IOCS announces early details of Winter School in Cambridge on ‘Monastic Tradition and Theology’

Patrick Comerford

I first started going to summer schools in Cambridge organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in 2008. I wanted to upskill myself as I prepared to offer an elective in patristic studies to theology students on a masters course, and my participation in the summer school that year, based in Sidney Sussex College, was made possible financially by being awarded the Oulton Prize in Patristics and by financial support from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.

I continued to attend these IOCS summer schools in Cambridge from 2009 to 2016, thanks to in-service support from CITI, missing out only in 2012. Each year, the programme include lectures, daily worship in the chapel of Sidney Sussex, and a one-day visit or pilgrimage to Saint John’s Monastery in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex. I made many good friends, contributed to at least one IOCS video, returned to preach in the chapel in Sidney Sussex, and I began to think of Saint Bene’t’s as my parish church while I was staying in Cambridge. I was invited to preach and lecture in both Christ’s College and Sidney Sussex, interviewed the Irish-born chaplains of both colleges for newspaper features, and I also stayed in Clare College.

Cambridge became my academic home from home over those seven or eight years. But when I retired from academic life, responsibilities in parish ministry on Sundays, and then the restrictions ushered in by the Covid pandemic put an end to all that. I still continue to keep in touch with friends and developments in IOCS and with life in Sidney Sussex, I have returned for IOCS-organised seminars in Westcott House, Westminster College and the Woolf Institute, and I am back in Cambridge regularly, though not often enough.

I was pleased in recent days to read in its latest newsletter to friends, supporters and alumni, the IOCS is finalising details for this year’s Winter School, to be held in Westminster College, Cambridge, from Thursday 3 December to Saturday 5 December 2026.

The theme of this winter school is ‘Monastic Tradition and Orthodox Theology Today’. The programme will look at profound and sometimes unexpected ways in which the monastic tradition and theologians formed by it play a vital role in the rediscovery of ‘theology as a liturgy of the Church’, as it has been described by Archimandrite Vasileios of Iviron.

Archimandrite Vasileios Gondikakis (1936-2025) was a prominent Athonite monk, theologian and spiritual leader who played a pivotal role in the revival of monasticism on Mount Athos. Father Vasileios reformed and transformed Orthodox monasticism after he moved to Mount Athos in the mid-1960s and wrote about new inights in the sacramental worship of the Church and the silent retreat of monasticism. He was an integral part of a generation influenced by the lifestyle of Saint Paisios (1924-1994).

Father Vasileios was born in Iraklion in Crete in 1936. He studied in Athens and in France and worked as a teacher before going to Mount Athos. In 1965, and there he practiced asceticism under the guidance of Saint Paisios. He became the Abbot of Stavronikita in 1968, and in 1990 he became the Abbot of Iviron, where he lived until he died last year.

In a tribute to the former Abbot of Iviron, the theologian Father John Chryssavgis of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Holy Cross School of Theology, described Father Vasileios as a ‘paramount force in the restoration of monasticism on Athos and a prominent figure in the renewal of theology in the Orthodox world over the last decades.’

The IOCS winter school later this year will explore how monastic experience informs, perhaps transforms, our understanding of Scripture and of the human being, how it underpins pastoral service to ‘the world’, and its powerful witness to contemporary spiritual seekers hungry for the sacred.

Thursday and Friday (3 and 4 December) will be full days of lectures and discussions, while Saturday (5 December) involves a full-day visit to the Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights.

So far, the speakers at the IOCS winter school include:

• Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London;

• Archimandrite Antonios Kakalis, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Newcastle University;

• Hieromonk Nikolai Sakharov, the Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex;

• the Very Revd Dr Bogdan Bucur, Associate Professor of Patristics at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York;

• Mother Sarah, parish of Saint John of Kronstadt, Bath;

• Aidan Hart, the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts;

• Dr Kyriacos Markides, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Maine.

As the programme is finalised, I expect more details to follow in the weeks to come.

Dunstable Priory is one of the finest examples of Norman ecclesiastical architecture in England

The Priory Church of Saint Peter in Dunstable has been called one of the finest examples of Norman ecclesiastical architecture in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

When I was in Dunstable last week, I particularly wanted to see the Priory Church of Saint Peter, which has been called one of the finest examples of Norman ecclesiastical architecture in England.

The west front of the Priory Church is magnificent, with a huge entry consisting of four arches above a later 15th-century doorway. The entry is highly decorated, with diaper pattern and stiff-leaf moulding providing relief for a profusion of small arches.

Saint Peter’s Church as it stands today is only the nave of what remains of the originally much larger Augustinian priory church. The extent of the former monastic buildings is traced out in the church grounds and once included cloisters, a dormitory, an infirmary, stables, workshops, and a bakehouse, brewhouse and buttery.

