Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 2, Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day

Saint Stephen before the Council … a window by CE Kempe (1837-1907) in the south aisle in Lichfield Cathedral in memory of John Toke Godfrey-Faussett (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

Christmas is not over; this is the second day of Christmas and today is Saint Stephen’s Day, the feast of Saint Stephen the deacon and first martyr. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

An image of Saint Stephen in Saint Stephen Walbrook, London … on the site of a seventh century Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 17-22 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 17 ‘Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me … ‘two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree’ … Christmas decorations at a house in Padbury, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Reflections:

The Gospel reading in the lectionary for the Eucharist today tells us nothing about the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Instead, the story of his martyrdom is found in one of today’s other readings (Acts 7: 51-60).

About 55 years ago, when I was training to be a chartered surveyor with Jones Lang Wootton and the College of Estate Management then part of Reading University, a file for an investment or development property in Dublin went missing one day. It was an important portfolio, and ought to have been filed under ‘S’ for ‘Saint Stephen’s Green.’

Eventually, the file was found under the letter ‘G’.

‘I filed it under G for Green,’ the person who did the filing explained.

But for many Dubliners, it is probably not Saint Stephen’s Green, but ‘Stevenses Green,’ as in ‘Dr Steevenses Hospital’ and ‘Stevenses Day.’

I find it hard to call today ‘Boxing Day.’ For me, 26 December is always going to be Saint Stephen’s Day.

Stephen is a family name: my grandfather, father, eldest brother and a nephew were all baptised Stephen – four successive generations with the name Stephen Comerford. But my reasons for insisting on retaining the name of Saint Stephen’s Day is not some quirky genealogical sentimentality or some misplaced filial loyalty.

It is theologically important to remind ourselves on the day after Christmas Day of the important link between the Incarnation and bearing witness to our Resurrection faith.

Saint Stephen’s Day today (26 December), Holy Innocents’ Day two days later (28 December), and the commemoration of Thomas à Beckett on 29 December are reminders that Christmas, far from being surrounded by sanitised images of the crib, angels and wise men, is followed by martyrdom and violence. Close on the joy of Christmas comes the cost of following Christ. A popular expression, derived from the leading 17th century Quaker William Penn, says: ‘No Cross, No Crown.’

Saint Stephen the Deacon is the Protomartyr of Christianity. The Greek word or name Στέφανος (Stephanos) means ‘crown’ or ‘wreath’ and the Acts of the Apostles tell us that Saint Stephen earned his crown at his martyrdom when he was stoned to death around the year 34 or 35 CE by an angry mob encouraged by Saul of Tarsus, the future Apostle Paul.

Stephen was the first of the seven deacons chosen in the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem. While he was on trial, Saint Stephen experienced a theophany: But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ (Acts 7: 55-56).

The Lion’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem is also known as Saint Stephen’s Gate because of the tradition that Saint Stephen was stoned there. In 415 CE, a church was built in Saint Stephen’s honour in Jerusalem to hold his relics. The relics were later moved to Constantinople. Today, those relics are said to be buried under the altar of the Church of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome.

The ‘Feast of Stephen’ is inextricably linked with Christmas through the English carol Good King Wenceslas, although during my visits to Prague, I have been aware that the Czechs have a far better claim than the English to Good King Wenceslas.

Today is a public holiday in the United Kingdom as Boxing Day. But as Saint Stephen’s Day, today is still a public holiday in Ireland and many other countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and parts of France, the Philippines and Spain. In the Orthodox Church, Saint Stephen’s Day is celebrated on 27 December, and is known as the ‘Third Day of the Nativity.’

Saint Stephen Walbrook, a Wren church in the heart of the City of London, has been listed by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the 10 most important buildings in England.

Saint Stephen’s Church in Mount Street Crescent, Dublin – popularly known as the ‘Pepper Canister Church’ – is one of the last churches built in the classical style in Dublin. Saint Stephen’s, which opened in 1824, was designed by John Bowden and Joseph Welland. The tower and portico were modelled on three elegant monuments in Athens: the Erechtheum on the Acropolis (the portico), the Tower of the Winds (the campanile), and the Monument of Lysicrates (the cupola). But the Victorian apse, which was added in 1852, owes its inspiration to the Oxford Movement.

However, the most impressive church I have visited that is named after the first martyr is the Stephansdom, the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, in Vienna, which dates back to 1147.

I first visited the Stephansdom many years ago, while I was a panellist at a seminar organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 2002, and I have returned to visit the cathedral a number of times since then.

A memorial tablet there recalls Mozart’s relationship with the cathedral. This was his parish church when he lived at the ‘Figaro House’, he was married there and two of his children were baptised there. He was named an adjunct music director in the Stephansdom shortly before his death, and his funeral was held in the Chapel of the Cross in the cathedral in 1791.

The Stephansdom has 23 bells, and it is said Beethoven realised the full extent of his deafness when he saw birds flying from the bell tower and realised he could not hear the bells toll.

I have also visited Saint Stephen’s House, the theological college in Oxford popularly known as ‘Staggers,’ which is firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, maintaining high standards of liturgy and intellectual rigour.

Saint Stephen’s House was founded in 1876 by leading Anglo-Catholics members of the Anglo-Catholic Movement, including Edward King, then Regius professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford and later Bishop of Lincoln.

King was one of the outstandingly holy men of his time. Other founding figures included Henry Scott Holland, one of the leading figures in the development of the Christian social teaching of the time. It was he who suggested the name of the house.

