With Giotto and Dante in Padua, a city with an old university and the legacy of a ghetto

The Piazza dei Frutti in the heart of Padua … the city is a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal squares (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

One recent morning, I took an early morning train from Venice to Padua, which is said to be one of the oldest cities in northern Italy. Padua is listed by Unesco, and has one of the oldest universities in Europe.

Padua is less than an hour from Venice. It is a picturesque city, with a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal piazze or squares, and many bridges crossing the branches of the River Bacciglione, which once surrounded the city’s ancient walls like a moat.

But I was visiting Padua primarily to see Giotto’s decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel, which is undoubtedly his masterpiece. It is also one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance and one of the most important, self-contained works of art in Western Europe.

Inside the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua … Giotto’s frescoes form one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Giotto’s frescoes in
the Scrovegni Chapel

Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel or the Scrovegni Chapel form one complete cycle. The Italian painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (ca 1267-1337), known generally as Giotto, has been described as ‘the most sovereign master of painting in his time.’

Giotto was born in Florence in the Late Middle Ages, and worked in the Gothic and early Renaissance period. His work marks a decisive break with the Byzantine style, and he initiated the Western art of painting as we know it today.

Giotto completed his decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel between 1303 and 1305 with a fresco cycle depicting the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. This work is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance.

These frescoes are works of great narrative force and the have had a powerful influence on the development of European art. They mark the beginning of a revolution in mural painting and influenced fresco technique, style, and content for a whole century.

Giotto later designed the campanile or bell tower of Florence Cathedral in 1334. But there are few certainties about his life, although it is generally agreed he painted the frescoes in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

The Deposition of Christ from the Cross in Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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The Scrovegni Chapel or Cappella degli Scrovegni is close to the Augustinian monastery or Monastero degli Eremitani in Padua, and both are now part of the complex of the Museo Civico of Padua
.
It is said the affluent banker Enrico Scrovegni of Padua commissioned the Scrovegni Chapel in 1303, hoping this would spare his dead father, Reginaldo, a usurer, from the eternal damnation that had been wished on him by Dante in his Inferno.

There are strict limits on the number of visitors allowed inside the chapel at any one time, and I had to spend 15 minutes before my visit in a ‘decontamination chamber.’ Once inside the chapel, my visit was also limited to 15 minutes.

Giotto and his team covered all the internal surfaces of the chapel with frescoes, including the walls and the ceiling. The nave is 20.88 metres long, 8.41 metres wide, and 12.65 metres high. The apse area is composed of a square area (4.49 meters deep and 4.31 meters wide) and a pentagonal area (2.57 meters deep).

The largest element is the extensive cycles showing the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin Mary. The ‘Doom Wall’ at the east end or rear of the church has a large depiction of the Last Judgment. There are also monochrome panels in grisaille showing the Vices and Virtues.

The church was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità on 25 March 1303 and consecrated on 25 March 1305.

A mural of Dante and Beatrice in the University of Padua … Dante and Giotto were born within two years of each other in Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Dante in Padua and
in love with Beatrice

Giotto and Dante are the two great creative forces in the early 14th century Italy. Both were born within two years of each other in Florence; Giotto’s chapel in Padua and Dante’s Divine Comedy remain major influences in shaping European culture.

Did Dante inspire Giotto? Giotto included a portrait of Dante in the Paradise section of the chapel frescoes.

Did Scrovegni insist that Giotto excluded any references to usury in the frescoes? Dante condemns Scrovegni’s father Reginaldo as a usurer in Canto 17 of the Inferno, but this was a few years after Giotto completed the chapel.

The poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) lived for a time in Padua in a medieval house, and parts of the house, including the balcony, survive on Via San Francesco. Dante’s Divine Comedy is regarded as one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.

The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from Bologna. It is the second-oldest university in Italy and the world’s fifth-oldest surviving university. Faculty members in the past have included Galileo Galilei (1592-1610). A mural in the university is a reminder of the story of Dante and Beatrice, one of the great mediaeval romances.

The University of Padua was founded in 1222 and is the world’s fifth-oldest surviving university (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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Dante said he first met Beatrice Portinari when she was nine, and claimed he had fallen in love with her at first sight, apparently without even talking with her. When he was 12, however, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, member of the powerful Donati family.

Contracting marriages for children at such an early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. Dante claimed to have seen Beatrice again frequently after he turned 18, exchanging greetings with her in the streets of Florence, though he never knew her well.

Years after his marriage to Gemma, he claims to have met Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his marriage is not known: the only certain information is that, before his exile in 1301, he had fathered three children with Gemma.

Beatrice died in 1290 and Dante’s unrequited love for her would set an example of ‘courtly love.’ It was in the name of this love that Dante left his imprint on the dolce stil novo (‘sweet new style’) and he would join other contemporary poets and writers in exploring never-before-emphasised aspects of love (amore).

Dante’s love for Beatrice became his reason for poetry and for living. In many of his poems, she is depicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritual instruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante turned to writing and literature.

The Divine Comedy describes Dante’s journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). He is first guided by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice.

The Venetians confined the Jews of Padua to the ghetto from 1603 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Visiting the Ghetto and
synagogues of Padua

Before leaving Padua, I visited the former Ghetto and the Italian Synagogue, now the only remaining, functioning synagogue in a city where several synagogues had flourished from the Renaissance until World War II.

There was a stable Jewish presence in Padua from the late 13th century, and the Jews of Padua lived in relatively peaceful conditions, working mainly as merchants and bankers. Padua became one of the great centres of mediaeval Judaism learning in the 14th century, with a celebrated rabbinical academy, and Jewish students were admitted to the medical school in Padua.

