COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
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.
The Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built in the Kourtaliotiko Gorge in 1853, between Rethymnon and Preveli (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, 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.
I have visited Preveli Monatery a few times, and on the way there and back, between Preveli and Rethymnon, I usually passed through the Kourtaliotiko Gorge and visited the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki.
The Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built into the side of the gorge, with the natural rock face serving as one of its main walls (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Kourtaliotiko Gorge (Κουρταλιώτικο Φαράγγι), also known as the Asomatos Gorge (Φαράγγι Ασώματου), is on the south side of the western part of Crete. It is located where the Kourtaliotiko River flows south between the mountains of Kouroupa and Xiron.
The village of Koxare is at the north end of the gorge. A road runs north to south through the gorge connecting Koxare to Asomatos; it then leads west, to the town of Plakias on the south coast of Crete. The cliffs on the side of the gorge provide a roosting site for the Lammergeier vulture.
At one point in the gorge, about 20 metres from the north entrance, some ‘claps’ can be heard, like hands coming together. These ‘claps’ are the kourtala that give the name ο Κουρταλιώτης (o Kourtaliotis, ‘the rattle’ and ‘the noisy’) to the gorge. They are caused by the wind being funnelled through the high caves of the gorge and breaking the sound barrier.
On the road between Asomatos and Koxare in the gorge, the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki was built in 1853, with the natural rock face serving as one of its main walls. The chapel is about 10 km south of Armeni, just before the short path entry leading down into the gorge.
The chapel is on the side of the road and is easy to climb up to. Inside, its features include a rare stone iconostasis rather than one of the traditional wooden ones found in most Greek churches.
The chapel has a rare stone iconostasis rather than a traditional wooden icon screen … Saint Kyriaki is depicted first on the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint Kyriaki (Αγία Κυριακή), also known as Saint Kyriaki the Great Martyr (Αγία Κυριακή η Μεγαλομάρτυς), was martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. She was born in Nicomedia to Greek parents Dorotheus and Eusebia, devout Christians. Because she was born on a Sunday, they named her Kyriaki, the Greek name for Sunday.
When Kyriaki rejected a would-be suitor’s proposal of marriage, he denounced both her and her parents as Christians to Emperor Diocletian. Dorotheus and Eusebia were exiled to Melitene in eastern Anatolia and Kyriaki was sent to Nicomedia to be interrogated by the emperor’s co-ruler, Maximian. When Kyriaki refused to renounce her faith, she was whipped and tortured.
She was thrown into a fire and to wild beasts, and then sentenced her to beheading by the sword; she was 21. Her feast day is marked on 7 July in the Greek Orthodox Church. Several places in Greece have the name Aghia Kyriaki (Αγία Κυριακή), including an island in the Dodecanese.
An icon of Saint John the Baptist in Aghia Kyriaki Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
About 900 meters from the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki, the trailhead leads down a carved staircase of 258 steps to the lower gorge, where I remember seeing a goatherd taking a large flock of belled goats through the gorge. Down there too is yet another small chapel, the Chapel of Aghios Nikolaos, and from there it is possible to hike through the freezing waters to see the magnificent 40-metre-high waterfall on the Kourtaliotis River waterfall.
The gorge leads eventually to the sandy beach at Preveli, and the natural life includes native palm trees. I am told an experienced hiker could follow the path across the river to reach the beach, and it takes about 2½ hours at an average pace. There is an alternative path, one parallel to the river, which easier and faster to walk through.
Each time I was travelling between Rethymnon and Preveli, I took the even easier option of travelling by coach. But each time I also managed to stop and climb the steps to visit the Chapel of Aghia Kyriaki.
