Saint Titus: a link with Crete, the lectionary readings at Christmas, and how my name was changed at my baptism

‘For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all’ (Titus 2: 11) … an icon of Saint Titus inside the entrance to Saint Titus Cathedral in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

The day I was born was the Saturday of a key rugby international between Ireland and France. Ireland beat France 11-8 in a Five Nations Championship match in the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir (Stade Colombes) in Colombes, France. It was Ireland’s third consecutive win against France at the time, although the 1952 championship was ultimately won by Wales, who achieved their fifth Grand Slam.

My mother wanted to name me Paul, because the previous day was the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. The uncle and aunt who brought me to be baptised decided against her wishes to name me Patrick, but my mother persisted in calling me Paul privately for the rest of her life.

But the Church Calendar on 26 January actually remembers Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, companions of Saint Paul. Timothy, we are told, had a Jewish mother and a Greek father, whilst Titus was wholly Greek. It was because of Titus that Paul stood out against compulsory circumcision but, to avoid suspicion from other Jews, Timothy was circumcised.

Of course, my mother never called me Timothy or Titus. But I was reminded of Saint Titus this week, and remembered how grateful I was that I had not been named Titus by my mother, when the lectionary provided for two readings from the Letter to Titus on Christmas Day: Titus 2: 11-14 and Titus 3: 4-7. We used one of those Christmas readings (Titus 2: 11-14) at Midnight Mass in All Saints’ Church, Calverton, on Wednesday night:

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 14 He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. (NRSVA)

The Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion holds the relics of Saint Titus, the companion and disciple of the Apostle Paul in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Titus Cathedral is one of the many cathedrals and churches I visited in Iraklion, the main city in Crete, at Easter earlier this year, including Saint Minas Cathedral; the older, much smaller Church of Saint Minas that sits in its shadow; Saint Catharine of Sinai, which stands in the same square and is now the impressive Museum of Christian Art; the Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites, which also has connections with Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai; Saint Peter’s Church, a former Dominican foundation now reopened as Saint Peter and Saint Paul; and the former Saint Mark’s Church.

Saint Mark’s and Saint Titus sit beside each other, and both had cathedral status at various times. Saint Mark’s, which no longer functions as a cathedral, dates back, as its name indicates, to Venetian times.

Saint Titus, on the other hand, dates back to Byzantine times, and is probably the church in Iraklion that is most visited by tourists because of its location, the fact that it is open daily as a church, and because it enshrines the head of Saint Titus, the most celebrated relic in Crete.

The head of Saint Titus is the most important relic in the Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Titus is the patron saint and the first bishop of Crete. His feast is celebrated on 25 August throughout the Orthodox Church. He was only added to the Calendar of the Western Church as late as 1854, when he was assigned to 6 February.

The Roman Catholic Church moved his feast to 26 January in 1969 so he could be linked with Saint Timothy and celebrated on the day after the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Saint Timothy and Saint Titus are named on 26 January in the calendars of many Anglican churches, including Common Worship in the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church, but not in the calendar of the Church of Ireland.

However, 25 August remains the feast of Saint Titus in the Orthodox Church, and his head is the most important relic in the Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion in Crete.

The side chapel with the shrine and head of Saint Titus in the Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Titus (Αγιος Τίτος) was a companion and disciple of the Apostle Paul and an early missionary. He is referred to in several of the Pauline epistles, including the Epistle to Titus, and he brought a letter from Saint Paul to Corinth to collect for the poor in Jerusalem. He is believed to have been be a Greek from Antioch. Tradition says he was the first Bishop of Crete and appointed priests in every city in Crete.

The first church dedicated to Saint Titus in Crete was in the old capital Gortyn, until its destruction by earthquake and the Arab transfer of the capital of Crete from Gortyn to Chandax (Iraklion) in the year 828.

Nicephorus Phocas drove the Arabs from Crete in 961, bringing the island back under Byzantine rule. The first Church of Saint Titus in Iraklion may have been built then, and the skull of Saint Titus, the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mesopanditissa and other sacred relics from Gortyn were moved to the new church, which was a single-aisled building.

Inside the Church of Saint Titus, which may date back the year 961 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Venetians took control of Crete in 1210 and a Roman Catholic archbishop was installed in the church. It underwent some modifications, including the opening of a circular skylight and the construction of a bell tower.

This first building was destroyed before the middle of the 15th century. The church was then rebuilt in the style of a three-aisled basilica and was dedicated by the Archbishop of Crete, Fantino Dandolo, on 3 January 1446.

It was slightly damaged by the earthquake of 1508, and was destroyed by a fire on 3 April 1544, although the relics held in the church were saved. The church was rebuilt in the same style in 1557.

The bishop's throne in Saint Titus Church, which was rebuilt in 1872 and remained a mosque until the 1920s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

When Iraklion was captured by the Turks in 1669, the Venetians removed all the relics from the church and took them to Venice.

Under Turkish rule, the Church of Saint Titus was taken over by Vizier Fazil Ahmet Kiopruli, who converted it into a mosque known as the Vizeir Mosque.

A major earthquake devastated the city in 1856 and totally destroyed the mosque or former church. It was rebuilt as an Ottoman mosque in 1872 by the architect Athanasios Moussis, who also designed the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Minas. The rebuilt mosque was known subsequently as the Yeni Cami or New Mosque.