Saint Peter’s Church as it stands today is only the nave and all that remains of the originally much larger Augustinian priory church in Dunstable (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dunstable Priory was founded in 1132 by Henry I soon after he had founded the town ca 1109 and had built himself a house or hunting lodge, Kingsbury. The priory was initially a daughter house of Holy Trinity, an Augustinian priory in Aldgate, London, and its foundation completed Henry I’s plans for Dunstable.

The priory was endowed with a quarry at Totternhoe and the lordship of the town with all the privileges the king had when he held Dunstable himself. The prior became the lord of the manor and was responsible for collecting taxes. These privileges later caused bitter quarrels between the Prior and the people of the town, although most of the taxes collected went to the Exchequer to pay for the king’s wars in France and Wales.

The priory church was built in the shape of a cross with a great tower at the crossing and with two smaller towers at the west end. Work was slow and it took 70 to 80 years before the church was complete.

The first prior of Dunstable, Bernard, and his brother Norman – a later Prior of Saint Botolph, Colchester – were involved in introducing the Augustinians to England. The church and monastic buildings were built under Bernard’s rule and his two immediate successors as prior, Cuthbert and Thomas. About this time, Alexander Nequam became master of the school and later became Abbot of Cirencester.

Richard de Morins, a canon of Merton Priory, became the fourth prior in 1202, through the influence of King John. He had considerable influence and ruled the priory for 40 years that were the most prosperous period in the history of the priory. He was commissioned by the Pope to preach the Crusade in 1212, he attended the Lateran Council in 1215, and he commenced the Annales de Dunstaplia, a chronicle of the priors and the priory, of the town and its people, as seen from the cloisters.

Inside Saint Peter’s Priory Church, Dunstable, facing towards the present east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dunstable stood on one of the main roads to London, and so the priory gained importance and grew in prosperity. The priory attracted pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Saint Alban to the south, and pilgrim numbers increased when the bones of Saint Fremund were moved from Cropredy in Oxfordshire to Dunstable.

The priory church had side altars dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin, Saint Fremund, Saint Nicholas and Saint James, and the priory had farms, churches and granges as far away as the Peak District, with the income from the huge flocks of sheep supporting the priory and its work with pilgrims and the poor.

Bishop Hugh II of Lincoln, whose diocese stretched from the Humber almost to the Thames, visited Dunstable on 18 October 1213, when he dedicated the priory church. But the roof of the presbytery fell in June 1222, and in December 1222 a violent storm brought down the two western towers. The fall of the north tower ruined the west front, while the south tower brought down the prior’s house

The west front was immediately rebuilt without towers. The upper portion was designed with beautiful arcading and niches for statuary, and the whole west façade formed a screen front with heavily buttressed turrets at the angles.

Inside Saint Peter’s Priory Church, Dunstable, facing towards the west end from the present east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A chapel dedicated to Saint Martin was founded in 1227 and by 1228 there was an infirmary chapel. The Lady Chapel was built at the far east end of the church in the canons’ burial plot and its altar was dedicated in 1231. The canons built the inner gate within the court in 1250 and placed ten tons of lead on the refectory roof. The dormitory was rebuilt in 1251, and the great stable and new workshops were built in 1252.

The vault of the north aisle was rebuilt and restored in 1273, two large bells were hung in 1277, followed by three more, and a clock was installed 1283 – it had no hands but struck the times of the daily offices.

There were riots in the town in 1228 over the taxes, and the bishop came to Dunstable and solemnly excommunicated 10 of the chief burgesses. They declared they would rather go to hell than pay the tax and asked the lord of Eaton Bray to give them 40 acres of land to build another town. At length, peace was restored, but when de Morins died in 1242 the prosperity of the Priory came to an end. He was succeeded by Geoffrey of Barton whose 20 years as prior were marked by many problems.

The prior’s sheep in the Peak District died in large numbers in a severe winter in 1243. A succession of bad seasons and crop failures led to great scarcity and the priory began to fall into debt. The canons’ rations were cut, staff numbers were cut too, and priors resigned or were deposed. Royal visitors added to the demands on the priory’s finances.

The main portal and façade detail … when a violent storm brought down the two west towers in 1222, the west front was immediately rebuilt without towers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

As the priory faced increasing poverty, the Dominicans or Black Friars settled in the town in 1259 with the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury and King Henry III, diverting alms and financial support the priory might have expected.

The funeral of Queen Eleanor arrived in Dunstable in December 1290, with her husband Edward I following her cortege on the way to burial at Westminster Abbey. The canons met the funeral cortege at the Market Place and brought the bier to the priory church where her body was kept before the high altar throughout the night before moving on to St Albans.

The Lady Chapel at the east end was rebuilt in 1324, and over the next 100 years most of the Norman work of the quire, transepts and central tower was overlaid or replaced by Decorated Gothic. None of this work remains apart from a pier from the second half of the 14th century attached to the east wall of the present church. When the rebuilding were completed, the canons’ stalls were moved from beneath the central tower into the east end and the old pulpiturn was converted into a rood screen.

