Saint Botolph’s Church in Colchester and Saint Botolph’s Priory, the first Augustinian foundation in England

Saint Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, founded ca 1093 … the first and leading Augustinian house in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During our recent visit to Colchester, I visited some of the churches in the town centre, as well as the castle, the Roman and Norman walls, the town hall, the former Jewish quarter in Stockwell Street, and the sites of the town’s synagogues.

Saint Botolph’s Priory in Colchester was founded ca 1093, and was the first and leading Augustinian house in England until it was dissolved at the Tudor reformation in 1536.

The priory was founded on the site of a Saxon church dedicated to Saint Botolph, with a tower that resembled the Saxon tower of Holy Trinity Church in Colchester. The church’s transformation into an Augustinian priory was initiated by priest named Norman, who had studied under Anselm of Canterbury in France before returning to England and settling in Colchester.

In Colchester, Norman joined a college of secular priests at Saint Botolph’s Church who wanted to join a religious order. Norman suggested the Augustinian order, which at the time had no houses in England, and received the approval of Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Saint Botolph’s Church became Saint Botolph’s Priory, and Norman later left Colchester to become the first prior of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate.

Saint Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, was built on the site of an earlier Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Unlike nearby Saint John’s Abbey, Saint Botolph's Priory at first received little support from rich patrons, despite an endowment from Henry I, and it was several decades before the priory church was fully built. It was built in the Norman style on the site of the earlier church, and the work was completed by 1177 when the priory church was dedicated.

The house was headed by a Prior, and initially had 12 canons representing the 12 Apostles; a thirteenth canon was added to the foundation in 1281. The church was 53.7 metres (176 ft) long – about twice as long as the surviving standing ruins – with a central tower and transepts. The nave was 33.5 metres (110 ft) long, and 16.75metres (55 ft) wide. The rose window in the gable is thought to have been one of the earliest examples in England.

The church had several side chapels, including a lady chapel and chapels dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Thomas Becket and the Holy Trinity.

The main west door of the church was known as the Pardon Door, because it was there pardons were granted on the feast of Saint Denis (9 October), known as Pardon Day in mediaeval Colchester.

The cloisters were on its south side of the church, and the canons’ dormitory was refurbished in 1383.

The church had at least two bells, a Sanctus bell and a requiem bell.

The main west door of the priory church was known as the Pardon Door (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Although Saint Botolph’s not as wealthy as its neighbour and rival, Saint John’s Abbey, the priory had considerable holdings in Essex and other places in south and east England. The church of Saint Peter, Colchester, was appropriated to the priory in 1318, and other churches attached to the priory included All Saints’, Saint James’s, and Saint Martin in Colchester, and the church in Frating.

A violent clash between the prior and canons of Saint Botolph’s and the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in the mid-14th century arose out of disputes over Saint Peter’s Church in Colchester.

Thomas Turner, the last prior of Saint Botolph’s, was elected 1527. The prior and seven canons of Saint Botolph’s took the oath of fealty in 1534, and the priory was dissolved in 1535, when it was granted to Sir Thomas Audley. The nave of the priory church was retained as a parish church, but the choir was demolished along with the cloisters, chapter house and other monastic buildings.

During the Siege of Colchester in 1648 in the Second English Civil War, when Colchester was besieged by the Parliamentarian New Model Army, Saint Botolph’s was caught in the crossfire of the assault on South Gate, and was reduced to ruins.

Saint Botolph’s Priory was destroyed by a Parliamentarian assault during the siege of Colchester in 1648 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The parish of Saint Botolph’s was left without a parish church after the siege of Colchester, and for almost 200 years the parishioners worshipped at All Saints’ Church on the High Street.

A Gothic Victorian church was built next to the priory ruins in 1837, on the site of the monastic kitchens and refectory. It was designed by the architect William Mason (1810-1897), and his design, inside and outside, reflects that of its 12th century predecessor.

Saint Botolph’s Church, dominated by its massive tower, was built in white brick, earning it the nickname of ‘the White Elephant’. The external brickwork has weathered to a darker hue, but, inside, the visitor is greeted by a bright contrast of white, scarlet and gold.

The church retains its original plan and most of its three-sided gallery in the style of the gallery churches in London. The east windows are of splendid Flemish stained glass and a window in the south aisle commemorates Samuel Harsnett (1561-1631), Archbishop of York (1629-1631), who was born in Colchester. His writings are said to have influenced Shakespeare and Milton.

Saint Botolph’s Church, built beside the priory ruins in 1837, was designed by William Mason (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The nave was reordered in the 1970s, when the cast iron rood screen and pulpit were removed from the chancel and the fixed pews were removed from the nave.