However, when the Venice captured the city in 1405, conditions gradually worsened for the Jews of Padua. They were forced to sell their homes and lands, and business and trading conditions became increasingly restrictive. Jews could still graduate from the university, but had to pay additional fees.

The Jewish quarter was sacked in 1509 and from 1603 the Jews of Padua were confined to a ghetto in the area of Via San Martino e Solferino, Via delle Piazze and Via dell’Arco. Guarded gates isolated the ghetto at night, rents were high, and living conditions were cramped and unsanitary.

In these cramped conditions, the only way families could find additional accommodation was to build up. Buildings became taller, ceilings became lower on each floor, and many families built tall residential towers.

The entrance to the Italian Synagogue, dating from 1548 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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When Napoleon’s forces captured Padua in 1797, segregation was abolished, Jews were able once again to live outside the ghetto, and the Jews of Padua achieved full equality with Italian unification in 1866.

The Scola Todesca or Great German or Ashkenazic synagogue opened in 1525, and became the main synagogue of the city. It was damaged by fire in 1927 and then in 1943 it was torched by local Fascists. It remained in ruins until the end of the 1990s, when it was restored, and it now houses the Jewish Heritage Museum of Padua.

The Italian Synagogue in the historic ghetto was built in 1548. It was closed in 1892 when the community built a modern synagogue. But the modern synagogue was burned by the Fascists in 1943, and the community returned to the Italian synagogue after World War II.

The synagogue is in the same building as the offices of the Jewish Community of Padua, and they provide a lasting testimony to the enduring and continuing Jewish presence in Padua.

This feature was first published in the February 2022 edition of the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough)

The masks of Venice, in a time of quarantine and pandemic, exploring the old and new

Sitting by the Grand Canal on a balcony in the Hotel San Cassiano in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The city of Venice has been celebrating the 1600th anniversary of its founding. The celebrations began on 25 March 2021, and continue until at least 25 March 2022, highlighting the history, the culture and the qualities that have made Venice the unique place it is.

Tradition claims the first stone of the Church of San Giacomo di Rialto (also known as San Giacométo), was laid on 25 March 421, making it the oldest church in Venice. Historians, of course, do not agree on an exact date. But, from an early date, people were moving in and out of the Lagoon, and these first settlers were joined by people fleeing the Italian mainland and the attacks of the Barbarians.

I was back in Venice at the end of the year, celebrating some anniversaries and family milestones. Venice is celebrated for its elaborate and exotic masks during Carnival, in the weeks before Lent. But in those weeks immediately before Advent, everyone was wearing a facebmask, on the waterbuses, in the squares and narrow alley ways, in shops and even on gondolas.

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Northern Italy was one of the first parts in Europe to suffer the dire consequences of letting the pandemic go unchecked. Venice is also the city that gives us the word ‘quarantine’ at a time of plague. The word quarantena in the Venetian dialect means ‘forty days.’ Between 1348 and 1359, the Black Death wiped out about 30% of the population of Europe. To prevent the spread of plague-related diseases, ships and people arriving in Venice spent 40 days in isolation to prevent the spread of plague-related diseases.

This was probably my sixth or seventh time to return to Venice. In mid-November, the tourists seem to be few in number, and it almost seemed we had the canals and the lagoon to ourselves. This time, I was staying in the Hotel San Cassiano, housed in the Ca’ Favretto, home of the 19th-century painter Giacomo Favretto.

The hotel is in the Santa Croce district, just a few minutes’ walk from the Rialto Bridge and market. Each morning and each evening, we sat on the balcony enjoying our own intimate views of the Grand Canal.

We visited Saint Mark’s once again, dined near Rialto Bridge, and spent a lengthy afternoon in the Ghetto. But in a city as old as this, no matter how familiar anyone may be with its sites, it is always good to visit somewhere new, and so we used our tickets on vaporetti to do some island hopping in the Lagoon.

A winter stroll on the beach on the Lido of Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Lunch on the Lido
with Byron and Goethe

One morning, we caught a vaporetto from Zattere, near Saint Mark’s Square, to the Lido, a long and narrow island, a thin strip of land, 11 km long and hardly 1 km wide, sheltering the city from the Adriatic Sea. Its beauty is celebrated in the poetry of Byron and Goethe, yet it is often missed by tourists.

The Lido is home to about 20,400 people and the Venice Film Festival takes place there in August and September. It developed in the 19th century as a tourist resort, with many 19th century villas in the Liberty style – the Italian version of Art Nouveau – and many grand hotels.

Arriving on the Lido, the first landmark seen by most visitors is the large green copper dome of Tempio Votivo, a war memorial built in 1925-1935 and designed by the architect Giuseppe Torres. This is the last major religious building in the lagoon, built to give thanks that Venice escaped World War I without major damage, especially during the bombing on 27 February 1918.

The graves in the new Jewish cemetery on Lido include the family of Adolfo Ottolenghi, Chief Rabbi of Venice, who was murdered in Auschwitz (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

***

During our morning on the Lido, we walked along the beach and visited the churches and the cemeteries. The old Jewish cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe and is a jewel of medieval art. It dates from 1386, when the Republic of Venice granted the Jewish community a small plot of uncultivated land.

The graves include those of the poet Sarah Coppio Sullam and leading figures in the cultural life of the ghetto in the 16th and 17th centuries. Elaborate sarcophagi from the 18th century, are more ornate in their decoration, decorated with rampant lions or crowned eagles, the seven-branched menorah, the Lion of Judah, Jacob’s ladder, ram’s horns and palm trees.

