέσκα ψάρια) at Barba Antreas in Panormos near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Last word: 51, Bimah, βῆμα

Next word: 53, Bible

The Traditional Fishmarket (Παραδοσιακή Ιχθυαγορά) by the old Venetian Harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

A traditional fishing boat by the old Venetian Harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 17, Tuesday 6 May 2025

‘I am the Bread of Life’ (John 6: 35) … preparing bread for the Eucharist on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘My Father … gives you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6: 32) … a mosaic in Saint Matthew’s Church, Great Peter Street, Westminster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 30-35 (NRSVA):

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’ 32 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34 They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ (John : 35) … an icon of the Last Supper or Mystical Supper seen in a shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either. Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25).

Some years ago (2010), I took part in the popular television series, Who Do You Think You Are? I did some of the research on Dervla Kirwan, famous for her roles from Ballykissangel to Smother. The show is still popular, and I still get messages from America and England from friends and family who have just seen repeats.

But that question, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, goes much deeper than the details that programme unearths about Victorian great-grandparents.

‘Who are you?’

When most of us are asked this question in normal chit-chat, we probably first answer by our name, the name we like to be known by.

Given a second chance, even when we ask ourselves that question, we usually reply in ways that show our most important, our deepest, relationships: Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Wife/Husband, Sister/Brother, Uncle/Aunt, Niece/Nephew, Grandparent/Grandchild …

Relationships define us, relationships shape us, relationships place us in family and society … and relationships can sometimes even destroy us, yet they still continue to define us.

That is how we see ourselves, usually, when we are asked casually, ‘Who are you?’ But there is also a third way of asking and answering that question.

In my previous roles, in media and academic life, I noticed quite often when people asked one another these questions, and exchanged cards, they spent little time looking at each other’s names on the cards, and more time figuring out their roles.

The questions that are being really asked at these receptions and conferences are not ‘Are you Patrick?’ or ‘Are you a parent/partner?’ The questions being asked, deep down, are ‘What do you do?’ and ‘Are you useful in my network?’ Can you get me more business, more sales, more votes, more media attention?

And then, there is another, perhaps fourth question, when it comes to identity: ‘Where are you from?’

‘Where am I from?’ The answer connects me with so many shared connections, friends, family members, schoolfriends, memories … why, we might even find we are related!

These are the sort of questions the crowd are asking Jesus in our Gospel readings yesterday and today:

Where are you from? (verse 24)

When did you come here? (verse 25)

What do you work at? (verse 30)

What can you do for me? (verse 30)

Why, like scriptwriters for that television series, they even recall their ancestors and what they did in the past (verse 31).

But, like those people exchanging business cards at a reception, there are few questions about relationship or relationships. They try to define him (‘rabbi’, verse 25), so they can box him in.

Instead, Jesus tries to answer them in term of relationships.

Set aside all those wonders and miracles, he tells them (verse 26). Stop playing the status-seeking game (verse 29). What is more important than all these is what is in your heart (verse 29).

He insists on speaking of himself in relationship to God the Father, who has sent him.

And then Jesus uses the first of his seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35).

These seven ‘I AM’ sayings are traditionally listed as:

1, I am the Bread of Life (John 6: 35, 48)
2, I am the Light of the World (John 8: 12)
3, I am the gate (or the door) (John 10: 7)
4, I am the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11 and 14)
5, I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11: 25)
6, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14: 6)
7, I am the true vine (John 15: 1, 5)

These ‘I AM’ sayings echo the divine name revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3: 14).

If I am made in the image and likeness of God, how could I possibly say who I am in the ways Jesus says who he is?

Bread: when did I last help to feed the hungry … those who are physically and spiritually hungry?

The Light of the World … when did I last speak out against prejudice, bigotry, hatred and scaremongering, and shine a light into these dark shadows of the world?

The gate or the door … am I welcoming, hospitable, open, an advocate of pluralism, diversity and tolerance in our society?

The Good Shepherd … do I look after people, care for them, especially those people no-one else seems to think is worth bothering about?

I could go down through all seven ‘I AM’ sayings and find they are a very good checklist not just for me as a priest but for any Christian, indeed for any person.

Christ is the bread of life and the light of the world. We must also offer that light and life that Christ offers us to the world.