The raised daises, left after the pews were taken out, were removed in 1988 and the nave was levelled. A dividing partition was installed at the west end in 1990 to give a separate welcome area and some hospitality facilities. The church extension in 2001 provided a hall, kitchen, toilets and a vestry and meeting room.

The ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory are now a public park, and improvements in 2010-2012 made the ruins more accessible to the public.

Saint Botolph’s Church, Colchester, was once nicknamed ‘the White Elephant’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 19, Sunday 23 March 2025, Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III)

‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard …’ (Luke 13: 6) … a fig tree growing in shallow soil by the beach on the island of Gramvousa off the north-west coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the middle of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and today is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III), known in some places as Oculi Sunday (meaning ‘eyes’) or Scrutiny Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist 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.

Looking across the countryside in Crete from an old Venetian tower in Maroulas … why were the workers killed accidentally in the Tower of Siloam? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 1-9 (NRSVA):

1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; buMart unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

6 Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” 8 He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down”.’

A small vineyard in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete … fig trees at either end help to protect the vines against winds from the sea and mountain and to hold the soil and water (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘Oculi' is the Latin name for the Third Sunday in Lent, meaning ‘eyes' because this Sunday was associated with Psalm 25: 15: ‘My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.’ Today’s Bible readings encourage us to look and search, seek and find, taste and discover. They raise questions about some of the choices we make, inviting us to look more closely at how we live and to exercise scrutiny.

We are almost half-way through Lent, and by now, at this half-way point, we probably need encouragement and affirmation.

Encouragement and affirmation are found in good measure in the lectionary readings this morning. But these readings also urge us to hunger and thirst for the real food and drink that God offers us.

The Old Testament reading (Isaiah 55: 1-9) this morning tells us God is to be found among all who seek him:

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near … (verse 6).

In the Psalm too (Psalm 63: 1-8), we hear what it is to thirst for the Lord. But the same mouths that thirst for God in the wilderness, also praise him with joyful lips.

That thirsting in the wilderness provides the Apostle Paul with an illustration in the Epistle reading (I Corinthians 10: 1-13), in which he urges us to thirst for the true ‘spiritual food,’ for the true ‘spiritual drink.’

Emphasising the spiritual without understanding the world we live in leads to us being irrelevant. On the other hand, actively doing good, without any deep and truly spiritual foundations, leads to burn-out and disillusion.

Some years ago, in an address at the Pontifical University in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Bishop John Kirby spoke of the way many people ask why we are relatively prosperous while so many people live in poverty. But, he said, we need to realise instead that we are relatively prosperous in rich countries in the northern hemisphere precisely because so many people live in poverty and hunger and thirst in the two-thirds world.

Of course, we are called to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5: 6). But wishing is not enough. Christ reminds us in today’s Gospel reading that we are called to bear fruit too … and he is patient in waiting for faith to produce fruit.

In the middle of the recent economic crisis in Greece, the Greek Prime Minister accused other European leaders of failing to put compassion into action, and warned of the danger of Greece becoming ‘a warehouse of souls.’

These thoughts are interesting preludes to today’s Gospel reading (Luke 13: 1-9), where we hear of the chilling and horrific deaths of two groups of people that made headline news at the time.

We all know that people often ask why God allows bad things to happen to good people. In this reading there are two examples. In the first case, it was Galileans at prayer in the Temple who were slaughtered in their innocence, and who then, sacrilegiously, had their blood mixed with the Temple sacrifices. In the second case, innocent building workers, working on the Tower of Siloam near the Temple, died when the work collapsed on top of them.

In those days, it was a common belief that pain and premature death were signs of God’s adverse judgment. We think like that today: how often do people think those who are sick, suffer infirmities, have injuries, die because they cannot afford health care? They do not die because they cannot afford healthcare – they die because governments prefer to spend money on weapons and wars or in giving tax breaks to the rich, rather than spending money on health care for those who need it.

The first group in this Gospel reading, a group of Galileans, from Christ’s own home province, believed they were doing God’s will as they worshipped in the Temple. But they were killed intentionally as they sacrificed to God in the Temple. Even in death, they were degraded further when, on Pilate’s orders, their blood was mixed with the blood of the Temple sacrifices.

Think of the horror we feel when people are murdered at worship in attacks on churches, synagogues or mosques, or Oscar Romero saying Mass 45 years ago in San Salvador (24 March 1980).

The second group in the Gospel reading, numbering 18 in all, were building workers who were killed accidentally as they were building the Tower of Siloam.

