33 million visitors to Paris, 33 million trapped in Sudan, 33 million books in a library, and 33 million blog readers

Les Deux Magots, the celebrated literary café and restaurant at Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris … Paris has 33 million visitors a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The viewing and reading figures for this blog continue to surprise me. These figures have passed the million mark three times this month, reaching the 33 million mark this evening (25 April 2026), having reached 32 million at the beginning of this week (19 April 2026) and 31 million earlier this month (8 April 2026).

This blog had already passed the million figure in readership numbers five times last month, reaching the 30 million mark by 29 March, 29 million four days earlier (25 March), 28 million on 20 March, 27 million on 12 March, and 26 million at the beginning of that month (1 March). The number of hits on two days last month were the highest daily figures I have ever recorded: 323,156 on 27 March 2026 and 318,307 on 1 March.

This year so far has seen a phenomenal amount of traffic on this blog, and continues to reach a volume of readers that I could never have expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. Half the total hits (16.5 million) have been within little more than seven months, since 19 September 2025. The total hits last month were the highest monthly total ever (4,523,648), following the previous month’s record total of 3,386,504 in February 2026.

At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 12 million hits or visitors in 2026, with about 2.5 million hits so far in April.

I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures continue to be overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog, two were this month (18 and 22 April 2026), five were last month, three were in February, one was in January, and two were in January 2025:

• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 318,307 (1 March 2026)
• 314,018 (28 February 2026)
• 301,449 (2 March 2026)
• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)

• 280,802 (26 February 2026)
• 273,022 (27 February 2026)
• 270,983 (25 March 2026)
• 267,134 (22 April 2026)
• 261,422 (13 January 2026)
• 256,384 (18 April 2026)

The number of readers continues to be overpowering and the daily averages are running at more than 100,000 or more hits a day so far this month. Ten years ago, the daily average was around 1,000.

More than 33 million people are trapped in Sudan in the largest humanitarian crisis in the world (Photograph: Medecins Sans Frontieres)

To put today’s figure of 33 million in context:

About 33 million people visit Paris each year.

More than 33 million people are trapped in Sudan in what Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) describes as the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 33 million people now require assistance, while nearly half the population faces acute food insecurity.

The metropolitan area of Tokyo in Japan has a population of about 33 million, making it the world’s third most populous megapolis, after Jakarta in Indonesia with 42 million people and Dhaka in Bangladesh with 37 million.

More than 33 million people were affected by floods in Pakistan in September 2022, and more than 1,700 people died, including more than 400 children.

33 million people in the US live with food allergies – 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 15 children.

The biggest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington DC with 33 million volumes of books … the world could be a little safer, I imagine, if the present incumbent of the White House had read even a tiny number of books

33 million square metres is 33,000 sq km and 33 million metres is 33,000 km.

Hainan Island in China is 33,000 sq km and is the 42nd largest island in the world. It was one of the last Nationalist strongholds to be taken over by the Communists in 1950. This is also size of the Odess oblast in Ukraine and the extent of Lake Tanganyika Lake i between Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Zambia and second deepest lake in the world.

Giorgio Fouarge became the first man to travel around the world on a wooden bike. On his epic journey, Giorgio cycled over 33,000 km, across four continents and through 31 countries in 378 days. He has documented his journey in his book 33,000 km on a piece of wood.

Astronomers last year uncovered record-breaking supersonic winds on exoplanet WASP-127b, with speeds reaching up to 33,000 km per hour. This marks the first time such high-speed winds have been measured on a planet outside our solar system, setting a new record for the fastest jet stream winds observed on any planet.

WASP-127b is approximately 520 light years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The jet streams on WASP-127b move almost six times faster than the planet rotates, reaching speeds of 9 km per second, approximately 33,000 km per hour.

33 million minutes is about 62 years, 9 months and 12 days. In other words, if this blog was getting only one hit a minute, it would take almost 63 years, from July 1963, to reach today’s latest figure of 33 million.

It is now more than four years since I retired from active parish ministry on 30 March 2022. These days, though, about 120-140 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning. A similar number are reading my current series of postings on churches in the Rugeley and Stafford areas, and were reading my recent series of postings on the churches and chapels of Walsingham. I imagine many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 800-1,000 or more people each week.

This evening, I am very grateful to the real readers among those 33 million hits on this blog to date, and in particular I remain thankful to the faithful core group of about 100-120 people who join me in prayer, reading and reflections each day.

The biggest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington DC with 33 million volumes of books … how many have been read by Donald Trump? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 21, Saturday 25 April 2026, Saint Mark the Evangelist

The winged lion of Saint Mark at the Hotel Leo in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost, and tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter IV, 26 April 2026). The Church Calendar today remembers Saint Mark the 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, 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.