Would it make any difference if the Church not only preached what it believes, but worked actively to see these beliefs put into practice?

Our response to the love we receive from God – a risky outpouring that is beyond all human understanding of generosity – can only be to love. That call to love is not just to love those who are easy to love. It is a call to love those who are difficult to love too, to love all in the world … and to love beyond words. And that should be a good enough definition of who I am.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness’ (John 6: 31) … in the mountain passes above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 6 May 2025):

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides 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). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 6 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we pray for people who support refugees along the way. May you strengthen and provide resource.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A modern icon of the Communion of the Apostles

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

Marylee’s house in Rethymnon has become a metaphor for the way time moves on in Crete

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

It is almost two weeks since I got back from Crete, having spent most of Holy Week and the Easter weekend in Rethymnon.

I suppose it was like a ‘mini-retreat’, with time for prayer and reflection throughout those five or six days. But there was time too for coffee with friends, and some long, lingering, late lunches in Iraklion and in Panormos, and for much-needed time for walks on the beaches or by the harbours and the shoreline in Rethymnon, Platanias, Panormos and Iraklion.

I had so missed being in Greece for a few years. I had planned back in Crete at Easter 2022, but circumstances caught up on me. I caught Covid, not once but twice; I had a stroke; I brought forward the date for my planned retirement from parish ministry; my marriage at the time came to an end; and then, after moving to Stony Stratford, Charlotte and I got married in November 2023.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I got back to Crete last year for Easter (April 2024), and now that I have been back again this Easter, I know how Greece, Crete and Rethymnon have become part and parcel of who I am.

For almost 40 years, Rethymnon has been like a second home to me. There are a few places I feel at home – Wexford, Cappoquin and Lichfield – and Rethymnon is certainly one of them. For half my life, I have felt at ease and at home there, and I have been in Crete 12 times within the past 15 years.

In the few years I was absent, I missed the colours, the smells and the sounds; I missed the tastes, the flowers, the Bougainvillea and hibiscus; I missed the scents, the sunsets, the sunrises, the blue skies and the blue seas; I missed the food and the wine; I missed the music and the poetry; I missed the olive groves; and I missed the people.

Year-by-year, I hardly notice the changes in Rethymnon and suburban Platanias and Tsesmes, or in Piskopiano and Koutouloufari. They have been natural, organic changes, and I realise and accept that life usually changes gradually and gently rather than forcibly.

But during these last two visits I noticed how many of the shops, bars and restaurants I have known over the years have changed hands or even closed: a friend’s icon studio in Rethymnon, Julia Apartments and the Taverna Garden Restaurant in Platanias and Lychnos in Piskopiano are long closed. Sarlo’s falafel shop on Paleologou street in Rethymnon has now closed too. A smallholding in Platanias, by a path I often walk to and from Pavlos Beach, has been ploughed up, and its vines uprooted, leaving only some fig trees that once sheltered the vines, and it looks like it is about to become another building site.

I can remember fondly and quite sharply each place I have stayed in over the years, so it jolts my mind to see how many of those places have closed too. Many restaurants in Platanias, like Finikas, Vergina, Myli and Merem, and hotels like La Stella in Tsesmes, were waiting until after Easter to open, but were busy with deep Springcleaning, repainting and decorating. It was good to here this weekend that Pagona’s restaurant in Tsesmes is going to reopen in the coming days.

I once asked how daily life would change on Tsouderon street without the kiosk or períptero (περίπτερο) beside the bank, with its unique character. But it too vanished with the passage of time, and yet life goes on.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As I was strolling through the side streets and back streets of Rethymnon in recent days, I found myself once again photographing a colourful house that in many ways tells the stories of how life moves on in Rethymnon over the years, and how life moves on in Greece.

For the umpteenth time, I climbed the steep hills up to the old Venetian Fortezza to enjoy the views across the town and out to the sea. Clustered around the base of the Fortezza, there are labyrinthine back streets with houses, each pretty and charming in its own self-contained way.