Think of our horror today at people who die randomly or accidentally, not because of their own mistakes or sinfulness: people who die sleeping in their own homes at night during Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities; children who die in attacks on hospitals or schools in Gaza; people who die daily of hunger and poverty; children born to die because they are HIV +, because their parents live in poverty, or other circumstances not of their choosing such as Trump’s capricious cancellation of US financial support; the children who die in treacherous sea crossings in the English Channel or in the Mediterranean …

How easy it is to talk about ‘innocent victims’ – of wars, of AIDS, of gangland killings – as though some people are ‘guilty victims’ who deserve to die like that anyway.

But in both cases in our Gospel reading – in all these cases – Christ says no, there is no link between an early and an unjust death and the sins of the past or the sins of past generations.

In both stories, we could explain away what we might otherwise see as the inexplicable way God allows other people to suffer and die by saying they brought it on themselves by their sins, or the sins of their ancestors … or, in today’s language, by saying they cannot afford to pay for health care, or they bring it upon themselves by their lifestyle, or they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or they ought to stay in their own countries.

My compassion is the victim of my hidden values, and so others become the victims.

Many may have expected Christ to say that their deaths were in punishment for their rebellious behaviour, in the case of the Galilean rebels, or collaborative behaviour, in the case of the workers who were building a water supply system for the Roman occupiers.

Is Christ indifferent to political and environmental disasters?

Instead of meeting those expectations, Christ teaches that death comes to everyone, regardless of how sinful I am, regardless of my birth, politics or social background, or – even more certainly – my smug sense of religious pride and righteousness. And he goes on to teach how we each need to repent – even when, in the eyes of others, we do not appear to need repentance.

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near …

It is so tempting to excuse or dismiss the sufferings of others. To say they brought it on themselves offers us an opt-out: we can claim to have compassion, but need not respond to it, nor need to do anything to challenge the injustices that are the underlying causes of this suffering.

Yet, in the parable of the fig tree, we are called on to wait, we are urged not to be too hasty in our judgment on those who seem in our eyes to do nothing to improve their lot.

It makes logical, economic and financial sense for the owner to want to chop down the fig tree – after all, not only is it taking up space, but it also costs in terms of time, tending, feeding, caring and nurturing. The owner knows what it is to make a quick profit, and if the quick profit is not coming soon enough he wants to cut his losses.

It takes much tender care and many years – at least three years – for a fig tree to bear fruit. And even then, in a vineyard, the figs are not a profit – they are a bonus.

Even if a fig tree bears early fruit, the Mosaic Law said it could not be harvested for three years, and the fruit gathered in the fourth year was going to offered as the first fruits. Only in the fifth year, then, could the fruit be eaten.

So, if this tree was chopped down, and another put its place, it would take longer still to get fruit that could be eaten or sold. In his quest for a quick profit, the owner of the vineyard shows little knowledge about the reality of economics.

The gardener, who has nothing at stake, turns out to be the one who not only has compassion, but has deep-seated wisdom too. The gardener, who is never going to benefit from the owner’s profits, can see the tree’s potential, is willing to let be and wait, knowing what the fig tree is today and what it can do in the future.

But we can decide where we place our trust – in the values that I think serve me but serve the rich, the powerful and the oppressor, or in the God who sees our plight, who hears our cry, and who comes in Christ to deliver us.

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near …

Figs on sale in a supermarket near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 23 March 2025, Lent III):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Towards Reconciliation and Renewal’. This theme wi introduced today with a programme update by the Revd Canon Dr Carlton J Turner, Anglican Tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies and Deputy Director of Research at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham:

7 September 2024 will forever be a significant date in the life of USPG and the Caribbean region. The launch of the joint project seeking to bring reparative justice for the legacies of plantation slavery on the Codrington Estates, Barbados, is the first of its kind for the region. As one of the Church of England’s earliest mission agencies, USPG (then SPG) owned two slave plantations in Barbados as per the bequest of Barbadian planter, Sir Christopher Codrington III in 1710. Between 1710 and 1838, USPG benefitted from the labour of enslaved persons on the Codrington Estate. This is deeply disturbing history that has legacies into the present day, not only for the life of the descendants of the slaves in the community of St John, but for the Church of England generally as it grapples with its deep ties and involvement in human trafficking and enslavement.

In thinking about how the subject of reparations is handled, I’m grateful for the three things that have been placed at the centre of the project. Firstly, there is honesty, acknowledgement, and repentance. Secondly, the project seeks to model partnership and collaboration, but with a key emphasis letting those on the ground take the lead. Finally, there is an insistence on openness and transparency. Being held accountable is a primary aim in the partnership. With these three thoughts in mind, USPG is carrying out the gospel mandate about reconciliation and renewal.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 23 March 2025, Lent III) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3: 28).

Figs on a fig tree in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
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:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Figs for breakfast in the Garden Taverna in Platanias near Rethymnon (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