Saint Stephen’s has moved since its foundation, and since 1980 it has been located at Iffley Road in East Oxford in the former monastery of the Cowley Fathers, where it is said Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany where he met with martyrdom.

Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom illustrates how none of this architecture or grandeur, nor the extension to the Christmas holiday provided by this saint’s day, would have any meaning today without the faithful witness of Saint Stephen, the first deacon and first martyr, who links our faith in the Incarnation with our faith in the Resurrection.

A tranquil morning in Saint Stepehen’s Green, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day):

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

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 26 December 2025, Saint Stephen’s Day) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we give thanks for the mothers and babies at Mvumi Hospital who are HIV-free. We celebrate this gift of life and health, and pray that you will continue to be present by your Spirit.

The Collect:

Gracious Father,
who gave the first martyr Stephen
grace to pray for those who took up stones against him:
grant that in all our sufferings for the truth
we may learn to love even our enemies
and to seek forgiveness for those who desire our hurt,
looking up to heaven to him who was crucified for us,
Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
we thank you for the signs of your mercy
revealed in birth and death:
save us by the coming of your Son,
and give us joy in honouring Stephen,
first martyr of the new Israel;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The interior of the Stephansdom or Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A walk though Soho to ask why there is no Greek restaurant or church on Greek Street

The Pillars of Hercules on Greek Street, Soho, celebrates the feats of Hercules in Greek mythology (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

One of the silly conundrums I pose when I find myself in Soho is: why is there no Greek restaurant on Greek Street?

Greek Street, which runs from Soho Square to Shaftesbury Avenue, takes its name from the small Greek church that stood on Hog Lane, now buried under Charing Cross Road, roughly where the Montague Pyke pub now stands.

An early map by Fairthorn and Newcourt in 1658 shows the location as a rectangular field that may have been owned by the Crown. A parcel of land known as Soho Fields was steadily sold off to developers.

Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, acquired the ownership of the area in the 1660s, and then leased out the land to Joseph Girle. He received permission to develop the area and then, in turn, passed on the lease for development to a builder, Richard Frith, who gives his name to Frith Street, where Mozart stayed at No 20 in 1764-1765.

Work on developing Greek Street began in 1680. William Morgan’s map in 1682 shows Greek Street with 17 plots on its east side and 12 on the west side, and the street was bisected by Queen’s Street, now Bateman Street.

The Pillars of Hercules, a half-timber pub dating from the early 18th century, on Greek Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The origins of the first Greek Orthodox Church in London dates back to the late 17th century. The first church was founded to meet the needs of a growing Greek community in London.

The main driving force behind the new church was Metropolitan Joseph Georgerinis of Samos. A Greek priest, Father Daniel Voulgaris, and number of Greeks living in London signed a petition in 1674 seeking permission ‘to build a church in any part of the city of London, where they may freely exercise their religion according to the Greek Church’.

Permission was granted in 1675 and work began in 1677 on building a small church. The church was completed in 1681, and was dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

The church stood at what was then the edge of the city in Soho in Hog Lane, off Charing Cross Road, and Hog Lane eventually became known as Greek Street. Most Greeks in London at the time were refugees from the oppression of the Ottoman Turks, but lived and worked in the City and around the ports of London. The church was too far from those Greek residents and they found they were unable to attend the Divine Liturgy regularly or support its function.

The church ended up being sold in 1682 and the building was taken over by another group of refugees, French Protestant Huguenots who had fled to England. There were more than 30 Huguenot churches and chapels in London by the early 18th century.

Although the church changed hands, the name Greek Street stuck with the street, which was laid out in the 1670s and 1680s, with taverns, coffee houses and tradesmen’s workshops.

William Hogarth’s painting and print, ‘Noon’ (1736-1738) shows a scene outside the former Greek church on Greek Street

William Hogarth produced a set of four paintings and prints in 1736-1738, including one called ‘Noon’ that shows a scene outside the Greek church, which by then had become the French Church. The spire in the background is either Saint Anne’s Church, Soho, or Saint Giles-in-the-Fields.

The early residents of Greek Street included Arthur Annesley (1678-1737), 5th Earl of Anglesey and 6th Viscount Valentia, who was MP for Cambridge and for New Ross, Co Wexford, in the English and Irish Houses of Commons at the same time. He owned large estates near Camolin, Wexford, and his offices in Ireland included Vice-Treasurer and Paymaster General and Governor of Co Wexford.

Casanova stayed on Greek Street when he was visiting London in 1764. No 1 was once the home of Sir William Beckford (1709-1770), twice Lord Mayor of London (1762, 1769). Other residents included Josiah Wedgwood in 1774-1797.

The writer Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859), author of Confessions of an Opium-Eater (1821), also stayed on Greek Street for a time. Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891) began designing London’s sewer system in the offices of the Westminster Commissioners Sewers at No 1 Greek Street. No 1 later became the House of Saint Barnabas.

The passageway through the arch seen from Manette Street, with the name of the Pillars of Hercules seen above (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

With no Greek restaurants, and the long disappearance of the Greek church, the only hint of a Greek presence, past or present, on Greek Street is through the name Greek mythology has given to the Pillars of Hercules, a half-timbered pub at No 7, at the north end of Greek Street.

The name celebrates the feats of Hercules, who was renowned for his strength and courage, and two landmarks, the Rock of Gibraltar on the north side and Mount Hacho on the south side that mark the entrance to the Mediterranean. Greek mythology says Hercules set up the pillars after cleaving a path through the land to create the Straits of Gibraltar during his tenth laboir. The northern pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar, while the southern pillar is either Jebel Musa in Morocco or Monte Hacho in Ceuta.