Details in the main portal at the west end of the priory church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Dunstable was a venue for many tournaments in the 13th and 14th centuries, and when Edward III attended the great tournaments in 1329 and 1341 with many of the nobility, the cost of providing hospitality brought the canons close to breaking point.

The people of Dunstable were allowed to use the nave as a parish church from 1392. Two doorways were formed in the space between the nave and the crossing, and can still be seen in what is now the east wall.

The leading citizens and merchants of Dunstable founded a guild or fraternity dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in 1441. When the upper storey of the nave fell into ruins, they removed it altogether and inserted windows in the triforium, converting it into a clerestory. They gave the roof a flatter pitch, and they built a tower over the west bay of the north aisle. The 14 roof figures in the priory church are images of fraternity members.

Richard Charnock, who was the prior from 1473 to 1500, knew the humanist scholars Erasmus and John Colet. The last Prior of Dunstable, Gervase Markham, was elected in 1525.

The location of the original High Altar and Lady Chapel are marked out in the grass (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the bishops of Winchester, London, Bath and Lincoln came to Dunstable in 1533 to annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Dunstable was chosen because Queen Catherine was then residing at Ampthill. The court sat in the Lady Chapel on 10 May, with the Prior, Gervase Markham, taking part in the proceedings. Catherine did not appear, but on 23 May 1533, Cranmer pronounced the annulment had been annulled, and the king was free to marry Anne Boleyn.

Gervase Markham and the 12 canons acknowledged the Royal Supremacy in 1535, the deed of surrender was signed on 31 December 1539, the priory was dissolved in January 1540, and the prior and the 12 canons were granted pensions, with dispensations to serve as secular priests.

The great church and the monastic buildings remained standing for some few years, and in a plan to create new dioceses a new see at Dunstable was proposed with the Priory Church as its cathedral. But the scheme fell through, and the church – with the exception of the parochial nave – and the monastic buildings were plundered.

All that was valuable was purloined and the ruins became a quarry. A wall was built up from the rood screen and the nave and its aisles sealed off for the use of the parish. During Edward VI’s reign, the reformers despoiled the church yet further, although some order was restored during the reign of Mary Tudor.

Several of the canons moved to local parishes, while others moved farther away. Two who married were deprived of their parishes when Mary Tudor became queen, but one forsook his wife and promptly found another parish. Having lived quietly in the town on his pension, Markham died in Dunstable in 1561. He still possessed his chalice, vestments and ‘ornaments and implements for a chapel’, which he left to his cousin. He was buried in the church on 23 September 1561.

At the visitation of Cardinal Pole in 1556, the churchwardens of Dunstable complained that the town was populous, but neither rector nor perpetual curate was found there, and ‘he that was hired could not preach’.

The present High Altar and chancel area in Dunstable Priory Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Puritans were very active in South Bedfordshire by the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. John Richardson, the rector, was accused of Puritan practices and refusing to wear the surplice in 1603, but he later conformed. The next rector, Edward Alport, faced opposition from Puritans and Anabaptists who obstructed his ministry and tried to form a Presbyterian congregation. His successor, Zachary Symmes was an extreme Puritan who resigned in 1634 and joined the Puritans in Massachusetts in 1635.

William Pedder, who became the rector in 1634, was a royalist of moderate churchmanship. He was replaced by parliament replaced in 1642 with a group of 18 ‘lecturers’ who preached in the church on Sundays and weekdays.

A group of Royalist soldiers attacked the church during a Sunday service in June 1644. The congregation barricaded themselves in, but the soldiers forced the doors, shooting a ‘case of pistols’ at the minister in the pulpit and wounding several people. The west doors still show the marks of the shots.

Ten years later, the parishioners petitioned Cromwell for a minister after 14 years of being without a rector. Isaac Bringhurst became the rector in 1656. He undertook not to use the Book of Common Prayer and may not have been episcopally ordained.

After the Puritan era, some order returned after the Caroline restoration in 1660. A three-decker pulpit was fixed overlooking the box pews, the altar became secondary in importance to the pulpit, and the Eucharist was only celebrated at festivals. The church has a number of monuments dating from the early 18th century.

Bedfordshire, including Dunstable, became part of the Diocese of Ely in the 1830s.

Dunstable Priory Church was restored in the 19th century by the architects George Somers Leigh Clarke, George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The next major changes to the building came in separate phases in the 19th century: by the architect George Somers Leigh Clarke (1822-1882) in 1848-1878; and by the Gothic Revival architects George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) and Thomas Garner (1839-1906) in 1890-1903.

Clarke rebuilt the 12th century south aisle in 1852, and in 1876 he rebuilt the 15th century north aisle and added a new seventh bay at the north-east corner to form the vestry. While the north aisle was being rebuilt, Clarke discovered and restored a 12th century doorway. The roof is a sympathetic restoration dating from 1871 of the Perpendicular original.

Bodley and Garner carried out restoration work to the east end in 1890-1891, which included revealing two 14th century doorways and two niches in the east wall and returning the rood screen to its original position. Bodley restored the west front in 1903 and installed an internal buttress to support the tower.