The graves in the new Jewish cemetery, which opened nearby at the end of the 18th century, include the family of Adolfo Ottolenghi (1885-1944), Chief Rabbi of Venice (1919-1944), who was murdered in Auschwitz, and Michelangelo Jesurum (1843-1909), the founder of lace manufacturing in Venice and Burano.

After a walk on the beach, we strolled back along the main street of Lido, Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta, known to everyone as Gran Viale. The street crosses the whole island, from the vaporetto stop to the sea. It is a mere 1 km in width, and is lined with hotels, shops and restaurants, and we had lunch on a quiet, but sun-kissed winter afternoon.

Ballet poms on the grave of the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev on Cimitero, the cemetery island of San Michele (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Among the living and
the dead on Cimitero

If the two Jewish cemeteries on the Lido are known to few tourists or visitors to Venice, I am sure too that few stop off at Cimitero, the cemetery island of San Michele, despite its proximity to the glass-making island of Murano.

If San Michele is not crowded by living tourists, it is certainly crowded by dead Venetians. Cimitero has been Venice’s cemetery since the early 1800s, when the occupying Napoleonic forces told the Venetians to start taking their dead across the water instead of burying them in Venice itself. There was a growing shortage of burial places in Venice, but it was also in the name of hygiene, and because of fear of the return of modern plagues.

Cimitero, with a large number of cypress trees and enclosed within high terracotta walls, was originally the two islets of San Michele and San Cristoforo della Pace, and the Monastery of Saint Michael (San Michele di Murano) was a centre of learning and printing. The monks there included the famous cartographer, Fra Mauro, who drew maps for European explorers.

The large church on the island, the Chiesa di San Michele in Isola, built in 1469, was the first Renaissance church in Venice and the first to be faced in white Istrian stone. But the monastery was suppressed under Napoleon, the monks were expelled in 1814, the two small islands became Venice’s major cemetery.

At one time, coffins were carried to the island on special funeral gondolas. The cemetery is wide and calm, with a series of large gardens, studded with cypress trees and cluttered with hundreds of thousands of tombs and graves. Some are lavishly monumental, with domes and sculptures and wrought-iron gates; many more are stacked high in modern terraces, like filing cabinets.

The graves of the writer Ezra Pound (right) and the violinist Olga Rudge (left), side-by-side (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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There are two smaller, separate graveyards for other Christians. In contrast to the formal, tended graves and gardens of graves in other parts of the cemetery, the Greci and Protestant sections have an atmosphere of rustic decay. Some tombstones are covered in moss, a few are leaning over, and some are collapsing.

The graves in the Greci or Greek Orthodox cemetery include the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and the Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). Venice has always had a sizeable Greek population, and here too are the graves of bishops, merchants and refugees who fled Smyrna in the 1920s.

In the Evangelisti or Protestant graveyard, we found the graves of the American poet, critic and fascist collaborator, Ezra Pound (1885-1972), who influenced the work of TS Eliot, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. Buried beside Pound is his mistress, the violinist Olga Rudge (1895-1996).

Here too are the graves of the Russian and American poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), and the German painter August Wolf (1842-1915). Another gravestone is of Edward Douglas Guinness (1893-1983), a member of the banking branch of the family and a partner in Guinness Mahon.

Dusk turning to darkness on Giudecca, often described as ‘the real Venice’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Dusk on Giudecca,
‘the real Venice’

As dusk turned to darkness one evening, we strolled through the island of Giudecca, described by some travel writers as ‘the real Venice,’ and visited the landmark church of Il Redentore, designed by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580).

Il Redentore is one of the pinnacles of Palladio’s career, and inside there is a rich collection of paintings, including works by Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese and Francesco Bassano.

The church was built in thanksgiving for the deliverance of Venice from a major outbreak of the plague in 1575-1576, when 46,000 people, or 25% to 30% of the population) died.

Canaletto painted the church many times, and every year the doge and senators walked across a specially built pontoon bridge from the Zattere to Giudecca to attend Mass in the church. The Festa del Redentore remains a major festival in Venice.

Venice is 1,600 years old, but it never goes out of date, and there is always something old and something new to uncover or discover.

Reflections on a vaporetto on the Grand Canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This two-page feature as first published in the Church Review (Dublin and Glenadlough) in January 2022

Praying in Advent 2021: 4, Saint Anansus of Siena

Saint Anansus of Siena depicted in the in the ‘Maestà’ of Duccio

Patrick Comerford

This is the Season of Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning (1 December 2021) for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Ansanus (Sant’Ansano), who is recalled today (1 December), is the patron saint of Siena. He is called ‘The Baptiser’ or ‘The Apostle of Siena,’ and died in the year 304.

Legend says he was born into the noble Ancian family of Rome in the third century. When he was still a child, Ansanus was secretly baptised by his nurse Maxima (Saint Maxima of Rome) and was secretly brought up as a Christian.

Ansanus openly declared his Christian faith during the persecutions of Diocletian, when he was 19. Tradition says he preached the Gospel in Bagnoregio (Bagnorea) and that the Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri outside the Alban Gate was been built above the prison where he was held.

Tradition says his own father denounced Ansanus to the authorities. Ansanus and Maxima were scourged; Maxima died, but Ansanus survived. He was then thrown into a pot of boiling oil, survived once more, and was then taken to Siena as a prisoner. There he preached Christianity and make many converts to Christianity. He was decapitated on the orders of the Emperor Diocletian.

Saint Ansanus is venerated as one of the patron saints of Siena. He is depicted in the Maestà of Duccio, an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna and his most famous work, completed in 1308-1311.