Most of what exists of the Pillars of Hercules today was built around 1910. But a pub has been on the site since before 1700, and it was first recorded in 1709.

The passageway through the arch at the side of the pub through leads into Manette Street, named after Dr Manette, one of the characters in A Tale of Two Cities, who is described by Charles Dickens as living near Soho Square.

Greek mythology says Hercules created the Straits of Gibraltar when he pushed two pillars apart, separating Europe from Africa (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A sign at the pub says the Pillars of Hercules was also frequented in the 19th century by the poet, cricket lover and Catholic mystic Francis Thompson (1859-1906), author of the poem The Hound of Heaven.

Those literary associations were revived in the 1970s when the Pillars of Hercules was known as a literary pub and the meeting place of writers such as Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Clive James and Ian Hamilton. Clive James named his second book of literary criticism At the Pillars of Hercules, apparently because most of the pieces were commissioned, delivered or written there.

The pub closed on 24 February 2018, but reopened later that year as Bar Hercules under new owners Be At One. In 2022, the cocktail bar chain Simmons took over the pub, and the pub continues to serve under the name of the Pillars of Hercules above the arch and the sign of Hercules above the Greek Street façade.

Other premises on Greek Street today include the Coach and Horses (No 29), the Gay Hussar restaurant (No 2) and Maison Bertaux (No 28), the oldest French pâtisserie in London. Three of the mirrors in the shop contain the inscriptions Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and each year, the shop creates a tableau vivant on 14 July to celebrate Bastille Day – so, even if you can’t get a good Greek meal on Greek Street, there is always a good French patisserie.

As for the former Greek church on Greek Street, it was demolished in 1934. However, the inscription commemorating the foundation of the first Greek Orthodox Church in London has survived and can still be seen in the left part of the narthex of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Bayswater.

Sunlight on the waters of the Straits of Gibraltar between the Pillars of Hercules and the coasts of Spain and Morocco (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Christmas 2024-2025: 2, Thursday 26 December 2024, Saint Stephen’s Day

An image of Saint Stephen in Saint Stephen Walbrook, London … on the site of a seventh century Saxon church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

Christmas is not over; this is the second day of Christmas and today is Saint Stephen’s Day, the feast of Saint Stephen the deacon and first martyr. This is also the second day of Hanukkah this year.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Saint Stephen before the Council … a window by CE Kempe (1837-1907) in the south aisle in Lichfield Cathedral in memory of John Toke Godfrey-Faussett (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 10: 17-22 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 17 ‘Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’

A tranquil morning in Saint Stepehen’s Green, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading in the lectionary for the Eucharist today tells us nothing about the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Instead, the story of his martyrdom is found in one of the other readings (Acts 7: 51-60).

It is more than 50 years since I was training to be a chartered surveyor with Jones Lang Wootton and the College of Estate Management in Reading University. One day, a file for an investment or development property in Dublin went missing. It was an important portfolio, and ought to have been filed under ‘S’ for ‘Saint Stephen’s Green.’

Eventually, the file was found under the letter ‘G’.

‘I filed it under ‘G’ for Green,’ the person who did the filing explained.

But for many Dubliners, it is probably not Saint Stephen’s Green, but ‘Stevenses Green,’ as in ‘Dr Stevenses Hospital’ and ‘Stevenses Day.’

I find it hard to call today ‘Boxing Day.’ For me, 26 December is always going to be Saint Stephen’s Day.

Stephen is a family name: my grandfather, father, eldest brother and a nephew were all baptised Stephen. But my reasons for insisting on retaining the name of Saint Stephen’s Day is not some quirky genealogical sentimentality or some displaced filial loyalty.

It is theologically important to remind ourselves on the day after Christmas Day of the important link between the Incarnation and bearing witness to the Resurrection faith.

Saint Stephen’s Day today [26 December], Holy Innocents’ Day (28 December), and the commemoration of Thomas à Beckett on 29 December are reminders that Christmas, far from being surrounded by sanitised images of the crib, angels and wise men, is followed by martyrdom and violence. Close on the joy of Christmas comes the cost of following Christ. A popular expression, derived from the leading 17th century Quaker William Penn, says: ‘No Cross, No Crown.’

Saint Stephen the Deacon is the Protomartyr of Christianity. The Greek word or name Στέφανος (Stephanos) means ‘crown’ or ‘wreath’ and the Acts of the Apostles tell us that Saint Stephen earned his crown at his martyrdom when he was stoned to death around the year 34 or 35 CE by an angry mob encouraged by Saul of Tarsus, the future Apostle Paul.

Stephen was the first of the seven deacons chosen in the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem. While he was on trial, Saint Stephen experienced a theophany: But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ (Acts 7: 55-56).

The Lion’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem is also known as Saint Stephen’s Gate because of the tradition that Saint Stephen was stoned there. In 415 CE, a church was built in Saint Stephen’s honour in Jerusalem to hold his relics. The relics were later moved to Constantinople. Today, those relics are said to be buried under the altar of the Church of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome.

The ‘Feast of Stephen’ is inextricably linked with Christmas through the English carol Good King Wenceslas, although during my recent visits to Prague, I have been aware that the Czechs have a far better claim than the English to Good King Wenceslas.

Today is a public holiday in the United Kingdom as Boxing Day. But as Saint Stephen’s Day, today is still a public holiday in Ireland and many other countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and parts of France, the Philippines and Spain. In the Orthodox Church, Saint Stephen’s Day is celebrated on 27 December, and is known as the ‘Third Day of the Nativity.’

Saint Stephen Walbrook, a Wren church in the heart of the City of London, has been listed by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the 10 most important buildings in England.

