Spinalónga, Europe’s last leprosy colony, continued until 1957 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full view)Patrick Comerford
The week began with the First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity I, 22 June 2025), and during the week I have been marking the 24th anniversary of my ordination as priest 24 years ago [24 June 2001], and the 25th anniversary of my ordination as deacon [25 June 2000]. We are in Ordinary time in the Church Calendar, and today we remember Saint Cyril (444 CE), Bishop of Alexandria and Teacher of the Faith.
Today is an Ember Day, marked on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in the week before the Sunday nearest to 29 June as days of prayer for those to be ordained deacon or priest. 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.
Matthew 8: 1-4 (NRSVA):
8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; 2 and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’
Today’s Reflection:
This morning’s reading (Matthew 8: 1-4) follows on from our series of readings from the Sermon on the Mount in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, including the feeding of the multitude and the Beatitudes. The immediate impact should impress on the reader that teaching and doctrine are immediately and intimately connected with care for the marginalised and people on the edges on or excluded from society.
Saint Matthew’s account of Jesus healing the man with leprosy says the man approached Jesus as he ‘came down from the mountainside’ (Matthew 8: 1); Saint Mark does not offer a location other than Galilee (Mark 1: 39); Saint Luke’s account (Luke 5: 12-16) says they are in a city. All three synoptic Gospels agree that the man has faith that Jesus can make him clean, but he is not sure whether Jesus wants to.
Saint Luke’s setting, with the man inside the city, challenges the general perception of the regulations in Jewish law concerning people with leprosy. ‘The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be dishevelled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp’ (Leviticus 13: 45-46).
Some historians claim the Mosaic law excluded people with leprosy from any cities. However, the Talmud only bans them from entering walled cities, and we have little information about which, if any, cities in Galilee were enclosed by walls.
It is possible that this man had remained outside the city but came in again, defying the community’s laws, expectations and safety measures, to see Jesus and to seek healing.
Saint Luke says he was ‘covered with leprosy.’ If he had the form of leprosy now known as ‘Hansen’s disease’, this would imply an advanced, near-lethal stage. Those suffering with leprosy can experience sores and ulcers over their face, hands and body. This would have resulted in great social stigma, as well as much personal suffering.
Today, 95% of the world population is naturally immune to leprosy. As for the 5% who can get it, many of them live in tropical, overpopulated, underdeveloped areas like Brazil, China and India. Nobody really knows or understands how it is spread, but one common factor is prolonged close contact with someone who has it. You do not get it from hugging someone with leprosy or by sharing a meal with one. And for those who do contract leprosy, there are medical treatments in developed countries that can cure leprosy.
Even so, people with leprosy – then and now – are often cast out from society, rejected, feared, despised, neglected and scorned.
I have visited the island of Spinalónga, in the calm Bay of Mirabello and off the north-east coast of Crete. The island is still remembered as Europe’s last active leprosy colony.
Spinalónga was transformed into a leprosy colony in 1903. Until then, Crete’s leprosy patients had often lived in caves or were banished to areas known as meskinies, away from their families and civilisation, without appropriate or adequate medical care.
At his own personal expense, the Greek Prime Minister, Eleftheríos Venizélos, sent a doctor to India and the Philippines to learn about the latest methods of treating leprosy. But subsequent governments did little to change the conditions of the inhabitants.
There were two entrances to Spinalónga. The ‘lepers’ entrance’ was a tunnel known as ‘Dante’s Gate’ because fretful patients did not know what would happen to them after their arrival. Once on the island, they received food, water, medical attention and social security payments. But they were forbidden family visits, fishing was prohibited, and letters were callously disinfected before being posted. The residents ran their own shops, cafés and bazaar, but they were forbidden to marry, and children born on the island were soon separated from their parents.
Little was done to change those conditions even when the discovery of a new drug in America in 1948 offered the hope of a cure. Spinalónga remained a leprosy colony for nine more years, although these advances in medicine meant isolation was no longer appropriate, and care remained rudimentary. The priests who lived with the people were often their most vocal advocates, and the Brotherhood of the Sick of Spinalónga led to many of their demands being met.
The colony finally closed in 1957. The last inhabitant to leave the island was a priest, Father Chrysathos Katsouloyiannakis, who stayed on until 1962 to continue the traditions and rites of the Greek Orthodox Church, in which a dead person is commemorated at intervals of 40 days, six months, a year, three years and five years after death.
As I reflected on the anniversaries of my ordinations this week, I thought of him as a model for ministry, continuing to work as a priest in isolation and continuing to offer people the dignity Christ offers them, long after they had been forgotten, long after they had died.
There are no souvenir shops on the island, no trinkets to buy and take away. But as I left, I had many questions:
Who do we isolate in cruel ways today?
Who do we cast outside our community, pretending they pose the risk of contamination?
Who, like the priests of Spinalónga, are going to speak out for them in the Church today, and who, like the last priest on Spinalónga, are going to stay with them long after death, long after others have abandoned and forgotten them?
Today’s Prayers (Friday 27 June 2025):
‘Windrush Day’ is the theme this week (22-28 June) 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 by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary today (Friday 27 June 2025) invites us to pray:
Our great God, we ask for your mercy for people living amongst us who are marginalised because of illness or incapacity. Be their Healer; help us to show compassion.
The Collect:
O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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 Collect for those to be ordained:
Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts,
by your Holy Spirit you have appointed
various orders of ministry in the Church:
look with mercy on your servants
now called to be deacons and priests;
maintain them in truth and renew them in holiness,
that by word and good example they may faithfully serve you
to the glory of your name and the benefit of your Church;
through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Heavenly Father,
whose ascended Son gave gifts of leadership and service to the Church:
strengthen us who have received this holy food
to be good stewards of your manifold grace,
through him who came not to be served but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
The waters around Spinalónga are now known for their blue seas (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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