The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, including Saint Ansanus, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets. The reverse has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of 43 small scenes.

The base of the panel has an inscription that reads, ‘Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus.’ Duccio’s Maestà set Italian painting on a course leading away from the styles of Byzantine art to more direct presentations of reality. However, several panels are now dispersed or lost.

Matthew 15: 29-37 (NRSVA)

29 After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, 31 so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ 33 The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ 34 Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ 35 Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (1 December 2021, World AIDS Day) invites us to pray:

We pray for the medical professionals and researchers combating diseases and guarding our health tirelessly.

Yesterday: Saint Andrew the Apostle

Tomorrow: Saint Mungo

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 Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio … Saint Anansus of Siena is in the bottom row, second from the left

Indiana Jones, the story of a stolen Russian icon and an icon in a church in Venice

The Icon of the Madonna of Kazan in the Church of San Martino on the island of Burano … but what happened to the original icon? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing in my prayer diary this morning of the Church of San Martino or Saint Martin on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon and its icon of Madonna of Kazan with the Christ Child. But is this the original, famous Russian icon, or is it a copy?

The icon of Our Lady of Kazan, also called the Mother-of-God of Kazan, was a holy icon of the highest standing in the Russian Orthodox Church. It depicted the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, and in this icon she was venerated as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan, and the Holy Protector of Russia. The feast days of Our Lady of Kazan are 21 July, and 4 November, also the Russian Day of National Unity.

The icon has many copies, and is venerated throughout all Orthodox Churches. But the story of the original icon is one of intrigue, war, theft, forgery and ecumenism, and even involves an English adventurer and fantasist who is said to have inspired the fictional character of Indian Jones.

Two major Russian cathedrals, the Kazan Cathedral, Moscow, and the Kazan Cathedral, St Petersburg, are consecrated to the Virgin of Kazan, and they display copies of the icon, as do many churches throughout Russia. The original icon in Kazan was stolen, and probably destroyed, in 1904.

According to legend, the original icon of the Virgin of Kazan was brought to Russia from Constantinople in the 13th century. After the establishment of the Khanate of Kazan in 1438, the icon disappeared from the historical record for more than a century, but was miraculously recovered in a pristine state over 140 years later in 1579.

The chronicle of Metropolitan Hermogenes, later Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, was written at the request of Tsar Feodor in 1595. He describes the recovery of the icon. According to this account, after a fire destroyed Kazan in 1579, the Virgin Mary appeared to a 10-year-old girl, Matrona, revealing the place where the icon was hidden.

The girl told the archbishop about the dream, but she was not taken seriously. However, on 8 July 1579, after two repetitions of the dream, the girl and her mother recovered the icon themselves, buried under a destroyed house where it had been hidden to save it from the Tatars.

Other churches were built in honour of the newly-found icon of the Virgin of Kazan, and copies of the icon were displayed at the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow, built in the early 17th century, at Yaroslavl and in St Petersburg.

A number of Russian military commanders, including Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Field Marshall Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, believed their invocation of the Virgin Mary through the icon had aided Russia in repelling a Polish invasion in 1612, a Swedish invasion in 1709, and Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. The Kazan icon became immensely popular, and there were nine or ten separate miracle-attributed copies of the icon around Russia.

On the night of 29 June 1904, the icon was stolen from the Kazan Convent of the Theotokos in Kazan where it had been kept for centuries. The thieves wanted the icon’s gold frame, with its many valuable jewels. Several years later, Russian police apprehended the thieves and recovered the frame.

The thieves originally declared that the icon itself had been cut to pieces and burnt, although one thief later confessed that it was sold to the Russian Old Believers and was kept in a monastery in the wilds of Siberia. However, the Russian police believed this was a fake, and they refused to investigate, claiming it would be unlucky to venerate a fake icon as though it were authentic.

The Orthodox Church interpreted the disappearance of the icon as a sign of tragedies that would later befall Russia. Popular beliefs linked the disappearance of the icon with the Revolution of 1905 and Russia’s defeat in the war with Japan in 1904-1905.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, there was speculation that the original icon was preserved in St Petersburg. One story says that during World War II an icon of Our Lady of Kazan was used in processions around the fortifications of Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944). Meanwhile, the Communist authorities ordered the demolition of the Kazan Convent of the Theotokos in Kazan.

There is speculation that that the Bolsheviks sold the icon abroad. But the Russian Orthodox Church did not accept these theories, and the history of the stolen icon between 1917 and 1953 is unknown.

The flamboyant English travel writer and adventurer Mike Hedges (1882-1953), also known as Frederick Mitchell-Hedges, bought an icon from Arthur Hillman in 1953 and claimed it was the original Kazan icon. However, Hedges was a fantasist, who also claimed to have discovered the ‘Crystal Skull’ in Belize, and his tall tales are said to have inspired the character of Indiana Jones.

Many experts dispute Hedges’s claim that his icon was the original Kazan icon. However, the art historian Cyril GE Bunt, who wrote extensively on Byzantine and Russian art, concluded ‘that it is the work of a great icon painter of the 16th century […] the pigments and the wood of the panel are perfectly preserved as exhaustive X-ray tests have proved, and have mellowed with age.’

Bunt suggested that although it was a copy of the original icon, this was the icon carried into battle by Dmitry Pozharski in 1612. However, a joint Russian-Vatican commission later determined it was a later 17th century copy.

This copy of the icon was exhibited at the World Trade Fair in New York in 1964-1965. The icon was eventually bought from Anna Mitchell-Hedges for $125,000 in 1970, and was kept in Fátima, Portugal, until it was given to the Vatican in 1993.