Watching goats being herded through the Kourtaliotiko Gorge, below Aghia Kyriaki Chapel (Image: Patrick Comerford, YouTube)
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)
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)
The church bell in the Byzantine-style Church of Aghios Vasilios in Koutouloufári, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
66, (former) Saint Francis Church, now the The Archaeological Museum of Rethymnon, Ethnikís Antistaseos Street (4 October 2021) and HERE (27 April 2025)
Tsoureki, a sweet Greek bread traditionally served at Easter, on a table in Panormos, near Rethymnon, on Easter Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II) or Easter in the calendar of the Greek. Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
A variety of bread gathered in a basket (see John 6: 1-15) in Panormos, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
John 6: 1-15 (NRSVA):
1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10 Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Five loaves at the preparation for the Eucharist in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflections:
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – that is recorded in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 32-44; Luke 9: 10-17). The feeding of 4,000 is told by both Mark (Mark 8: 1-9) and Matthew (Matthew 15: 32-38), but by neither Luke nor John.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the feeding of the 5,000 is told in a very similar way in all four Gospels, with only minor variations on the place of the miracle or the circumstances surrounding it.
Saint John alone tells us that the feeding and the teaching took place as the Feast of the Passover was drawing near, so both the action and the discourse are to be understood with those particular perspectives.
Some time has passed since the healing of the man by the pool in Jerusalem, the better part of a year perhaps, and we are now back in Galilee in the following spring for the second Passover narrative (see verse 4) in Saint John’s Gospel.
Commentators point to the shift from the Festival of the Booths in the previous chapter and to the significance of the second Passover. But sometimes I wonder are we in danger of missing one other point, no matter how insignificant it may seem at first reading?
There is a story about how the Puritans in New England worked themselves to death in the fields without getting much in return for their back-breaking efforts. So much so that they were in danger of starving to death until the wiser inhabitants of the land taught them a few home truths about living in harmony with the rhythms of the earth. There are times to plant. There are times to rest. There are times to work the soil. And there are times to let the soil rest.
Perhaps the gap between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 is part of the Hidden Years of Jesus … when he was an adult, when he was in harmony with the rhythms of the earth and the rhythms of life, and when he was preparing for the harvest that is gathered in in Chapter 6.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves as told in John 6 has a number of key details that are intended to remind us as the readers of the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic narrative resumes in verses 51-58. But the story is also one that is full of Messianic hope and harvesting, and of Eucharistic promise, for it recalls the story of King David. When David first fled from King Saul, he fed his small group of followers, those who acknowledged him as the rightful king, with the priest’s bread, asking the priest: ‘Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here’ (I Samuel 21: 3).
The ‘other side’ in verse 1 refers to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was named Tiberias after the city founded ca 20-26 CE by Herod Antipas and named after Tiberias Caesar. In this way, John places the last work done among the Galilean disciples in Gentile territory.
Here too the Galileans are following Jesus because of signs and miracles, and not because of faith (verse 2). Once again, we have the Johannine question about the link between seeing and believing, which we encountered dramatically in the Easter story of Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel reading (John 20: 19-31).
Christ is seated on the top of the mountain (verse 3). What does this remind us of? The top of Mount Sinai? The mountain of the Transfiguration? The hill of Calvary outside Jerusalem?
This is the time approaching the second Passover (verse 4), so there is a build-up in the number of Passovers being recounted, bringing us towards an expectation of fulfilment at Passover.
Christ lifts up his eyes (verse 5). When the disciples rejoined Christ at the well in Sychar while he was talking with the Samaritan woman, he told them to ‘lift up their eyes’ (John 4: 35, translated in the NRSV as ‘look around you’) and to see the ‘harvest’ of the seed he had been sowing.
The introduction of Philip (verse 5) and Andrew (verse 8) as characters in the scene is typical of John’s style. They represent the disciples. Just as at Jacob’s Well, they have failed to buy or produce enough bread.
Philip’s faith is being tested (verse 6), and, by implication, the faith of all the disciples. Where the NRSV says ‘six months’ wages’ (verse 7), the original Greek says 200 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage for an unskilled labourer.