A new organ by Norman and Beard was installed in 1913 to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Priory’s dedication. A year later, Bedfordshire, including Dunstable, became part of the Diocese of St Albans in 1914.

The tower and south-west buttress were repaired in 1930 under the direction of the architect Sir Albert Richardson (1880-1964.

The east end wall, formerly the division between the nave and the crossing, was mostly rebuilt in 1962, to designs by the architect Felix James Lander (1897-1960) and carried out after his death by his son Sean Lander. The upper part of the wall was rebuilt and pierced with two round-arched windows, a new niche with a tall spired canopy was inserted to replace a central feature destroyed in the 16th century, and gilded statues were placed in the niches.

The west windows by John Hayward and the window by Christopher Webb depicting Saint John the Baptist (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The stained glass in the church is from the 20th century. The oldest is a 1920s window in the south aisle showing the Madonna and Child, and designed by Archibald John Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts. The other glass is by Christopher Webb (1886-1966) and John Hayward (1929-2007).

Webb designed the two three-light windows in the chancel (1962): the north-side window shows Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter and Saint Martin of Tours; the south-side window depicts Saint Fremund, Saint James the Great and Saint Nicholas.

Hayward designed 11 windows for three separate commissions: two windows at the west end depict the royal and church history of Dunstable Priory (1972); three windows in the Lady Chapel depict the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity (1984); three windows in the south aisle depict scenes in the life of Saint Peter (1989); and three windows in the north aisle depict Baptism, the Eucharist and the Fayrey Pall (1989).

The ‘Madonna of the Magnificat’, a sculpture by Laurence Broderick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The ‘Madonna of the Magnificat’ is a sculpture by Laurence Broderick (1935-2024), best-known for ‘The Bull’ (2003) in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. The work was given to the Priory Church by the Gibbard family to celebrate the wedding of Ruth Gibbard and Roger Bowles. The Feast of the Visitation is celebrated on 31 May, although because this year it falls not only on a Sunday but on Trinity Sunday it has been transferred to tomorrow (Monday 1 June 2026).

The 15th-century gateway south-west of the church is a reminder of the former priory. At the dissolution, the priory guesthouse became a private house in1545. One of the earliest owners was the Crawley family who used part of the building as an early hospital. In 1743, the original stone vaulted hall was incorporated into a much larger house with the Georgian façade. The Town Council has converted the building into a Heritage and Tourist Information Centre and a café.

A Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) formed in Dunstable in 1997 links the Anglican Team Ministry with Saint Katherine’s United Reformed Church. The parish is vacant at present and is seeking to appoint a new Team Vicar. The Eucharist is celebrated on Sunday mornings at 8 am and 9:30 am and at 10 am on Thursdays.

The 15th-century gateway south-west of the Priory Church in Dunstable (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Additional Reading:

FA Fowler, The Priory Church of Saint Peter Dunstable – A Brief History.

‘The Priory of Dunstable’, in The Victoria History of the County of Bedford, Volume 1 (1904).

The Eucharist is celebrated in the Priory Church, Dunstable, on Sundays at 8 am and 9:30 am and at 10 am on Thursdays (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Savvas Chapel, a small, peaceful chapel on the beach that was part of the Battle of Crete

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, which began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete, and lasted for 12 days.

During the German occupation of Crete in World War II, 5,000 stranded Greek, Australian, New Zealand and British troops who fought in the Battle of Crete in 1941, found shelter in Preveli until the Abbot, Agathangelos Lagouvardos, aided their escape to Egypt on two submarines on the nights of 31 May and 1 June 1941 and 20 and 21 August 1941.

As I was looking back in recent days on old photographs of churches, chapels and monasteries in Greece that I had not written about, poducing a new guide to church buildings in Crete yesterday (24 May 2026), I came across photographs of two chapels I had visited but not yet written about: the small Chapel of Saint Savvas near the beach below Preveli Monastery, and the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge.

The Chapel of Saint Savvas is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The small Chapel of Saint Savvas (Agios Savvas) is a peaceful, picturesque 130-year-old monastic chapel below Preveli Monastery, which I have visited two or three times, near the mouth of the Megapotamos River and a famous palm forest.

The chapel is on the east bank of the Preveli Gorge in southern Crete, at the point where the river meets the Libyan Sea, close to the sandy shores of Preveli Beach and near the Kourtaliotiko Gorge. The chapel is framed by the lush Cretan palm trees that line the riverbank, offering a striking contrast against the dramatic canyon walls.

Tourists usually reach the chapel and the beach on the tour boats that leave from nearby coastal villages such as Plakias, or by taking the hiking trail from the Preveli Beach parking area and crossing the riverbed.

This is the beach where allied forces who were hiding in Preveli Monastery were rescued dramatically in 1941 as the Nazi occupation forces tightened their grip on Crete. At one time there had been a Byzantine church or chapel on the site.