Pope John Paul II placed the icon in his study, where he venerated it for eleven years. He wished to visit Moscow or Kazan to return the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. But the Moscow Patriarchate was suspicious that the Pope might have other motives, and so instead, in an ecumenical gesture, Cardinal Walter Kasper presented the icon to the Russian Church unconditionally in August 2004.

On the next feast day of the holy icon, 21 July 2005, Patriarch Alexius II and Mintimer Shaymiev, the president of Tatarstan, received it in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin. This copy is sometimes nicknamed Vatikanskaya.

The icon is now enshrined in the Cathedral of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, part of the Convent of the Theotokos. This convent, which was re-established as a monastery in 2005, stands on the site where the original icon of Our Lady of Kazan was found, and there are plans to convert the monastery’s other buildings into an international pilgrimage centre.

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 182, San Martino and Santa Barbara, Burano

The Chiesa San Martino Vescovo or the Church of Saint Martin the Bishop in Burano is known for its leaning tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

This is the last day in Ordinary Time this year, and Advent begins tomorrow. Later today (27 November 2021), I am taking part in the rehearsal in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, for tomorrow evening’s Advent Procession or Service of Light.

Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I have been reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Earlier in this prayer diary, I illustrated my morning reflections with images from churches in Venice and on Murano and Burano. While I was in Venice this month, I reflected on the synagogues in the Ghetto in Venice (7-13 November)

As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this week, I am looking at seven more churches I visited in Venice earlier this month. This theme concludes this morning (27 November 2021) with photographs of the Chiesa San Martino Vescovo or the Church of Saint Martin the Bishop on the island of Burano in the Lagoon.

Inside the Chiesa San Martino Vescovo or the Church of Saint Martin the Bishop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Chiesa San Martino Vescovo or the Church of Saint Martino the Bishop is a 16th or 17th century church on Piazza Baldassarre Galuppi, the main square on the small island of Burano in the Venetian Lagoon. It can be seen from a distance in the Lagoon, marked out by its leaning tower.

This is a large church for such a small island. The first church on the site was built in the ninth century, and some time after the year 1000 the parish church was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. It has been restored and rebuilt several times, and it took its present appearance between 1500 and 1600.

The restored or rebuilt church was reconsecrated on 29 October 1645 by the Bishop of Torcello, Marco Antonio Martinengo.

Seen from outside, the church seems to have no main entrance. In fact, it is entered at the side through a Renaissance door beside the neighbouring Chapel of Santa Barbara. This entrance consists of a vast atrium, with an 18th century statue of the Madonna attributed to Girolamo Bonazza.

The interior, in Lombard-Baroque style, is in the shape of a Latin cross, with three naves ending in a chapel, divided by neoclassical pillars supporting full-arched arches and ending in Corinthian-style capitals. The floor has typical red and white square tiles.

The central nave, including the chancel and choir, is about 47 meters long and has a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The high altar is adorned with six elegant columns of red marble from France and another four from ancient oriental marble. The altar, built in 1673, has a large Baroque tabernacle with a small bronze statue of the Risen Christ above.

The unsafe central nave was renovated in 1867. The vault of the side naves and the central transept fell in 1874. In May 1913, a fire destroyed the ceiling of the main nave in May 1913, and the organ, built by Callido in 1767, was destroyed too. Callido’s organ was considered among the best organ masterpieces in Venice, and was replaced by an organ built by the Mascioni firm of Cuvio.

The unsafe central nave was renovated in 1867. The vault of the side naves and the central transept fell in 1874. In May 1913, a fire destroyed the ceiling of the main nave in May 1913, and the organ, built by Callido in 1767, was destroyed too. Callido’s organ was considered among the best organ masterpieces in Venice, and was replaced by an organ built by the Mascioni firm of Cuvio.

The works of art in the church include ‘The Crucifixion’ (1725) by Giambattista Tiepolo, showing the Madonna collapsed at the foot of the Cross, grey with grief. This ambitious early work by Tiepolo was strongly influenced by Tintoretto’s ‘Crucifixion’ in the Scuola di San Rocco.

There are statues of Sant’ Albano and San Martino, both by Girolamo Bonazza, and works by Francesco Fontabasso, Giovanni Mansueti and Girolamo da Santacroce.

The icon near the main altar is a 19th century copy of the Russian icon of the Madonna of Kazan, a masterpiece of enamelwork with astonishingly bright, lifelike eyes.

The church is best known for its leaning tower, built on a square shape with Renaissance and neoclassical architectural features. It is 53 meters high and it on a base 6.2 metres wide. But, due to land subsidence, the tower has inclined by 1.83 meters from its axis.

The tower has undergone several restorations over the centuries, especially in the upper part of the belfry. The most notable maintenance works were carried out by Tirali in 1703-1714.

The top of the tower was crowned by an angel until it fell in a storm in 1867 and was replaced with a cross of iron.

The Oratory of Saint Barbara (Oratorio di Santa Barbara) next door contains relics of the saint and an interesting mosaic of her holding the Empire State Building instead of her usual tower.

Saint Barbara is said to have been martyred in Heliopolis or Nicomedia in the year 290. The Emperor Justin II exhumed her body in Nicomedia in 565 and moved her relics to the Church of the Holy Saviour in Constantinople. Her relics were taken from Constantinople to Venice by the Doge of Pietro Orseolo II in 1003.

The Doge’s son, Giovanni Orseolo, was sent by his father to Byzantium to marry a noblewoman, Maria Argiropoli. The wedding was blessed by the Patriarch, and Maria brought Saint Barbara’s body to Venice, where it was placed in the ducal chapel.