John alone mentions the young boy or servant and the barley loaves (verse 9). Barley loaves were the food of poor people and for animals, but strikingly, the barley loaves in this story remind us of the time when Elisha who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (II Kings 4: 42-44), saying: ‘For thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left”.’ The feeding of the multitude therefore may be seen as a demonstrative prelude to Jesus’ words, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in will never be thirsty’ (John 6: 35).
The feeding with the fish is a prelude to, looks forward to, another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias, ehen Jesus feeds the disciples with bread and fish (see John 21: 1-19). The fish is an early Christian symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, capitalised as ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words, spelling out Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios, Sōtēr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).
Christ asks the disciples to make the people sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline (verse 10). They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or a feast – just as he did with the disciples at the Last Supper.
Notice the Eucharistic actions in verse 11: Dom Gregory Dix identified the four-fold movement in the Eucharist as taking, blessing (giving thanks), breaking and giving.
John alone has Christ commanding the disciples to gather up the fragments lest they perish (verse 12). Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God. But we return later to the Eucharistic imagery here too. Meanwhile, the gathering also anticipates the gathering that takes place in connection with the work of the Son as he receives from the Father those who are given to him, ‘that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me …’ (John 6: 39; see also John 17: 12).
There are twelve baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the twelve disciples (verse 13). Mark alone mentions fragments of fish being picked up too.
In Saint Mark’s Gospel, Christ forces his disciples to leave immediately (see Mark 6: 45). But only in Saint John’s Gospel (verse 15) are we given the reason for this: the people want to make Christ their earthly king (compare this with the reference to the test in verse 6). When they want to make him their king, they want to make him a political messiah, opposing Rome. But Jesus would not accept this way of being king or of being messiah (see John 18: 36).
In Saint John’s Gospel, the account of the Feeding of the Multitude is followed with the conversation Jesus has with the crowds who follow him to Capernaum. The main motif in the passage (verses 26-59) centres on Jesus saying: ‘I am that bread of life’ (verse 48). In this way, John links the Feeding of the Multitude with the feeding of the people in the wilderness with manna and with the heavenly banquet and the coming of the kingdom (see John 6: 25-40).
In the Fourth Gospel, the preceding food miracle is at the Wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. Now we have a miracle with bread. The Eucharistic connection of bread and wine is obvious even to the first-time reader.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves as told here has a number of key details that intended to remind the reader of the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic narrative resumes in verses 51-58.
• In verse 10, the crowd is asked to recline on the grass, as if they were at a banquet, a Passover meal or a wedding feast, just as Christ and the 12 ate while reclining at the Last Supper.
• Once again, notice the Eucharistic actions in verse 11. Dom Gregory Dix identified the four-fold movement in the Eucharist as taking, blessing (giving thanks), breaking and giving.
• John alone uses εὐχαριστήσας (eucharistisas, verse 11), from the verb εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteo), ‘to give thanks,’ from which we derive the word Eucharist for the liturgy.
• John alone depicts Christ himself distributing the bread as he will do again at the Last Supper.
• John alone has Christ commanding the disciples to gather up the fragments lest they perish. The Greek word συνάγω (synago, to gather up) gives us the word συναγωγή (synagogue) for the assembly of faith, and the word σύναξις (synaxis) for the gathering or first part of the Liturgy. The Greek word for ‘fragments’, κλάσμα (klasma), appears also in early Christian literature as the liturgical word for the host or the bread at the Eucharist.
Jesus puts no questions of belief to either the disciples or the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They did not believe in the Resurrection – it had yet to happen. But Jesus feeds them, and feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away, but Jesus wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!
Five loaves in the Bretzel in ‘Little Jerusalem’ in Portobello in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Friday 17 April 2026):
‘Stocked with Hope’ provides 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), pp 46-47. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 17 April 2026) invites us to pray:
God, bless women like Shaila who are using small businesses to provide for their families. May her efforts reflect dignity, purpose, and hope for economic independence and community leadership.
The Collect:
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.
The doors of the house … were locked … Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’ (John 20: 19) … an icon in Saint Mary and All Saints Church, Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Patrick Comerford
Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and today is the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II). In the calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church, however, today is Easter Day.