Saint Stephen’s Church in Mount Street Crescent, Dublin – popularly known as the ‘Pepper Canister Church’ – is one of the last churches built in the classical style in Dublin. Saint Stephen’s, which opened in 1824, was designed by John Bowden and Joseph Welland. The tower and portico were modelled on three elegant monuments in Athens: the Erechtheum on the Acropolis (the portico), the Tower of the Winds (the campanile), and the Monument of Lysicrates (the cupola). But the Victorian apse, which was added in 1852, owes its inspiration to the Oxford Movement.

However, the most impressive church I have visited that is named after the first martyr is the Stephansdom, the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, in Vienna, which dates back to 1147.

I first visited the Stephansdom many years ago, while I was a panellist at a seminar organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 2002, and I have returned to visit the cathedral a number of times since then.

A memorial tablet there recalls Mozart’s relationship with the cathedral. This was his parish church when he lived at the ‘Figaro House’, he was married there and two of his children were baptised there. He was named an adjunct music director in the Stephansdom shortly before his death, and his funeral was held in the Chapel of the Cross in the cathedral in 1791.

The Stephansdom has 23 bells, and it is said Beethoven realised the full extent of his deafness when he saw birds flying from the bell tower and realised he could not hear the bells toll.

I have also visited Saint Stephen’s House, the theological college in Oxford popularly known as ‘Staggers,’ which is firmly rooted in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, maintaining high standards of liturgy and intellectual rigour.

Saint Stephen’s House was founded in 1876 by leading Anglo-Catholics members of the Anglo-Catholic Movement, including Edward King, then Regius professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford and later Bishop of Lincoln.

King was one of the outstandingly holy men of his time. Other founding figures included Henry Scott Holland, one of the leading figures in the development of the Christian social teaching of the time. It was he who suggested the name of the house.

Saint Stephen’s has moved since its foundation, and since 1980 has been located at Iffley Road in East Oxford in the former monastery of the Cowley Fathers, where it is said Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany where he met with martyrdom.

Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom illustrates how none of this architecture or grandeur, nor the extension to the Christmas holiday provided by this saint’s day, would have any meaning today without the faithful witness of Saint Stephen, the first deacon and first martyr, who links our faith in the Incarnation with our faith in the Resurrection.

Saint Stephen’s House, the theological college on Iffley Road, Oxford … where Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided to return to Germany and his eventual martyrdom (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 26 December 2024, Saint Stephen’s Day):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Love – Advent’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Lopa Mudra Mistry, Presbyter in the Diocese of Calcutta, the Church of North India (CNI).

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 26 December 2024, Saint Stephen’s Day) invites us to pray:

Father God, as we bask in the joy of your coming may we remember at this time of year that many are lonely and suffering. Be with them O Lord.

The Collect:

Gracious Father,
who gave the first martyr Stephen
grace to pray for those who took up stones against him:
grant that in all our sufferings for the truth
we may learn to love even our enemies
and to seek forgiveness for those who desire our hurt,
looking up to heaven to him who was crucified for us,
Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
we thank you for the signs of your mercy
revealed in birth and death:
save us by the coming of your Son,
and give us joy in honouring Stephen,
first martyr of the new Israel;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The interior of the Stephansdom or Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (10) 14 November 2023

The Basilica of San Domenico, seen from the cloisters, is one of the major churches in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. This week began with the Third Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday (12 November 2023).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (14 November) remembers the life and work of Samuel Seabury (1796), the first Anglican Bishop in North America.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

Throughout the rest of this week, I am resuming my theme of Italian cathedrals and churches, and my reflections this morning are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a church in Bologna;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The shrine of Saint Dominic in Saint Dominic’s chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna:

Bologna has a rich collection of churches and basilicas, and one of the major churches in the city is the Basilica of San Domenico, which dates back to the arrival of Saint Dominic over 800 years ago in the year 1218.

The basilica is visited regularly by pilgrims and tourists who come to visit the church because Saint Dominic is buried inside in the exquisite shrine of the Arca di San Domenico..

The shrine is the work of Nicola Pisano and his workshop and of Arnolfo di Cambio, and there are later additions by Niccolò dell’Arca and the young Michelangelo.

When Saint Dominic, Dominic Guzman, first arrived in Bologna in January 1218, he was impressed by the vitality of the city and recognised the importance of the university city.

The first house for Dominicans was established at the Mascarella church by Reginald of Orleans. But this house soon became too small for the growing number of friars, and in 1219 the brothers of Dominic’s Order of Preachers moved to the small church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards on the outskirts of Bologna.

Saint Dominic also moved to this church and the first two General Chapters of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans were held there in 1220 and 1221. Saint Dominic died in that church on 6 August 1221, and was buried behind the altar of San Nicolò.

Between 1219 and 1243, the Dominicans bought all the plots of land surrounding the church. After the death of Saint Dominic, the church of San Nicolò was expanded and a new monastic complex was built between 1228 and 1240.

The church was then extended and grew into the Basilica of Saint Dominic, which in time become the prototype of many other Dominican churches throughout the world.

The basilica was divided in two parts divided by a ramp: the front part, or ‘internal church,’ was the church of the brothers, and the church for the faithful, or the ‘external church.’ The church was consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251.

The remains of Saint Dominic were moved in 1233 from a place behind the altar to a simple marble sarcophagus. But most of the pilgrims could not see the new shrine, which was hidden by many people standing in front of it.

The need for a new shrine was identified, and in 1267 the remains of Saint Dominic were moved from the simple sarcophagus into a new shrine, decorated with episodes from the life of the saint by Nicola Pisano.