The remains were then moved to the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista on Torcello in 1009, at the request of Orso Orseolo, Bishop of Torcello (1008-1012), and Abbess Felicita of San Giovanni Evangelista, a daughter of the Doge.

The relics remained in the Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista for eight centuries, until it was suppressed by Napoleon I in 1806. They were moved with the remains of San Sisinnio, a bishop, to the Church of San Martino in Burano on 10 March 1811.

They were moved again, on 4 December 1926, to the Oratory of Saint Barbara, Pius XII proclaimed Saint Barbara as the patron saint of Burano. When he was the Patriarch of Venice, Giuseppe Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, counted her among the seven patrons of Venice.

Inside the Chiesa San Martino, facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 21: 34-36 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

‘The Crucifixion’ (1725) by Tiepolo was strongly influenced by Tintoretto’s ‘Crucifixion’ in the Scuola di San Rocco (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (27 November 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the Anglican Communion Gender Justice Network, which promotes gender equality across the Church.

The Oratory of Saint Barbara, beside the Chiesa San Martino (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Yesterday’s reflection

Tomorrow: Saint Stephen the Younger

A modern icon of Saint Barbara in the Oratory of Saint Barbara (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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 Chiesa San Martino (centre) and the Oratory of Saint Barbara (right) in the Piazza Baldassarre Galuppi, the main square of Burano (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 181, Santa Maria Elisabetta, Lido

Santa Maria Elisabetta is the parish church of the Lido of Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last week of Ordinary Time, the week before Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I have been reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme on this prayer diary this week is seven more churches in Venice. Earlier in this prayer diary, I illustrated my morning reflections with images from churches in Venice and on Murano and Burano. While I was in Venice this month, I reflected on the synagogues in the Ghetto in Venice (7-13 November)

As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this week, I am looking at seven more churches I visited in Venice earlier this month. This theme continues this morning (26 November 2021) with photographs of the Chiesa di Santa Maria Elisabetta on the Lido of Venice.

The campanile of Santa Maria Elisabetta, the parish church of the Lido of Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Santa Maria Elisabetta is the parish church of the Lido of Venice, and gives its name to the station that is the boat and bus transportation hub of the Lido, an island that is a long, narrow strip of land running south between the Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea.

The church dates back to an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth, built in 1565. It was enlarged in 1620 and converted into a church in 1627. The church was consecrated in 1671.

Inside, the church is a simple structure with a single nave and no aisles. Pilasters with Corinthian capitals divide the spaces in front of the two side altars. The church has a barrel vault and the ceiling is decorated with wooden frames.

The High Altar, in a shallow vaulted apse, has an altarpiece depicting the Visitation, with the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth, and is decorated with polychrome marbles.

The church as extensively restored in the early 1970s.

The side altar on the left has a 16th-century Venetian/Cretan icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child and a small 15th century sculpture of the Pieta.

The side altar on the right, which as being restored during my visit, has an altarpiece attributed to a student of Salviati and depicting Saint Apollonia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Lucy, with Saint Oswald in Glory.

Other works in the church in the church include the Virgin Mary in Glory with Saint Nicholas between Saint Gerardo Sagrado and Saint Benedict by Gerolamo Pilotti, dating from 1609, and an early-17th-century Baptism of Christ.

Nearby, the large green dome of Santa Maria della Vittoria is one of the first landmarks visitors see as they approach the Lido vaporetto stop.

This was designed by Giuseppe Torres and built in 1925-1938 as a memorial to the Italian dead of World War I, of whom 2,700 are buried in the crypt. It is also known as the Venice War memorial and the Tempio Votivo.

Inside the Chiesa di Santa Maria Elisabetta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 21: 29-33 (NRSVA):

29 Then he [Jesus] told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’

The 16th-century Venetian/Cretan icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child and the 15th century sculpture of the Pieta at a side altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (26 November 2021) invites us to pray:

Today we remember the life of Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women’s rights activist. May we centre justice in our daily lives.

The organ above the west door of Santa Maria Elisabetta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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 dome of Santa Maria della Vittoria is one of the first landmarks visitors see as they approach the Lido (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 180, Santa Maria di Nazareth, Chiesa degli Scalzi

The Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth or the Church of Saint Mary of Nazareth is better known as the Scalzi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last week of Ordinary Time, the week before Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I have been reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme on this prayer diary this week is seven more churches in Venice. Earlier in this prayer diary, I illustrated my morning reflections with images from churches in Venice and on Murano and Burano. While I was in Venice this month, I reflected on the synagogues in the Ghetto in Venice (7-13 November)

As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this week, I am looking at seven more churches I visited in Venice earlier this month. This theme continues this morning (25 November 2021) with photographs of the Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth or the Church of Saint Mary of Nazareth, known as the Scalzi, beside Santa Lucia railway station and facing the Ferrovia waterbus stop.

Inside Chiesa degli Scalzi, the church of the Discalced Carmelites in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth is also known as the Church of the Scalzi (Chiesa degli Scalzi) because this is the church of the Discalced Carmelites.

The façade of the church, in the Late Baroque Venetian style, was financed by Gerolamo Cavazza and built by Giuseppe Sardi in 1672-1680. The statues of the Virgin and Child, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Thomas Aquinas were sculpted by Bernardo Falconi.

Inside, the church has statues of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Sebastian attributed to Falconi, and statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity by Tommaso Rues.