The beach at Preveli is lined with the Cretan palms or Phoenix Theophrasti (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The chapel of Agios Savvas is close to Lake Preveli, south of Rethymno, on the east bank at the mouth of Kourtalioti Gorge.

The chapel owes its origins to Meletios Tziritakis a monk from the village of Kerame. Before coming to the Monastery of Prevelis, he was a monk in the Monastery of Aghios Savvas in Palestine. Because of this association, he gave the name Saint Savvas to the chapel he built in 1884 on the ruins of an earlier Byzantine chapel dedicated to Saint George. Beside the chapel, he built a cell to live in.

Around and to the left of the church there are traces of ancient, mediaeval and Byzanitne buildings. While the monk was digging the foundations for his chapel, he discovered old tombs, confirming the presence of an ancient settlement and a pottery at Lake Preveli. The chapel was completed and dedicated in 1898.

The chapel’s white stone walls and terracotta roof, picked out against the green palms and deep blue sea make it one of the most photographed spots along that part of the southern coast of Crete.

The small chapel is usually guarded by a family of geese, and after a number of incidents involving campers who tried to sleep in the chapel overnight, the chapel is now usually locked and closed to visitors.

The beach is lined with the Cretan palms, Phoenix theophrasti, and its surroundings are protected by nature reserves. This protection means the beach is not spoiled by sunbeds or sun umbrellas at Preveli beach, although there is a small taverna at the mouth of the river, under shady trees, offering drinks and snacks during the tourist season.

A heart-shaped rock near the chapel and just off the beach is often called the ‘Love Rock’ or the ‘stone of lovers’ because of its shape.

A heart-shaped rock near the Chapel of Saint Savvas is often called the ‘Love Rock’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Sabbas (439-532), or Saint Savvas the Sanctified (Σάββας ὁ Ἡγιασμένος), was a Greek monk and priest who was born at Moutalaske near Caesarea in Cappadocia and lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several convents, most notably Mar Saba in Palestine.

At the age of eight, he entered the monastery of Bishop Flavian of Antioch, and became a monk at 17. For many years he lived alone and in isolation in a cave before founding a monastery in the Kidron Valley, south of Jerusalem, in the year 484.

As an advocate of the Chalcedonian creed and strenuous opponent of the Monophysites and the followers of Origen, he tried to influence the emperors against them and he called personally on Emperor Anastasios I at Constantinople in 511 and on Justinian I in 531.

Saint Sabbas founded several more monasteries and is said to have wrought many miracles. He composed the first monastic rule of church services, the so-called Jerusalem Typikon, for use in all the Byzantine monasteries. He died in the year 532.

Crusaders took is relics in the 12th century and they remained in the Church of Saint Anthony in Venice until Pope Paul VI returned them to the monastery in 1965 as a gesture of good will towards the Orthodox Church. His Great Lavra is now known as the monastery of Mar Saba.

Local people near Preveli in southern Crete celebrate the feast day of the chapel on 5 December, with a number of commemorative events in the area.

Local people near Preveli celebrate the feast day of the Chapel of Saint Savvas on 5 December (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A guide to some cathedrals, churches and monasteries visited in Greece over 40 years

Collecting my own Greek churches … a souvenir shop in Koutouloufari in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Over the past week or so, I have been sifting through photographs of and postings about cathedrals, churches, chapels and monasteries throughout Greece, putting together this guide to the churches and church sites I have visited, similar to those I have compiled for churches in Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire and the Diocese of Lichfield, Oxford, Co Wexford, Co Limerick and Dublin.

I have been a frequent visitor to Greece for almost 40 years, since the late 1980s, when I first stayed in Rethymnon. In time, three churches have become, effectively, my parish churches in Crete: the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon, and the paired churches in Platanias and Tsesmes. As the list of Greek churches, cathedral, chapels and monasteries I have visited grows, I am surprised how many I have visited, and by this afternoon the number has grown to more than 130.

But I am also surprised by the number of churches I have visited in Greece but have never blogged about or have lost my photographs of.

I compiled a now-lost feature as a guide to the cathedrals and churches of Athens to mark the Athens Olympics in 2004. But over the past 22 years, all those notes and photographs seem to have been lost on old laptop, missing memory sticks, or on memory sticks that no longer seem to remember anything.

Gone too are photographs from my journeys throughout the Peloponnese and past visits to many islands on working trips and family holidays, including islands such as Halki, Ikaria, Kalolimnos, Kalymnos, Kephallonia, Kos, Patmos, Pserimos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini and Zakynthos.

Missing are notes and photographs from many places in Athens and the Peloponnese, especially from Mystras, with its amazing hill-top Byzantines ruins and from islands such as Ithaka, Kephalonia –including churches that are part of the story of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Kalymnos, Kos, Leros, Patmos, Pserimos, Rhodes, Samos, Symi and Zakynthos. The photographs from Patmos included the Monastery of Saint John and the cave where he wrote the Book of Revelation.