Over the years, one attractive house on a corner of Cheimarras Street, with its colourful façade, flowerpots and window has come to represent or symbolise for me what I find typical of the charm of the back streets on the slopes tumbling down from the Fortezza.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

When I first noticed Marylee’s House back in 2012, a colourful but punctured bicycle stood outside, and it seemed then like a metaphor for the Greek economy – punctured and jaded, and waiting for someone to see that it could roll on once again.

The house provided one of my favourite images from Rethymnon that year. I had the photograph printed on canvas and mounted for a wall in the house in Dublin I was then living in.

A year later, the bicycle that had been outside Marylee’s house had given way to a motorbike in 2013. I suppose time moves on at a speed we never understand.

Then, in 2019, there was no bicycle or motor bike outside the house … once again, perhaps, a metaphor for the Greek economy and politics, as things stood still waiting to see whether the European election results that month were going to influence the choice of a date for a general election in Greece later that year.

Today, the house is colourful, there are plants and flowerpots on the window ledges, the steps and on the street outside. The door has been ajar, almost half-open, at times when I have walked by on my recent visits and a new café and set out tables across the street on this latest visit -- metaphors, I suppose, that Greece has always been open to me, and that I feel Greece is part of me and that I am part of Greece.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Marylee’s House stands on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza that takes its name from Himara or Himarë in southern Albania, known in Greek as Χειμάρρας, Cheimarras.

Since antiquity, the region of Himara has been predominantly populated by people who are ethnically Greek. Despite all the changes over time, that part of Albania has remained an important centre of Greek culture and politics in Albania, and the majority of people are Greek-speaking.

In classical antiquity, Himara was part of the Kingdom of Epirus, whose rulers included King Pyrrhus, who was a second cousin of Alexander the Great and who has given us the term ‘Pyrrhic Victory.’

The town revolted under Spyros Spyromilios in 1912 and expelled the Ottoman force in order to join Greece, and Himara was under Greek administration from October 1914 until September 1916, when it was occupied by Italy.

The region came under the control of the Albanian state in 1921, but there were revolts throughout the 1920s demanding respect for Greek culture and autonomy. During World War II, the town was captured briefly by the Greek army in December 1940.

Today, the people of Himara remain a majority-Greek population, but fear their culture, language and religion are constantly under threat.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

An interesting Greek cultural figure from Himara was Pyrros Spyromilios (1913-1962). As director of the Greek Radio Orchestra, encouraged the composer Mikis Theodorakis to use his ensemble, along with the popular bouzouki instrumentalist, Manolis Chiotis, and singer Grigoris Bithikotsis, in the Greek radio premiere of the Epitaphios. This setting to music by Theodorakis of the epic poem by the Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos was an innovative move at the time and has had a lasting influence on modern Greek culture.

Each time I return to Rethymnon and walk down Cheimarras Street from the Fortezza, I watch out for Marylee’s House, but also find myself listening in my mind to the melody of Epitaphios.

And when I come back again, hopefully sooner rather than later, Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza is still there to photograph yet again.

Blue steps on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 16, Monday 5 May 2025

‘The … crowd that had stayed … saw that Jesus had not got into the boat … but that his disciples had gone away alone’ (John 6: 22) … a lone boat against the harbour walls in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and this week began with the Third Sunday of Easter (Easter III, 4 May 2025).

This is a public holiday in both England and Ireland as the first Monday in May and the nearest Monday in May to May Day. In the Calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, today is the Feast of Saint Irene the Great Martyr (Αγίας Ειρήνης της Μεγαλομάρτυρος), and this morning I especially appreciate the gift I received in Rethymnon at Easter from my friend the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki of an icon of Saint Irene. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘They … got into the boats and went … looking for Jesus’ (John 6: 24) … boats in the harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 6: 22-29 (NRSVA):

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ 28 Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29 Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’

‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me … because you ate your fill of the loaves’ (John 6: 26) … bread on the table in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflection:

We have read in recent days about Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water, and we are now introduced to reading the long Bread of Life discourse (verses 22-59), spoken in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6: 59).

This ‘Bread’ is compared the manna with which God fed his people during their long wanderings in the desert in the wilderness. Today’s reading is an introduction, and the discourse itself begins tomorrow (6 May 2025). The last part of the discourse is about the mixed reaction of Jesus’ disciples and about Peter’s profession.