After the integration of Crete into the modern state of Greece, it ceased being a mosque and the minaret was demolished in the 1920s, when the last Muslims left Iraklion with the ‘exchange of populations’ between Greece and Turkey under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Restoration work on the church began in 1925, and it was consecrated as the Church of Saint Titus in 1926. The relics of Saint Titus remain in Venice to this day, but his skull was returned to Iraklion in 1966 and is now kept in a silver reliquary in a side chapel in the church.

The church was stored and refurbished in a project that lasted from 1974 to 1988. Archbishop Irenaeus made the church of Saint Titus the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Crete in 2013.

Panels on the church walls depict incidents in the lives of Saint Paul and Saint Titus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Christmas Cards from Patrick Comerford: 3, 27 December 2025

The first Christmas … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I sent out very few Christmas cards this year. Instead, at noon each day throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, I am offering an image or two as my virtual Christmas cards, without comment.

My image for my Christmas Card at noon today (27 December 2025), is of the south window in the Lady Chapel in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, depicting the Nativity and the Adoration of the Shepherds. It is by John Hardman & Co of Birmingham, and was designed by Hardman’s nephew John Hardman Powell, a son-in-law of the architect AWN Pugin.

Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 3, Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist

Saint John depicted in a statue on the Great Gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’.

This is the third day of Christmas and today the church calendar celebrates Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist. 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, 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.

Saint John (right) and the Virgin Mary (left) at the Crucifixion … the rood beam in Holy Rood Church, Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 21: 19b-25 (NRSVA):

19 After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ 22 Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ 23 So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

The Christian interpretation of the song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ often sees the three French hens as figurative representations of the three theological virtues – faith, hope and love: ‘And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.’ (I Corinthians 13: 13).

Other interpretations say the three French hens represent the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or the three gifts of the Wise Men, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

There is a custom in some places of blessing wine on this day and drinking a toast to the love of God and to Saint John. The theological virtue of love is intimately associated with the story of Saint John, the disciple Jesus loved.

It seems appropriate in the days immediately after Christmas that we should be jolted out of our comforts, in case we begin to atrophy, and to be reminded of what the great German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the ‘Cost of Discipleship.’

Following Christ is not all about Christmas shopping, feasts, decorations and falling asleep in front of the television – comforting, enjoyable and pleasant as they are, particularly in family settings.

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Stephen [26 December], often referred to as the first Christian martyr; and 28 December usually recalls the Holy Innocents, the first – albeit unwitting – martyrs according to Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In The Ariel Poems TS Eliot puts wise words into the mouth of the Wise Man who recalls the cold coming of it experienced in the ‘Journey of the Magi’. There he makes the connection between birth and death:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Between those two commemorations of martyrdom, we find ourselves today [27 December] marking the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist.

At first, this too may not seem an appropriate feast day to celebrate in the days immediately after Christmas Day. Even chronologically it creates difficulties, for tradition says Saint John was the last of the disciples to die, making his death the one that is separated most in terms of length of time from the birth of Christ.

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to be amused. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: ‘In the beginning …’

But the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of us immediately associate his writings with this time of the year.

Saint John the Evangelist is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. Yet tradition identifies him with the John who is:

• one of the three at the Transfiguration,
• one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
• one of the three present in the Garden of Gethsemane,
• the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
• the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
• the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
• the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the ‘other disciple’ are the first to go to the grave, and the ‘other disciple’ is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved’ is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

Saint Paul names John as one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). Later, tradition says, he takes over the position of leadership Paul once had in the Church in Ephesus and is said to have lived there and to have been buried there.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was arrested and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil but miraculously was preserved from death.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison has become one of his symbols.

Domitian then banished Saint John to the island of Patmos. It was there in the year 96 he had those heavenly visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. After the death of Domitian, it is said, he returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine letters.

The tradition of the Church says Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus. Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

He was so enfeebled with old age that the people carried him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. When he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on each occasion and to say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’ This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his deathbed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.’

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’ If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. ‘Little children, love one another.’

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town. The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters. That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 1: 1-9) which we read this morning.

This emphasis constantly informs all aspects of my ministry.

I was once doing Sunday duty during a vacancy in a parish that has three churches. A student asked me at the time how many sermons I preached. I replied: ‘Three.’

‘You preach three sermons every Sunday?’ she asked with an air of incredulity.

I explained: ‘I preach three sermons all the time. The first is ‘Love God,’ the second is ‘Love one another,’ and the third, in case someone missed the first and second sermons, is ‘Love God and love one another’.’

That is the heart of the Christmas story, that is the heart of the Gospel, that is the heart of the Johannine writings, and that, to put it simply, is why we celebrate Saint John in the days immediately after Christmas. ‘Little children, love one another.’

The site of Saint John’s tomb in Ephesus is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist):

The theme this week (21 to 27 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Love Brings Life in Tanzania’ (pp 12-13). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Imran Englefield, Individual Giving Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 27 December 2025, Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the health projects of the Anglican Church of Tanzania. Grant wisdom, strengthen partnerships, and help the work bring healing and hope to many.

The Collect:

Merciful Lord,
cast your bright beams of light upon the Church:
that, being enlightened by the teaching
of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John,
we may so walk in the light of your truth
that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ your incarnate 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:

Grant, O Lord, we pray,
that the Word made flesh
proclaimed by your apostle John
may, by the celebration of these holy mysteries,
ever abide and live within us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Christmas I:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

A relief sculpture of Saint John … one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (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