Lost too are photographs from those early visits to Crete from the 1980s, including churches in Vai, Ierapetra and Paliachora, and monasteries such as Gonia Monastery (Μονή Γωνιάς), or the Monastery of Panagia Hodegetria (Μονή της Οδηγήτριας) in Kolymbari, about 26 km outside Chania, with the Orthodox Academy of Crete and its Patristic library – it was the venue for the Pan-Orthodox Synod ten years ago in June 2016, and I may try to recover some of those memories in a posting in the days to come.

To make it easier to find those memories and postings, or to download my photographs of Greek churches, I have put together this guide in recent days. It does not include Greek Orthodox churches and cathedrals I have visited outside Greece; nor are all the churches in this guide Greek Orthodox – some are Anglican and Roman Catholic.

As I recover some more of those lost photographs and memories, or find more of these postings lost in poor labelling, I intend to update this guide and to provide a link in the toolbar at the top of this site.

The tiny Church of Kapnikarea, stranded in the middle of Ermou Street in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Athens:

1, Agia Dynami Church, Athens (29 Spril 2024)

2, Church of Kapnikarea, Ermou Street (21 August 2017)

3, Saint Paul’s Church (Anglican), Philellenon Street, Athens (25 February 1997) and HERE (25 January 2026)

4, Church of Aghios Philippos (Apostle Philip), Monastiraki (21 August 2017)

Every visitor to Corfu wants a picture postcard photograph of Vlacherna, with its convent and church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Corfu:

Cathedrals:

5, The Cathedral of the Virgin Spiliotissas and Saint Vlassis and Saint Theodora, Corfu (5 September 2019) and HERE (1 August 2021)

6, Achilleion Palace chapel, Gastouri (4 August 2021)

7, (former) Church of the Annunziata (Roman Catholic), Corfu (29 April 2020)

8, Church of Saint Eleftherios and Saint Anna, Corfu 6 September 2019) and HERE (3 August 2021)

9, (former) Saint George’s Church (Anglican garrison church), Corfu (7 August 2021)

10, Saint George, Aghios Georgios (29 April 2020)

11, Holy Trinity Church (Anglican church), Corfu (4 September 2019) and HERE (7 August 2021)

12, Church of the Panagia Kassopitra, Kassiopi (4 September 2019) and HERE (5 August 2021)

13, Church of Panagia Mandrakina, Corfu (6 September 2019) and HERE (29 April 2020)

14, Church of Saint Spyridon, Corfu (25 August 2019) and HERE (2 August 2021)

15, Church of Saint Spyridon, Palaiokastritsa (6 August 2021)

16, Vlacherna church and convent (3 September 2019) and HERE (29 April 2020)

Saint Nicholas Chapel, on an islet off the coast of Crete at Georgioupoli (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Crete:

Aghios Nikolaos:

17, Saint Nicholas, Aghios Nikolaos (5 December 2022)

Argiroupolis:

18, Church of Aghia Dynami, Argiroupolis (8 July 2017)

Chania:

Cathedrals:

18, Cathedral of the Panaghia Trimartiri, Chania (19 June 2018)

19, Cathedral of the Assumption (Roman Catholic), Chania

20, Aghia Magdalini, Dagli Street, Chalepa (2 July 22017)

Élos:

21, Agios Ioannis Theologos, Élos (17 July 2016) and HERE (19 April 2020)

22, Aghios Nikolas, Élos (19 April 2020) and HERE (5 Deceember 2022)

Georgioupoli:

23, Analipsi Church, Georgioupoli (14 June 2018)

24, Saint Barbara, Georgioupoli (14 June 2018)

25, Chapel of the Prophet Elijah (16 June 2018)

26, Feriniki Chapel (16 June 2018)

27, Chapel of Aghios Nikolaos, Georgioupoli (9 July 2017) also HERE (20 June 2018) and HERE (5 December 2022)

Gramvousa:

28, Chapel of the Twelve Apostles, Gramvousa Bay (8 July 2016) and HERE (19 April 2020)

Hóra Sfakíon

29, Searching for the 100 churches and chapels of Hóra Sfakíon (17 June 2018)

Saint Minas Cathedral in Iraklion is one of the largest and most impressive churches in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Iraklion:

Cathedrals:

30, Saint Minas Cathedral, Iraklion (20 April 2025) and HERE (24 July 2017)

31, (former) Saint Mark’s Church (former cathedral), Eleftheriou Venizelou Square (25 May 2025)

32, Saint Titus Church (former cathedral) (18 May 2025)

Churches and chapels:

33, Saint Andreas Church, Nikolaos Plastiras Street (25 May 2025)

34, Saint Catherine of Sinai, Iraklion (8 May 2021) and HERE (3 September 2017)

35, Saint Dimitrios Church, Marineli Street (25 May 2025)

36, Saint Dimitrios Church, Ikarou street (25 May 2025)

37, Holy Cross Church (Roman Catholic), Iraklion (23 May 2026)

38, Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites, Iraklion (4 May 2025)