Saint Dominic’s chapel is the main chapel of the church. It has a square plan and a semi-circular apse, where the remains of the saint rest in the splendid Arca di San Domenico under the cupola which contains three sculptures by Michelangelo: Angel, Saint Proclus and Saint Petronius.

The chapel was built by the Bolognese architect Floriano Ambrosini, replacing the old gothic chapel from 1413, to match the splendour of the other existing chapels. It was decorated between 1614 and 1616 by important painters of the Bolognese school.

In the course of the next centuries, the church was enlarged, modified and rebuilt. New side chapels were built, a bell tower was added, the dividing wall between the two churches was demolished, and the choir was moved behind the altar. Then, in 1728-1732, the interior of the church was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style by the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti (1678-1759) under the patronage of Pope Benedict XIII, who was a Dominican.

The imposing Crucifixion in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel is the masterpiece by Giunta Pisano, ca 1250) It was strongly influenced by the Byzantine style and represents one of the best examples of 13th-century Italian painting.

Mozart played on the organ in the Rosary Chapel in 1769, while he was studying with Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna.

The square in front of the church, now paved with pebbles, was also the original cemetery. In the middle of the square, a bronze statue of Saint Dominic (1627) stands on the top of a brickwork column.

Close-by are two unique Byzantine-Venetian-style tombs of the celebrated jurists of Rolandino de’ Passeggeri and Egidio Foscarari.

The relics of Saint Dominic in the richly-decorated shrine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 17: 7-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

Inside the Basilica of Saint Dominic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 14 November 2023):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), draws on ‘A Prayer for Remembrance Sunday and International Day of Tolerance’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (14 November 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord, we pray for tolerance of differences of every kind and an awareness of the good in all.

‘Gloria di San Domenico’, a fresco on the cupola of Saint Dominic’s Chapel, was painted by Guido Reni in 1613-1615 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘The Crucifixion’ by Giunta Pisano, ca 1250, in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The cloisters at the Basilica di San Domenico in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (17) 25 April 2023

The Church of Saint Nicholas in the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) in Prague has been described as the greatest example of Prague Baroque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are still in the season of Easter, and the Church Calendar today commemorates Saint Mark the Evangelist (25 April 2023).

Following my recent visit to Prague, I am reflecting each morning this week in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a church in Prague;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Inside the Church of Saint Nicholas in the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) of Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Nicholas Church, Malá Strana, Prague:

In this prayer doary yesterday, I was discussing the Church of Saint Nicholas in the Old Town Square in Prague. But the Czech capital has a second church with the same dedication: the Church of Saint Nicholas, a Baroque church in the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) of Prague. It was built in 1704-1755 on a site where a Gothic church also dedicated to Saint Nicholas had stood from the 13th century. This church has been described as the greatest example of Prague Baroque.

The original Gothic Church of Saint Nicholas that stood on this site was given to the Jesuits sometime after 1620, and the parish transferred to Saint Václav’s Church. The Jesuits opened a primary school and a junior secondary school in 1628.

In the second half of the 17th century the Jesuits decided to build a new church designed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi. A partial impression of the original planned appearance of the church is provided by the Chapel of Saint Barbara, which was built first so that mass could be celebrated. Old Saint Nicholas was demolished and in 1673 the cornerstone was laid for the new church.

The church was built in two stages in the 18th century. From 1703 to 1711, the west façade, the choir, the Chapels of Saint Barbara and Saint Anne were built.

Count Wenceslaus Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky (1634-1659) was the largest patron of the church. He donated his entire estate to building the church and the adjacent buildings in Malá Strana.

The new plans involved an intricate geometrical system of interconnected cylinders with a central dome above the transept. The massive nave with side chapels and an undulating vault based on a system of intersecting ellipsoids was apparently built by Christoph Dientzenhofer. The pillars between the wide spans of the arcade supporting the triforium were meant to maximise the dynamic effect of the church.

The chancel and its copper cupola were built in 1737-1752 to plans by Dientzenhofer’s son, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. Dientzenhofer died in 1751, and the church tower was completed in 1752. During the years the church continued to expand its interior beauty.

When the of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits was supressed by Pope Clement XIV, Saint Nicholas became the main parish church of the Lesser Town in 1775.

During the communist era, the church tower was used as an observatory for State Security because the tower made it possible to keep watch on the US and Yugoslav embassies and the route to the West German embassy.

The church has been described as ‘the most impressive example of Prague Baroque’ and ‘without doubt the greatest Baroque church in Prague and the Dientzenhofers’ supreme achievement.’

The Baroque organ has over 4,000 pipes up to six metres in length and was played by Mozart during his visit to Prague in 1787. Mozart’s Mass in C was first performed in the Church of Saint Nicholas shortly after his visit. Poignantly, it was in Saint Nicholas Church that a Requiem Mass was said for Mozart on 14 December 1791. The lavish requiem was performed by over 100 musicians who accepted no payment and was attended by thousands. It ended with church bells ringing all over town.

The 79 metre tall belfry is directly connected with the church’s massive dome. The belfry with great panoramic view, was unlike the church completed in Rococo forms in 1751-1756 by Anselmo Lurago.

Mass is celebrated in the church every Sunday at 8.30 pm, and there are daily organ and church music concerts from April to October.