The day following the feeding of the 5,000, the people go in search of Jesus. There had been only one boat tied up at the shore, and the disciples had taken it to cross the lake. However, Jesus had not accompanied them, he had stayed behind. The people realise he did not cross the lake with his disciples, but when they go to the site of the feeding, they find he is not there either.

Eventually they find Jesus and his disciples near Capernaum, Jesus’ principal base in Galilee. They ask him: ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ (verse 25). In typically Johannine fashion, the question is loaded with deeper meanings, of which those asking it are quite unaware. Jesus’ origin (where he comes from) is a constant source of misunderstanding both on the part of the crowds and of the religious leadership of the day.

Jesus begins by telling the crowds that they are coming in search of him not because of the ‘signs’ that he is doing, but because of the bread that they had been given to eat. They have missed the point of what Jesus is doing. They have seen the things that Jesus has been doing, but have missed the ‘sign’, the deeper meaning behind them.

There are two kinds of food: food for the body, and food for the inner person, the spirit or the soul. The food the people are looking for is not the food that counts. The real food brings a life that never ends, and that is the food that Jesus is offering. It parallels the ‘spring of water gushing up to eternal life’ that Jesus promised the Samaritan woman (John 4: 14).

The source of this ‘bread’ is the Son on whom the Father has set his seal. This ‘seal’ was given at his baptism. It is the Spirit of the Father, who is the power of God working in and through Jesus.

The people ask him: ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ (verse 28). Jesus tells them: ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent’ (verse 29).

‘Work’ in this context refers to the fulfilment of the requirements of the religious law of the day. But Jesus substitutes this with faith in himself as the delegate of the Father. He challenges us not just to ‘believe’, but to ‘believe in’. This is not merely a question of accepting certain statements about Jesus and who he really is. ‘Believing in’ involves a total and unconditional self-commitment to Christ, to the Gospel and the vision of life that Jesus proposes, and making it part of myself. This is where the real bread is to be found.

Jesus is not just speaking of the Eucharistic bread, but the deep-down nourishment of which the Eucharist is the sign and sacrament – nourishment that also comes from the Word of God in Scripture and the experience of the whole Christian community.

As we read this full chapter, we should not limit the truth of Jesus as the Bread or Food of our life simply to the Eucharist, which is the sacramental sign of something much larger – all that we receive through Christ and the whole Christian way of life.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life’ (John 6: 27) … food in Crete in recent weeks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 5 May 2025):

‘Inconvenient Migration’ provides 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). This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections from Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 5 May 2025) invites us to pray:

God of compassion, we ask for your mercy on all refugees and displaced people. Grant your grace, favour and protection. Bring them to safety.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread:
open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued tomorrow

An icon of Aghia Irini (Αγία Ειρήνη) or Saint Irene by Alexandra Kaouki, a gift at Easter in Rethymnon … today is the Feast of Saint Irene the Great Martyr in the Greek Orthodox Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in Iraklion and a unique collection of icons in Crete

The Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the old city in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

On a sunny afternoon, as I was making my way from the Cathedral of Saint Minas in the heart of Iraklion to the Martinengo Bastion above the city to see the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis, I stopped to visit the mediaeval Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the maze of streets in the old city.

This church with an unusual name is a monastic foundation linked to Saint Catharine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, and it holds one of the most important collections of icons in Crete today, dating from the 16th to the 18th century.

The church is also intimately linked to events at the end of the 19th century that led to the end of Ottoman rule and the incorporation of Crete into modern Greece.

The main (south) aisle in the church … the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I had last visited this church in September 2013. The church, on Taxiarchou Markopoulou street, is near the bustling city centre of Iraklion and Saint Minas Cathedral. But it is a quiet residential area, with traditional white-washed houses, cobbled streets, and cosy tavernas and cafés.

The two-aisled church is set in a shaded courtyard about 500 metres south of the cathedral of Saint Minas. The present building dates back to just after the earthquake of 1508.

The earliest references in the lists of churches in Candia say the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (961 to1204 CE), a significant period of cultural and economic revival for the island after its reconquest from Arab rule. Saint Matthew’s was regarded as ‘Great and Unique’ and was inextricably connected with life in the city.