I was at the celebrations of Easter Eve in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford late last night, and they continued until after 3 am this morning. Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and to read one of the lessons. Then, at lunchtime today, there is a Greek community barbeque in the grounds of the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford.
But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
An icon of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
John 20: 19-31 (NRSVA):
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Saint Thomas and the Risen Christ depicted in a fresco in a church in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflections:
This Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II) is traditionally known as Low Sunday. In the past this has also been known as Saint Thomas Sunday, because of the Gospel reading (John 20: 19-31) recalling the story of ‘Doubting Thomas.’
Some people say this Sunday was called ‘Low Sunday’ because today’s liturgy is something of an anti-climax after the solemn Easter liturgy and celebrations a week ago. Some even joke that today is known as Low Sunday because this is the Sunday choirs take off after their hard work during Holy Week and Easter.
In these difficult times, with a continuing conflict in the Middle East and an unsteady ceasefire in the Gul, with between Russia and Ukraine, and global tensions exacerbated by the actions of the Trump regime, many people are feeling low, feeling isolated and looking for hope. Like the disciples in the Gospel reading, they may feel they are living locked away in fear. But the Gospel reading is not just a reminder, but a triple reminder, that the primary message of the Risen Christ is ‘Peace be with you.’ In Saint John’s Gospel, this phrase has the same impact as the message of the Risen Christ in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Be not afraid.’
In the Gospels, Saint Thomas is named ‘Thomas, also called the Twin (Didymus)’. But the name ‘Thomas’ comes from the Aramaic word for twin, T'oma (תאומא), so there is a tautological wordplay going on here.
Syrian tradition says the apostle’s full name was Judas Thomas, or Jude Thomas, but who was his twin brother (or sister)?
I have often visited Didyma on the southern Anatolian coast. There the Didymaion was one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. Apollo was the sun-god, the sun of Zeus; he was the patron of shepherds and the guardian of truth, and in Greek and Roman mythology he died and rose again.
Is the story of Saint Thomas’s doubts an invitation to the followers of the cult of Apollo to turn to Christ, the true Son of God the Father, who is the Good Shepherd, who is the way, the truth and the light, who has died and who is truly risen?
We can never be quite sure about Saint Thomas in Saint John’s Gospel. After the death of Lazarus, the disciples resist Christ’s decision to return to Judea, where there had been an attempt to stone Jesus. But Thomas shows he has no idea of the real meaning of death and resurrection when he suggests that the disciples should go to Bethany with Jesus: ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ (John 11: 16).
And while Thomas saw the raising of Lazarus, what did he believe in?
Could seeing ever be enough for a doubting Thomas to believe?
The Apostle Thomas also speaks at the Last Supper (John 14: 5). When Christ assures his disciples that they know where he is going, Thomas protests that they do not know at all. He has been with Christ now for three years, and still he does not believe or understand. Seeing and explanations are not enough for him. Christ replies to this and to Philip’s requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father.
In the Resurrection story in Saint John’s Gospel, Mary does not recognise the Risen Christ at first. For her, appearances could be deceiving, and she thinks he is the gardener. But when he speaks to her, she recognises his voice, and then wants to hold on to him. From that moment of seeing and believing, she rushes off to tell the Disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord.’
Two of the disciples, John the Beloved and Simon Peter, have already seen the empty tomb, but they fail to make the vital connection between seeing and believing. When they hear Mary’s testimony, they still fail to believe fully. They only believe when they see the Risen Lord standing among them, when he greets them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and when he shows them his pierced hands and side.
They had to see and to hear, they had to have the Master stand over them in their presence, before they could believe.
On the first Easter Day, the Disciples locked themselves away out of fear. But where is Thomas? Is he fearless? Or is he foolish?
For a full week, Thomas is absent and does not join in the Easter experience of the remaining disciples. He has not seen and so he refuses to believe. When they tell him what has happened, Thomas refuses to accept their stories of the Resurrection. For him hearing, even seeing, are not enough.