The vault of the nave was once filled with a major fresco by Giambattista Tiepolo in 1743-1745 depicting the Translation of the House of Loreto. Tiepolo had previously worked in the church, decorating the vaults of the chapel of Saint Teresa in 1727-1730 and chapel of Crucifix in 1732-1733.

Tiepolo’s fresco was destroyed during World War I by an Austrian bombardment of Venice on 24 October 1915. From 1929 to 1933, Ettore Tito painted canvases and frescoes to repair the damage. The remains of the fragments of Tiepolo’s work are now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia.

The altar was completed by Giuseppe Pozzo, and the choir ceiling by Giuseppe and Domenico Valeriani. The organ above the main door has carved and gilded decorations and reliefs. Above the organ, the lunette showing Santa Teresa crowned by the Saviour is by G. Lazzarini (18th century).

The side chapels were provided by prominent Venetian families, including the Mora Chapel, Ruzzini Chapel, Manin Chapel and Venier Chapel. They include works by Baldassare Longhena, Melchior Barthel, Pietro Liberi, Giuseppe Pozzo, Heinrich Meyring, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Niccolò Bambini.

The last Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, who died on 23 October 1802, is buried in the Manin Chapel, built by Giuseppe Pozzo. The altarpiece shows a sculpture of ‘The Virgin and Child and Saint Joseph in the Clouds’ by Giuseppe Torretto. The statues on the side walls of the chapel of Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel are also by Giuseppe Torretto. The two blue glass candelabras are Murano glassworks.

Other works of art include ‘Saint Theresa in Ecstasy’ (1697) by Heinrich Meyring, a Crucifixion by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, and canvases by Tiepolo.

The choir ceiling is the work of Giuseppe and Domenico Valeriani (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 21: 20-28 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; 24 they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

The ceiling of the nave was once filled with a major fresco by Tiepolo, destroyed by Austrian bombardment in 1915 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (25 November 2021, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for victims of gender-based violence, as they seek healing and justice. May we keep them in our prayers. Today also marks the start of the 16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, which we encourage you to get involved with.

Above the main door, the organ has carved and gilded decorations and reliefs, and the lunette above the organ, ‘Saint Teresa crowned by the Saviour,’ is by G Lazzarini (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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 last Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, who died in 1802, is buried in the Manin Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 179, San Felice Church, Cannaregio

The Church of San Felice in Cannaregio has two façades, facing the square its gives its name to and facing the canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last week of Ordinary Time, the week before Advent. Before a busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I have been reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme on this prayer diary this week is seven more churches in Venice. Earlier in this prayer diary, I illustrated my morning reflections with images from churches in Venice and on Murano and Burano. While I was in Venice this month, I reflected on the synagogues in the Ghetto in Venice (7-13 November)

As part of my reflections and this prayer diary this week, I am looking at seven more churches I visited in Venice earlier this month. This theme continues this morning (24 November 2021) with photographs from the Church of San Felice, facing the square or camp it gives its name to.

Inside the Church of San Felice, rebuilt in the style of Mauro Codussi from 1531 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Church of San Felice is in the sestiere or district of Cannaregio in Venice . It faces the square or camp it gives its name to, on the other side of the Strada Nova.

The church was founded in the 10th century, although the first document mentioning it only dates from 1117. It was rebuilt in 1267 by the Patriarch of Caorle and Jesolo after it had been renovated and rebuilt.

The church was completely rebuilt in the style of Mauro Codussi, beginning in 1531.

The church is built on a square plan with two façades, the main one featuring pilasters with Corinthian capitals.

The interior is on the Greek cross plan, with four pillars at the crossing supporting the arcades of the dome.

The great works of art in the church include a painting of Saint Demetrius and the Venetian noble Zuan Pietro Ghisi, by Jacopo Robusti (1518-1594), generally known as Tintoretto (ca 1547). The crucifix is attributed to Andrea Brustolon. The organ is by Antonio et Agostino Callido.

An inscription inside the church recalls the baptism there of Carlo Rezzonico, the future Pope Clement XIII, on 29 March 1693.

Saint Demetrius and Zuan Pietro Ghisi by Tintoretto dates from 1531 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Luke 21: 12-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.’

The organ in San Felice is by Antonio and Agostino Callido (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (24 November 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Parish of Matero and the Diocese of Lusaka as they implement this transformative gender justice programme.

The campanile of the Church of San Felice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

One façade of the Church of San Felice faces onto the neighbouring canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Can the Grand Canal in Dublin compare with the Grand Canal in Venice, or Rialto with Rialto?

No 7 Ontario Terrace faces the Grand Canal between Ranelagh and Rathmines … my grandmother’s brother, John Lynders, lived there until he died in 1957 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Can the Grand Canal in Venice compare with the Grand Canal in Dublin.

Can Rialto Bridge in Dublin compare with Rialto Bridge in Venice?

I was in Dublin last week, just a week after being Venice, where I had stayed in an hotel where I had breakfast each morning and drinks each evening on balconies looking onto the Grand Canal.

A week later, when I arrived in Dublin on the afternoon before a day-long meeting in Christ Church Cathedral, I walked for a stretch along the Grand Canal, from Charlemont Street Bridge almost as far as Sally Bridge.

It was late afternoon, and dusk was beginning to fall. Soon, south Dublin would be enfolded in the evening darkness, so I decided to limit my walk so that along the way I could take some photographs of houses that had some family connections.

My first stop was at Ontario Terrace, which fronts the Grand Canal and bridges the boundary between the suburbs of Ranelagh and Rathmines.

Ontario Terrace was built in 1840, when canals were at the cutting edge of transport, the penny black stamp become the founding mark of public postal service, and Queen Victoria (22) married Prince Albert. Ontario Province was probably given its name to mark the foundation that year of the Province of Canada.