Saint Mark’s Basilica faces onto Saint Mark’s Square in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 13: 5-13 (NRSVA):

5 Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

9 ‘As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. 10 And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 13 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’

Saint Mark depicted in a fresco beneath the dome in the Church of the Ascension and Saint George in Panromos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We are still in the Easter season, and Saint Mark’s Gospel offers one of the most challenging readings on the Resurrection. The ‘long ending’ recalls three appearances of the Risen Christ (Mark 16: 9-15). But that ‘long ending’ in Saint Mark’s Gospel is often placed in parentheses in many modern translations of the Bible. The two oldest manuscripts of Mark 16 conclude with verse 8, which ends with the women fleeing from the empty tomb and saying nothing to anyone, ‘for they were afraid’.

Saint Mark the Evangelist (Greek, Μάρκος) is traditionally said to have been a companion of the Apostle Peter. He accompanied the Apostle Paul and Saint Barnabas on Saint Paul’s first journey. After a sharp dispute, Barnabas separated from Paul, taking Mark to Cyprus (Acts 15: 35-41). It was, perhaps, this separation that led eventually to the writing of Saint Mark’s Gospel.

Later, Saint Paul calls upon the services of Mark, the kinsman of Barnabas, and Mark is named as Saint Paul’s fellow worker. Among the four evangelists, Saint Mark’s symbol is the winged lion.

Saint Mark is revered as the founder of the See of Alexandria, the seat of both the Coptic Pope and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. His successors have included many of the great fathers of the church, including Saint Athanasius. I suppose, in some ways, we could call him the founder of Christianity in Africa. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has survived through generations of schism and persecution, while the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria is said to be the fastest growing missionary Church in Africa.

In the year 828, what was believed to be the body of Saint Mark was stolen from the Patriarchal Church in Alexandria by two Venetian merchants and was taken in a pork barrel to Venice, where Saint Mark’s Basilica was to house the relics and Saint Mark was proclaimed the patron saint of the Serene Republic.

Although Coptic Christians say they managed to hold on to the head of Saint Mark, which is kept in Saint Mark’s Patriarchal Cathedral in Alexandria, a mosaic on the façade of the basilica shows the sailors covering the body with layers of pork, knowing Muslims would not touch pork and so their theft would go undetected.

When Saint Mark’s Basilica was being rebuilt in Venice in 1063, they could not find the stolen body. However, according to tradition, over a generation later, in 1094, the saint himself revealed the location of his body by sticking his arm out through a pillar. The new-found body was then placed in a new sarcophagus in the basilica. Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria sent an official delegation to Rome to receive a relic of Saint Mark from Pope Paul VI in 1968.

But the missing bodies of saints and where they are kept are far less important than the lessons we can learn from the lives of saints such as Mark.

Although Mark was not an apostle, one of the 12, he is an important figure in terms of passing on the apostolic faith.

There are more Christians today in Egypt than there are in Ireland. Egypt’s 7 million Christians are a witness to how Christian faith can survive and flourish through all the difficulties of history. The survival of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the missionary successes of the Church of Alexandria should inspire and give hope to the whole Church.

Saint Mark bridges the gap between Eastern and Western Christianity too. Venetians wanted his body as much as Romans wanted to claim the Apostle Peter. But Mark is an important figure in terms of understanding that the Christian faith must not to be limited to its European cultural expressions. African expressions of Christianity are not exotic or different, they are authentic and apostolic.

On my many visits to Crete over almost 40 years, I have often visited the former Saint Mark’s Basilica, facing the Morosini Fountain in Iraklion, built in 1239 during the Venetian era in Crete. In the past I have also visited both Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice and Saint Mark’s Patriarchal Cathedral in Alexandria.

I have gazed in wonder at both those mosaics in Venice and at the empty place kept vacant and waiting in Alexandria for the return of their saint. But as I looked at them I have also recalled that empty tomb that is described at the end of Saint Mark’s Gospel. The living body is more important than the dead body.

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!

The portico of the former Saint Mark’s Basilica in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 25 April 2026, Saint Mark the Evangelist):

‘Turning Waste into Wonder’ has provided the theme this week (19-25 April 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), pp 48-49. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update from Linet Musasa, team member of the Partners in the Gospel Comprehensive Climate Change initiative of the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 25 April 2026, Saint Mark the Evangelist) invites us to pray:

We pray for hope and motivation within our Churches and communities to take meaningful action against climate change. May we be inspired to advocate for policies that promote resilience and sustainability.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who enlightened your holy Church
through the inspired witness of your evangelist Saint Mark:
grant that we, being firmly grounded
in the truth of the gospel,
may be faithful to its teaching both in word 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.

Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Easter IV:

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Mark depicted in a fresco beneath the dome in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano 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