Thomas wants to see, hear and touch. He wants to use all his learning faculties before he can believe this story. He has heard, but he wants to see. When he sees, he wants to touch … he demands not only to touch the Risen Christ, but to touch his wounds too before being convinced.
And so for a second time within eight days, Christ comes and stands among his disciples, and says: ‘Peace be with you.’
Mary was asked in the garden on Easter morning not to cling on to Christ. But Thomas is invited to touch him in the most intimate way. He is told to place his finger in Christ’s wounded hands and his hand in Christ’s pierced side.
Caravaggio has depicted this scene in his painting, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. Yet we are never told whether Thomas actually touched those wounds with his fingers. All we are told is that once he has seen the Risen Christ, Thomas simply professes his faith in Jesus: ‘My Lord and my God!’
In that moment, we hear the first expression of faith in the two natures of Christ, that he is both divine and human. For all his doubts, Saint Thomas provides us with an exquisite summary of the apostolic faith.
Too often, perhaps, we talk about ‘Doubting Thomas.’ Instead, we might better call him ‘Believing Thomas.’ His doubting leads him to question. But his questioning leads to listening. And when he hears, he sees, perhaps he even touches. Whatever he does, he learns in his own way, and he comes not only to faith but to faith that for this first time is expressed in that eloquent yet succinct acknowledgment of Christ as both ‘My Lord and My God.’
In our society today, are we easily deceived by appearances?
Do we confuse what pleases me with beauty and with truth?
Do we allow those who have power to define the boundaries of trust and integrity merely to serve their own interests?
Too often, in this world, we are deceived easily by the words of others and deceived by what they want us to see. Seeing is not always believing today. Hearing does not always mean we have heard the truth, as we know with the decline in honesty and integrity in political life in the US in the past three months. It is easy to deceive and to be deceived by a good presentation and by clever words.
Too often, we accept or judge people by their appearances, and we are easily deceived by the words of others because of their office or their privilege. But there are times when our faith, however simple or sophisticated, must lead us to ask appropriate questions, not to take everything for granted, and not to confuse what looks like being in our own interests with real beauty and truth.
The Second Sunday of Easter is traditionally called ‘Low Sunday.’ But we need not be low in spirit; instead, we can be in high spirits because of the Risen Christ. ‘Peace be with you!’
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen!
The Temple of Apollo in Didyma … one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 12 April 2026, Easter II):
‘Stocked with Hope’ provides 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), pp 46-47. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Mayank Thomas, Programme Manager, the Synodical Board of Social Services, Church of North India:
Many women in North India face economic and social barriers due to long-standing inequalities. The Church of North India believes in the dignity of all and is therefore responding by supporting skills development, income opportunities, and community advocacy, helping women gain economic independence and a stronger voice in decision-making.
Shaila*, a resident of a remote village, lives with her husband and their eight-year-old daughter. With her husband’s income coming from irregular daily wage labour and her own small grocery shop bringing in only limited earnings, the family often struggles to make ends meet. Shaila’s greatest worry is her daughter’s education, which she fears could be interrupted by financial constraints. In December, a ray of hope arrived when the Church of North India extended financial support through its social services programme. Shaila used this support to expand her grocery shop, increasing both the variety and quantity of goods on offer, which in turn began attracting more customers.
As her income grew, Shaila gained more than financial relief – it brought dignity, confidence, and purpose. She can now send her daughter to school and manage her shop with pride, knowing she is securing her family’s future. Shaila expresses her heartfelt appreciation to the Church of North India, saying, “Thanks to their support, women like me are slowly becoming economically stronger. I’m truly thankful.” Her story is one of quiet strength and transformation, shaped by a Church that notices, cares, and acts.
*name changed.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 12 April 2026, Easter II) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on John 20: 19-31.
The Collect:
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Additional Collect:
Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.
The Easter celebrations come to a conclusion in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford early this morning … today is Easter Day in the Orthodox calendar (Patrick Comerford, 2026)