The Church of Saint Nicholas in the Lesser Town (Malá Strana) of Prague has many associations with Mozart (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Mark 13: 5-13 (NRSVA):

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

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

During the communist era, the church tower was used by State Security to keep watch on the US, West German and Yugoslav embassies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Praying for Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Anglican Chaplain in Warsaw, Poland, the Revd David Brown, who reflected on peace in the light of yesterday’s International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Saint Mark, 25 April 2023):

Let us pray for all who seek to share the Gospel. May we give thanks for Saint Mark, for his gift of communication and his faithfulness to the life and mission of Jesus.

Collect:

Almighty God,
who enlightened your holy Church
through the inspired witness of your evangelist Saint Mark:
grant that we, being firmly grounded
in the truth of the gospel,
may be faithful to its teaching both in word and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

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

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The steps leading up the tower of Saint Nicholas Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

Following in the footsteps of Mozart and his visits to Prague

The Mozart Prague … the hotel is a former baroque palace visited by Mozart in 1789 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We were staying in the Charles Bridge Palace Hotel when we were in Prague last week. The hotel is a mere two- or three-minute walk from the Charles Bridge, and yes, we did get up at dawn to try to photograph the bridge early in the morning before the tourists arrived in great numbers.

Other attractions within easy walking distance include the National Theatre, National Museum, National Opera, Clementinum Library, Rudolfinum concert hall and the old Jewish quarter.

The hotel next door to us was the Mozart Prague – and, of course, it is one of the many places in Prague where Mozart is said to have stayed.

Prague was much kinder than Vienna to Mozart during his many visits, and he may have stayed longer in the Bohemian capital but for the allure of a court appointment in Austrian capital.

At every corner, twist and turn in Prague, it seems, there is some connection with the great composer: a house with rooms where he is said to have slept, a church where he played the organ, a theatre where he performed or conducted, a bar or resturant with his portrait on the wall …

Mozart’s portait in the Black Star restaurant in the Old Town in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Mozart Prague is one of a group of cultural and architectural buildings in the heritage district in the heart of the Unesco-recognised Old Town neighbourhood in Prague. The hotel consists of two unique structures—a Neoclassical building and a Baroque palace.

The Pachtuv Palace dates back to 1628, when the Pachta family was ennobled in the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Ferdinand II. A century later, Count Hubert Karel Pachta of Rajov bought a plot of land where four mediaeval townhouses once stood and began building his palace.

Jan Josef Wirch, who developed the design, was inspired by a blend of Baroque designs and incorporated many Baroque motifs, with colonnades, cupolas, domes, cartouches and gilding. Inside, he installed crystal chandeliers, with quadrature and trompe-l’œil paintings on the ceilings, and the family coat of arms was engraved at the entrance to the palace.

By 1770, Count Pachta’s Pachtuv Palace was one of the most spectacular estates in the heart of Prague. It had become the setting for lavish soirees, as the count and his descendants entertained visitors and dignitaries.

For generations, the Pachtas were celebrated for their love of music. They entertained well-known musicians and composers from across Europe, with the Pachtas often playing their own instruments with their visitors.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited the Pachtas for several days in 1789. According to tradition, Josef Pachta, one of Hubert Karel Pachta’s heirs, jokingly ‘imprisoned’ Mozart in one of the bedrooms to make him keep his promise to compose some new music. Left with just a quill and some paper, Mozart spent several hours writing ‘Six German Dances, K 509.’

When Mozart completed the composition, he played the entire ballad before the Pachtas during one of their many galas.

The Mozart Prague … Mozart visited the Pachtas for several days in 1789 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

While Vienna was Mozart’s creative home, Prague opened its arms to him in the 1780s. The Marriage of Figaro had its Czech premiere in the Estates Theatre in 1786, when its warm reception was in contrast with the moderate enthusiasm it received in Vienna.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first visited Prague on 11 January 1787 with his wife Constanze. A week later, on 19 January, he conducted the premiere of his Symphony in D major, now known as the Prague Symphony, K504.

On 20 January, there was a performance of The Marriage of Figaro, which had a more successful run in Prague than in Vienna. Mozart improvised a solo on the piano – including variations on the popular aria ‘Non più andrai’ from The Marriage of Figaro. Later, he said he ‘counted this day as one of the happiest of his life.’

One legend from this visit has the host of a party inviting him an hour before all the other guests and making him compose new dances for the evening. The high sophistication of Prague’s musical public meant that Mozart found a receptive acceptance. He is said to have declared, Meine Prager verstehen mich, ‘My Praguers understand me’ – although there is no documentary evidence for these words.

During this first stay, Mozart and his wife Constanze were guests of Count Thun-Hohenstein at the Thun Palace in Malá Strana, the site of the present British Embassy. Mozart had composed his symphony K425 for Count Thun in 1783, and he knew the countess from Vienna.

The present British Embassy dates from a later period, and it would appear that Count Thun’s original palace was damaged by fire in the early 1790s. Popular tradition says the embassy has a letter from Mozart in his own handwriting, thought to be a ‘thank you’ note. But this tradition is doubted.

Mozart offered little description of the palace, but said there was a ‘very good’ pianoforte in his room, and that one evening, a quartet was played instead of his compositions.

Mozart also stayed at an inn on Celetná Street. He was feted everywhere in Prague and stayed until the second week of February.

The House of the Three Golden Lions in Prague Old Town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Mozart’s second visit to Prague is the most famous, when he came for the first performance of Don Giovanni. He arrived on 4 October 1787 and stayed until 12 or 13 November. The maestro visited FX Dusek and his wife the opera singer Josepha, at their rural villa Bertramka.

Josepha Duschek had a particularly strong connection with Mozart through her frequent visits to his native Salzburg, where one of her grandfathers was once mayor.