The north aisle in the church … the church became a dependency of the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1669 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Byzantine church of Saint Matthew Sinaitón or Saint Matthew of the Sinaites (Ναός Αγίου Ματθαίου Σιναϊτών) was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1508. The new church of Agios Matthaios (Saint Matthew) was probably built, as a family chapel in the early 17th century on the site of the older Byzantine church that had been destroyed in the earthquake. The founding inscription says it was built in 1600.

After the Ottomans captured Crete and Iraklion in 1669, the Church of Saint Catherine was turned into a mosque. Through the intervention of the Sultan’s interpreter, Nikosios Panagiotakis, Saint Matthew’s Church was then given by way of compensation as a metochion or small monastic establishment to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai and its monks.

The seat of the Archbishop of Crete, and the icons, paintings and pulpits that had once adorned Saint Catherine were transferred to the church, and it has been known ever since as Saint Matthew of the Sinaites.

The carved pulpit in the south aisle is highly decorated with icons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

However, it cannot be said with certainty whether the school of iconography at Saint Catherine’s operated on the church grounds during this period, although it was located there later, and was moved to the small Church of Agios Minas around 1750. The school continued to function through the work of Georgios Kastrophylakas and loannis Kastrophylakas, father and son, and Ioannis Kornaros, who had attended the school.

The church is known for its striking architecture and serene ambiance. It has an elegant façade, and the interior is equally captivating, with its frescoes and icons. This is a two-aisled, vaulted church with a transverse narthex. The complex also includes two neoclassical buildings and a newer building.

A relief marble slab above the north entrance of the church depicts Saint Matthew the Apostle. The church was expanded at the end of the 17th century, and the south aisle was added and dedicated to Saint Paraskevi. The flat-roofed narthex was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a chapel was added at the north-east end and dedicated to Saint Charalambos.

The church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today the church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography in the Venetian Era.

The icons include the Crucifixion by Georgios Kastrophylakas (1752); Saint Catherine and Saint Symeon the God-Receiver by Jeremiah Palladas; the Crucifixion (1772) and Saint Titus and Scenes of the Lives of the 10 Martyrs of Crete by Ioannis Kornaros (1773); the Crucifixion, attributed to Palaiokappa; and two unsigned icons by Michael Damaskinos, Saint Symeon Theodochos and Saint John the Baptist (16th century).

Other notable icons in the church include: Saint Phanourios by John, priest of Kolyva (1688); Saint Paraskevi (17th century); the Prophet Elias with scenes of his life, by Georgios Kydoniates (1752); the Lament (1753); Saint Charalampos and the martyrdom of the saint, by Ioannis Kornaros, (1773); and the Virgin Mary or Panaghia by Victor (1780).

The iconostasis in the main south aisle of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

For many decades, Saint Matthew and Saint Minas long remained the two principal Orthodox churches in Iraklion, and many influential members of the Christian community in the city were buried in the churchyard.

Many of the people slaughtered by the Turks in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are also buried in the churchyard. They include Lysimachos Kalokairinos (1840-1898), who had been the British Vice Consul in Iraklion from 1859 and a British subject since 1871.

Kalokairinos was killed when his home was burnt down during the violence in 1898, and most of his archaeological collection and that of his brother, Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), dragoman at the consulate, were destroyed. Minos Kalokairinos was an amateur archaeologist known for the first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos, and his excavations were continued later by Arthur Evans.

Many of the people slaughtered in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

During the violence, known the ‘Candia Massacre’, it is estimated 500-800 Christians were massacred in Iraklion, 14 British military personnel were murdered, and Lysimachos Kalokairinos and his family were burnt alive in their home. A significant part of Candia was burned down and the massacre, which continued for four hours, ended only after British warships began bombarding the city.

The massacre on 6 September 1898 (Old Style 25 August) accelerated the end of Ottoman rule: the last Ottoman soldier left Crete two months later, on 28 November 1898, ending the 253-year Ottoman rule on the island. Crete became an autonomous state in 1899 and was incorporated into the modern Greek state in 1913.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites remains a ‘Great and Unique’ church. It is an important part of the spiritual heritage of Crete and it is cherished as a landmark that has played a key role in the religious, political and cultural history of Iraklion.

The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites is a ‘Great and Unique’ church in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)