At one time, Ontario Terrace was home to the nationalist writer, John Mitchel, who lived at No 8 while writing for The Nation newspaper. Mitchel returned to Ireland from exile in 1875 and was elected MP for Tipperary.

James Joyce’s parents, John Stanislaus Joyce and May (Murray), lived briefly at No 13 Ontario Terrace after they were married in Rathmines in 1880. Their first-born, John Augustine Joyce, was born there on 23 November 1880, but survived only eight days.

In Ulysses, Joyce has Leopold and Molly Bloom living at No 1 Ontario Terrace in 1897 and 1898 with their pilfering maid, Mary Driscoll, excoriated by Molly for flirting with Leopold and stealing her potatoes and oysters. ‘That slut Mary we had in Ontario Terrace padding out her false bottom to excite him,’ she snaps. In fact, at the time, No 1 was the home a house painter named Behan.

In the early 20th century, Ontario Terrace was a middle-class enclave of the sort that both Bloom and Joyce were familiar with. But in the decades that followed, its fortunes plummeted. Fifty years on, there were plans to fill in the canal and make it into a motorway.

My grandmother’s elder brother, John Lynders (1873-1957), my great-uncle, lived at No 7 Ontario Terrace until he died in 1957, and his wife, my-great aunt Mary Ellen Lynders, was living there when she died in 1963.

John Lynders had been a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary in the difficult years in the first quarter of the 20th century. He was two years older than my grandmother, and was born in Portane on 11 January 1873. He joined the RIC, became a Sergeant in the RIC and was later a Head Constable. He married Mary Ellen Reardon (1881-1963) from Fermoy, Co Cork.

John Lynders was living at the RIC Barracks, South Main Street, Wexford, when his children were born in 1908 and 1911. The former RIC Barracks later became the Dun Mhuire Hall in Wexford.

John Lynders was a sergeant in Duncannon, Co Wexford, by 1917, and was later transferred from Wexford to Ballymahon, Co Longford (1919-1922), where he was a Head Constable. On 18 August 1920, an IRA group led by Seán Mac Eoin and Seán Connolly, attacked the RIC barracks in Ballymahon and captured rifles, revolvers, grenades and ammunition.

After the dissolution of the RIC, John Lynders returned to live in Dublin. He was living at 7 Ontario Terrace, Portobello, when he died on 13 November 1957, aged 84. His widow Mary was living at 7 Ontario Terrace when she died on 13 May 1963, aged 82.

In 1966, Ontario Terrace provided one of the locations for the RTÉ drama series Insurrection, produced to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916. As I stood outside his former home last week, I wondered what John Lynders would have thought of that.

Later, No 7 included the offices of Padraig Mulcahy (1920-2012), a chartered quantity surveyor and son of General Richard Mulcahy, first chief of staff of the Irish Free State army and a leader of Fine Gael, and in the 1970s he bought the neighbouring house, No 6, which was derelict. He restored and extended the property, and his family later moved in.

Today, the houses on Ontario Terrace, including No 7, are protected buildings. No 6 is on the market with an asking price of €1.395 million, while neighbouring No 10 is on the market with an asking price of €1.3 million.

No 18 Parnell Road, as No 18 Parnell Place, was a Comerford family home from 1877 until after 1911 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

From Ontario Terrace, I continued along the south bank of the Grand Canal, passing Portobello Bridge and Harold’s Cross Bridge, and stopped at Parnell Road, where one Comerford family lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, at the same time as John Lynders was living in Wexford.

William Comerford (1842/1843-1907), an heraldic engraver, lived in 18 Parnell Place, Rathmines, now 18 Parnell Road, Harold’s Cross, from 1877 to 1907. He had married Hannah Jordan, daughter of John Jordan, in Saint Audeon’s Church (Church of Ireland), Cornmarket, Dublin, in 1862.

William Comerford died at 18 Parnell Place, Harold’s Cross, on 28 May 1907, but his family continued to live in the house until long after the 1911 census.

William’s son, Charles William Comerford (1877-1953), was living at Parnell Place, or Parnell Road, when he married Adelaide Margaret Field (1878-1953) of Leinster Square, Rathmines, in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines, in 1910.

The couple later lived at No 60 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, and their granddaughter, Angela Marks, believes Charles Comerford was in the GPO in O’Connell Street in 1916 and says family tradition tells of him crawling out along the street and swearing to leave Ireland.

The family left Ireland ca 1922, but the memory of the family home in Rathgar was continued in the name ‘Kenilworth’ which he gave to his house on Nore Road in Portishead, near Bristol. Adelaide and Charles Comerford died within seven months of each other in 1953. As I stood outside his former home last week, I wondered what Charles Comerford would have thought of Ireland today.

No 9 Arbutus Avenue, one of the two houses I first remember being in as a small child (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

My final stopping point in my late afternoon stroll along the south bank of the Grand Canal last week was around the corner from Parnell Road, in Arbutus Avenue

The two houses I first remember being in as a small child are my grandmother’s home in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and this house at No 9 Arbutus Avenue.

The house on Arbutus Avenue, just like the house in Cappoquin, looks so much smaller today than I remember it, and it is not as pretty either. But, in my mind’s eye, I can still walk around each room in each house, and the house near the Grand Canal is still a comforting place to see, with fading but warm memories of those early childhood days.

I was going to walk on to Rialto Bridge, but dusk and was falling, and I knew, despite any wishful thinking, any photograph I took there could not match Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in Venice the previous week.

Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in Venice … not quite matched by Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)