During that visit, Mozart and Constanze stayed at the House of the Three Golden Lions, an inn on Uhelny trída and separated from the Estates Theatre by Rytirska Street. Tradition says Mozart worked with Lorenzo Da Ponte, his librettist for Don Giovanni, through an open window as Da Ponte was occupying rooms opposite.

The Estates Theatre, where Mozart conducted the premiere of ‘Don Giovanni’ on 29 October 1787 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

After several missed deadlines, Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre on 29 October 1787, and the opera was received rapturously. In spare time on this visit, it is said, he also tried out a number of church organs. Mozart played the baroque organ, with over 4,000 pipes, in Saint Nicholas Church in the Lesser Town, according to tradition during his second visit in 1787. No actual record survives of him playing there.

Mozart composed the song K530 ‘Das Traumbild’ and dated it Prague 6 November 1787 – so he may have written it in the House of the Three Golden Lions. A plaque and a medallion bust commemorate Mozart’s stay in 1787. There is an Italian restaurant on the ground floor and the adjoining hair-studio is fittingly called ‘Amadeus’.

Mozart was asked to stay on in Prague to write another opera, but decided to return to Vienna. Either he was eager to apply for a court position that had just become available, or he realised that Vienna had more talented musicians than Prague.

A medallion bust of Mozart at the House of the Three Golden Lions in Prague Old Town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Mozart was on his way to Berlin with Prince Karl Lichnowsky, when they passed through Prague on 10 April 1789. This third visit to Prague was fleeting: Mozart arrived on 10 April, and spent one night at U Zlatého jednorožce near the Maltese Square in Malá Strana. He also stayed at the Pachtuv Palace.

In a letter to Constanze, he describes going to see ‘Pachta’ (Major General Johann Joseph Philipp Pachta von Rayhofen) at the Pachtuv Palace. There is a tradition that Mozart wrote his K509 (‘Six German Dances’) while locked in one of the palace’s rooms. One of the hotel’s rooms has a ‘Mozart Suite’. It is also said that this where Mozart met Giacomo Casanova.

He returned to Prague on his way back to Vienna on 31 May 1789 and stayed perhaps a day or two longer.

Mozart’s fourth and final visit to Prague was in 1791, just months before he died. He promised to write a new opera to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, having received the commission after Antonio Salieri allegedly turned it down. Mozart arrived in Prague on 28 August 1791, and the opera received its first performance in the Estates Theatre on 6 September 1791. Unfortunately, it was written hastily and was not well received. He left in the third week of September.

A Requiem Mass for Mozart was celebrated in Saint Nicholas Church, where it is said he once played the organ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Vienna was less than kind to Mozart and his music; Prague, on the other hand, responded enthusiastically. When he died in Vienna on 5 December 1791, the city buried him in a common grave. But when the people of Prague heard the news of his death, they went into mourning that far exceeded that in any other European city.

Poignantly, it was in Saint Nicholas Church that a Requiem Mass was said for Mozart on 14 December 1791. The lavish requiem was performed by over 100 musicians who accepted no payment and was attended by thousands. It ended with church bells ringing all over town.

In later years, the people of Prague supported Mozart’s widow and orphaned children until she remarried.

The film Amadeus, based on the Peter Shaffer play, was released in 1984. It was a fictional take on the rivalry between the young and brash Mozart and the far-less-talented court composer, Salieri. Although set in Vienna, where Mozart lived much of his life, the film was shot in Prague.

The Charles Bridge in Prague at dawn, before the tourists arrive in great numbers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Did the Golem save Mendelssohn from the Nazis in Prague?

The Rudolfinum in Prague … but which statue on the roof portrays Mendelssohn? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us have spent two or three days on a mid-week visit to Prague: the city of Good King Wenceslas and Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera and Václav Havel, the city of the Charles Bridge and Jan Hus, the city of the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution, and the city of the Golem, who is said to have saved Mendelssohn from the Nazis.

Prague is also a city of composers. This is where Mozart composed Don Giovanni, and Prague has associations too with Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Bohuslav Martinů, Jan Dismas Zelenka and Leoš Janáček. There are links too with Vivaldi and Beethoven.

Surprsingly, I could find no links with Mendelssohn in Prague. But the story of the Golem and Mendelssohn was first told in Mendelssohn is on the Roof, a novel by Jiří Weil, a Holocaust survivor who was instrumental in saving many of the synagogues in Prague after World War II.

Jiří Weil (1900-1959) was a Czech writer, literary critic, journalist and translator, is known for the novels Moscow–Border (1937) and Life with a Star (1949). After World War II and the Holocaust, he worked at the Jewish Museum until 1958, when he retired on disability. He died of leukemia a year later.

His novel Mendelssohn is on the Roof was published posthumously in 1960. It is set in occupied Prague and the Terezín ghetto during World War II, and its main themes are the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

The Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie, who is writing in this weekend’s Church Times, told The story of Mendelssohn and the Golem once again in his recent book, Priests de la Résistance! (London: Oneworld, 2021), a humorous but pungent account of ‘the loose canons who fought fascism in the 20th century.’

During the Nazi occupation of Prague, the Gestapo director Reinhard Heydrich arrived in 1941 as ‘Protector’ of Bohemia and Moravia.

Prague is home to myriad opera houses, theatres and concert halls, including the Rudolfinum, a five-minute walk from where we were staying and where the roof is ringed by lare statues of the great composers.

Heydrich soon became aware that among the statues was one of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), who was born Jewish. Heydrich ordered the immediate removal and destruction of Mendelssohn’s stone statue. But the group of soldiers sent to the concert hall were met with stony silence from the tight-lipped curators, who declined to say which statue was Mendelssohn.