39, Saint Minas Church, Iraklion (20 April 2025)

40, Saint Peter’s Church (Saint Peter and Saint Paul), Iraklion (11 May 2025)

See also:

41, The Cretan School of Icons and its contribution to Western Art, public lecture (27 June 2009)

Kalamitsi Alexandrou:

42, Church of Aghia Triada, Kalamitsi Alexandrou (22 June 2018)

Kourtaliotiko Gorge:

43, Agia Kyriaki Chapel (not available yet)

The church bell in the Byzantine-style Church of Aghios Vasilios in Koutouloufári, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Koutouloufári:

44, Aghios Vasilios, Koutouloufári (4 July 2010), also HERE (7 May 2021), HERE (22 April 2023) and HERE (24 April 2024)

Maroulas:

45, Church of Aghia Anna (4 September 2016)

46, The double Church of Aghios Nikolaos and Aghios Antonios (4 September 2016)

47, The Despotiko, summer residence of the Archbishop of Rethymnon (4 September 2016)

Panormos:

48, (former) Basilica of Aghia Sophia (3 July 2017) and HERE (25 April 2025)

49, Church of Saint Agathopodos, Panormos (25 April 2024)

50, Church of the Ascension and Saint George, Panormos (5 May 2021) and HERE (21 April 2025)

51, Graveyard chapel, Panormos (25 April 2024)

The Church of the Transfiguration rises high above the village of Piskopianó (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Piskopianó:

52, Church of the Transfiguration, Piskopianó (24 April 2024)

53, (former) Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, Piskopianó (24 April 2024)

54, (former) Church of Saint Dimitrios (24 April 2024)

55, Graveyard chapel, Piskopianó (24 April 2024)

The Church of the Four Martyrs is the largest church in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Rethymnon:

Cathedrals:

56, The Cathedral of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Mitropolis Square (29 March 2021), and also HERE (4 May 2021) and HERE (27 April 2025)

57, (former Venetian) Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, the Fortezza (8 October 2021)

58, Aghios Anargyron, Koumoundourou Street (29 April 2024)

59, Saint Anthony’s Church, Mitropolis Square (17 January 2026) and HERE (3 October 2021)

60, Saint Anthony of Padua Church (Roman Catholic), Mesolongíou Street (11 January 2018) and HERE (10 October 2021)

61, Saint Barbara’s Church, Aghia Barbara Street (11 June 2018), also HERE (6 Seprember 2021)

62, (former) Saint Catherine’s Church, the Fortezza (6 October 20221)

63, Saint Constantine and Saint Helena Church (28 September 2021) and HERE (27 April 2025)

64, (former) Corpus Christi Chapel, beside the Nerantze Mosque (6 July 2012) and HERE (9 October 2021)

65, Church of the Four Martyrs, Tessaron Martiron Square (3 May 2021) and HERE (27 Apri;l2025)

66, (former) Saint Francis Church, now the The Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon, Ethnikís Antistaseos Street (4 October 2021) and HERE (27 April 2025)

67, Saint George’s Church, Aghios Gheorghíou Street (1 OHERE (23 April 2024)

68, Saint George’s Church, Egeou Street (23 April 22024)

69, (former) Saint Lazarus Church, Patelárou Street (8 July 2012)

70, (former) Santa Maria Church, Ethnikis Antistaseos (Nerantze Mosque), Rethymnon (27 April 2025)

71, Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Nea Magnesia (22 July 2017)

72, Mikri Panaghia (Church of Our Lady of the Angels), Nikifórou Foká Street (30 September 2019), and HERE (8 July 2012)

73, Saint Nektarios Church, Ioannou Melissinou street, Rethymnon (27 September 2021)

74, Saint Nektarios Church, Tsemes (19 April 2023)

75, Saint Nicholas Church, Priskosoridi street and Emmanouil Kefalogianni avenue (6 December 2023)

76, (former) Church of Aghia Sophia, Koronaíou Street, Rethymnon (6 July 2012)

77, (former) Church of Saint Theodore or Aghios Theodoros Trachinás, the Fortezza (7 October 2021)

78, Aghia Triada (Church of the Holy Trinity), Platanias (5 October 2021) and HERE (19 April 2023)

See also:

79, The former Episcopal Palace, the Fortezza, Rethymnon (8 October 2021)

80, The Bishop’s Palace, Mousoúrou Street, and the Diocesan Church Museum, Rethymnon (8 July 2012)

81, ‘The Bishop’s House’, Rethymnon (1 October 2021)

82, Greek roadside shrines (4 July 2016)

Spinalonga:

83, The Church of Saint Panteleímon (4 October 2010)

Kastellórizo:

84, Cathedral of Saint Constantine and Saint Helena, Kastellórizo (6 November 2011)

85, Church of Saint George of the Well, Kastellórizo (6 November 2011)

The blue-domed churches of Santorini in a poster … poster and picture-postcard images of Greek churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Santorini:

86, Saint Anastasis Church and the churches of Santorini (30 March 2014), also HERE (9 June 2017), HERE (4 September 2017) and HERE (30 November 2017)

Thessaloniki:

Cathedrals:

87, Cathedral of Saint Gregory Palamas (26 July 2021) and HERE (18 April 2020)

88, Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Frangon Street (18 April 2020)

Churches and chapels:

89, Church of Óssios Davíd (18 April 2020)

90, Church of Aghios Dimitrios (27 July 2021), also HERE (26 October 2020) and also HERE (18 April 2020)

91, Church of the Prophítis Ilías (18 April 2020)

92, Church of Saint Menas (18 April 2020)

93, Church of the Panagia Acheiropoietos (7 April 2018), also HERE (28 July 2021) and HERE (18 April 2020)

94, Church of Panaghía Chalkéon (29 July 2021) and HERE (18 April 2020)

95, Church of Panagia Deksia (31 July 2021) also HERE (18 April 2020)

96, Church of Aghios Panteleimon (18 April 2020)

97, The Rotunda Church, Aghios Georgios (25 July 2021) and HERE (18 April 2020)

98, Church of the Saviour or the Church of the Transfiguration (9 April 2018), also HERE (30 July 2021) and HERE (18 April 2020)

99, Church of Aghia Sophia (18 April 2020)

The Monastery of Arkadi, near Rethymnon, is the best-known monastery in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Monasteries in Greece:

Crete:

100, Monastery of Saint Anastasia, Tsesmes (30 June 2021) and HERE (4 July 2016)

101, Arkadi Monastery (5 July 2012), also HERE (11 July 2017) and HERE (1 May 2021)

102, Moni Arsanios (Saint George), Pagalohori (29 June 2021) and HERE (3 July 2016)

103, (former) Saint Barbara’s Monastery (Kara Musa Pasha Mosque), Rethymnon (1 July 2021) also and HERE (24 August 2014)

104, Capuchin Friary, Chania ()

105, Panagia Chalevi, near Chromonastiri (2 Seotember 2013)

106, Chryssoskalítíssa (the Golden Step) (19 June 2023) and HERE (30 May 2024))

107, Agia Irini, near Rethymnon (10 October 2013), also HERE (25 August 2014) and HERE (27 June 2021)

108, Gonia Monastery (Panagia Hodegetria), Kolymvari (not available yet)

109, Saint George, Karydi (21 June 2018)

110, Saint John the Theologian, Preveli (28 August 2014) and HERE (28 June 2021)

111,The monastic Church of Saint Paisios, Damnoni (19 September 2021) and HERE (7 November 2021)


112,The monastic Chapel of Saint Savvas, Preveli (25 May 2026)

113, Aghios Panteleimon, Adele (3 July 2016)

114, Agia Triada Tsangarolon, Chania (31 May 2024)

A monastery built on a rock top in Meteora (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meteora:

115, All Saints or Varlaam (27 August 2019) and HERE (6 October 2019)

116, Great Meteoron (27 August 2019) and HERE (6 October 2019)

117, Holy Trinity (27 August 2019) and HERE (6 October 2019)

118, Rousanou or Saint Barbara (27 August 2019) and HERE (6 October 2019)

119, Saint Nicholas Anapafsas, near Kastraki (27 August 2019) and HERE (6 October 2019)

The katholikon or main church in the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mount Athos:

120, Mount Athos on the Chalkidiki peninsula (19 June 2004), also HERE (2 September 2018), and HERE (24 April 2020)

121, Dionysiou (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

122, Docheiariou (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

123, Esphigmenou (2 September 2018) also HERE (24 April 2020)

124, Gregoriou (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

125, Saint Panteleimon (2 September 2018) also HERE (24 April 2020)

126, Saint Paul (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

127, Simonopetra (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

128, Vatopedi (19 June 2004), also HERE (24 April 2020) and HERE (1 April 2021)

129, Xenophontos (2 September 2018) also HERE (24 April 2020)

130, Xeropotamou (2 September 2018) also HERE (24 April 2020)

131, Zographou or Saint George the Zograf Monastery also HERE (24 April 2020)

132, The Skete of Mount Athos, including Kelli Ayiou Modestou, Skiti Monoxilites, and Metochi Chourmitsis (2 September 2018), also HERE (24 April 2020)

The Monastery of Vlatadon in the hills above Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Thessaloniki:

133, The Monastery of Vlatádon, Thessaloniki (9 April 2020), also HERE (18 April 2020), and HERE (29 April 2021)

See Also:

134, The offices of Mount Athos, Egnatia Street, Thessaloniki (2 September 2018) and HERE (18 April 2020)

135, The Greek word εκκλησία (ekklesia), Church (13 August 2025)

136, The Greek words ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), Church (19 September 2021)

137, The Greek words μοναστήριον (monastērion), ‘a monastery,’ (21 August 2025)

A roadside shrine near the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon, after sunset behind the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Lastupdated: 25 May 2026