The frustrated soldiers found a measuring tape and, in a demonstration of the absurdity and futility of eugenics, proceeded to measure the nose of each of statue, seeking to establish which composer had ‘a Jewish nose.’ As they prepared to remove the statue, an onlooker shouted up that the figure they were removing was, in fact, Richard Wagner, Hitler’s favourite composer.

The real tragedy is that this story is based on a real-life event. In all, more than a quarter of a million Czechoslovak Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and only 15,000 had survived by the end of World War II.

Did the Golem save Mendelssohn?

Perhps I should tell the story of the Golem some day next week.

Mendelssohn on the roof of the Rudolfinum … frustrated the anti-Semitic scheming of the Gestapo in Prague

Cultural diversity is alive in post-Brexit London in Chinatown and the West End

Chinatown grew up around Gerrard Street, off Shaftesbury Avenue, in the 1970s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us have been in London twice in recent weeks, exploring Southwark on the South Bank and strolling through Chinatown in Soho, meeting friends in the afternoon or for dinner in the evening.

Chinatown borders Soho and Theatreland, in an area around Gerrard Street, off Shaftesbury Avenue. It includes Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, souvenir shops, banks and other Chinese-run businesses.

London’s first Chinatown was in Limehouse in the East End, where Chinese immigrants began to arrive in the 18th century. By 1914, a Chinese community was burgeoning with new restaurants and shops catering for sailors.

The present Chinatown only dates from the 1950s to the 1970s. After World War II, the increasing popularity of Chinese cuisine and the arrival of immigrants from Hong Kong led to an increasing number of Chinese restaurants opening in the area that became Chinatown.

Gerrard Street was the birthplace of the Post Office and the home of Ronnie Scott’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Before Chinese restaurants and businesses began to pop up in the 1950s, this area had a long and colourful history: this area was the birthplace of the Post Office, the home of Ronnie Scott’s and the playground of the literary elite.

In the panic to rebuild London after the Great Fire in the late 17th century, the owner of the land, Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1618-1694), gave permission for houses to be built on former farmland that had become a military training ground.

Gerrard Street was built between 1677 and 1685. Within a century the surrounding area had become a haunt for artists, authors and political activists, such as Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds, who discussed and debated the problems of the world at the Turk’s Head Inn.

The area soon attracted immigrant communities: the French Huguenots were followed in the 19th century by Irish, Italian, Jewish and Maltese settlers, who followed one another. By the time Ronnie Scott set up his first jazz club in the basement of 39 Gerrard Street, Soho had become a cultural magnet.

By the late 1960s, Chinatown was the epicentre of London’s Chinese community (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

When London’s Chinese community started to move towards the area in the 1950s, it had a reputation for its nightlife and its cheap commercial rents. Chinese-owned supermarkets and restaurants were the first to open, followed by more entrepreneurs, and Chinatown was born.

By the late 1960s, Chinatown was the epicentre of London’s Chinese community, by then in their tens of thousands as more and more Chinese workers arrived from Hong Kong.

The area got the full Chinatown treatment in the 1980s, when Chinese gates, street furniture and a pavilion were added, and Gerrard Street, parts of Newport Place and Macclesfield Street were pedestrianised.

From bakeries to bars and restaurants to reflexology, today’s Chinatown is a thriving hub of Oriental wonder, including souvenir shops, health clinics, barbers, travel agents and banks. The Chinatown gate on Wardour Street, installed in 2016. It was made by Chinese artisans in the style of the Qing dynasty and assembled in London.

Maison Bertaux at 28 Greek Street is the oldest French pâtisserie in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Greek Street, between Soho Square and Shaftesbury Avenue, is famous for its restaurants and cosmopolitan nature. Greek Street takes its name from a Greek church that was built in 1677 in adjacent Crown Street, now part of the west side of Charing Cross Road. The church is depicted in William Hogarth’s ‘Noon’ in Four Hours of the Day.

Maison Bertaux at 28 Greek Street is the oldest French pâtisserie in London. It was founded in 1871 by a Monsieur Bertaux, a communard from Paris. He arrived in London as a political refugee and opened his shop in the heart of the French community in late 19th century London. The French Protestant church is nearby in Soho Square, while the Catholic Notre Dame de France is in Leicester Place.

Three of the mirrors in the shop contain the inscriptions Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Each year, the shop creates a tableau vivant on 14 July to celebrate Bastille Day.

Mozart stayed at No 20 Frith Street in 1764-1765 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Nearby on Frith Street, the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lodged at No 20 with his father and sister in 1764-1765. John Logie Baird lived at No 22 from 1924 to 1926, and there on 26 January 1926 he first demonstrated television to members of the Royal Institution.

Today, No 22 is Bar Italia, one of London’s best-known Italian cafés. It was first opened in 1949 by the Polledri family, and is still owned by Veronica and Anthony Polledri today.

Bar Italia inspired the song of the same name by the band Pulp, the last track of their album Different Class (1995). The song describes the café as ‘round the corner in Soho’ and ‘where other broken people go.’

Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics, once said, ‘This coffee shop is very small but what goes on in there is as big as the world.’ Bar Italia has been named at times as London Coffee Shop of the Year.

Next door, Jimmy’s opened at No 23 in 1948 and was the oldest Greek restaurant in Soho until it closed in recent years.

The streets with their Bohemian atmosphere and multicultural variety reflect the diversity that is flourishing in London, even in these post-Brexit days.

Bar Italia at No 22 Frith Street is one of the best-known Italian cafés in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)