Saint Athanasius III of Rethymnon and stories of Byzantine intrigues, murders and persecution

An icon Saint Athanasius Patellarios of Rethymnon, Patriarch of Constantinople, completed by Alexandra Kaouki in 2011 (icon © Alexandra Kaouki)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Athanasius was a 17th century saint who was born in Rethymnon and who was twice Patriarch of Constantinople on two brief occasions, in 1634 and 1652. His story is entwined and entangled with Ottoman intrigue, that saw patriarchs removed, returned, deposed, exiled and even strangled at the whim of capricious sultans. Many Patriarchs held office for a few days and no more, while others returned to the throne, two, three, four and five times, and in one case six times.

I was reminded on Friday of these intrigues and the persecutions and traumas that faced the church in Orthodox Church over the centuries after my friend Alexandra Kaouki (Αλεξανδρα Καουκι), the foremost icon writer in Rethymnon, posted an icon she had completed in 2011 of Saint Athanasius.

Saint Athanasius Patellarios ((Άγιος Αθανάσιος ο Πατελάρος), commonly known as Saint Athanasius of Lubny or the Wonderworker, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two brief periods, in 1634 and again in 1652, and had also been the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki.

He was born Ἀλέξιος Πατελλάριος (Alexios Patellarios) ca in 1597 in the village of Axos, in the hills above Panormos, east of Rethymnon, when Crete was under Venetian rule. His ancestors were Greek noble family with ancestry dating back to the Byzantine imperial house of Palaiologos. His father Georgios was a scientist and publisher, and his elder brother Eustaphios became a physician.

Saint Athanasius studied at Arkadi Monastery, near Rethymnon and his home village of Axos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

He studied at Arkadi Monastery, near Rethymnon, where his studies included studied rhetoric, grammar and poetry, mathematics and astronomy, music and literature, theology and philosophy, sciences and languages (Greek, Latin, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew). He lived at Arkadi until he was 26 and then, after his parents died, he shared his property among the poor and with the name Ananias was became a novice in a monastery in Thessaloniki.

From Thessaloniki, he moved to the Monastery of Esphigmenou on Mount Athos, then travelled on to monasteries in Jerusalem, Palestine and Mount Sinai, and was tonsured with the name Athanasius.

When he returned to Thessaloniki he was ordained priest and worked as a missionary among the Vlachs and the Moldovians. At times, he returned to Mount Athos in search of solitude.

His work drew him to the attention of the controversial Patriarch Cyril I (Lukaris) of Constantinople (1621-1623), who appointed him a preacher of the patriarchal throne. He became the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1622, and remained there as bishop until 1634 when he was chosen as the Ecumenical Patriarch in controversial circumstances.

The Church of Saint Gregory Palamas has been the cathedral of Thessaloniki since the end of the 16th century … Saint Athansius became the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1622 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cyril I, who was also from Crete, was a controversial patriarch, known for his supposed attempts to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church along Calvinist lines, although those attempts were rejected and his actions, motivations and opinions are still debated.

Cyril I, who had been the Patriarch of Alexandria as Cyril III, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on six occasions, constantly deposed, banished or forced to resign several times at the instigation of both his Orthodox opponents and the French and Austrian ambassadors. He was the Patriarch for 21 days in October 1612; for 29 months from 4 November 1620 to 12 April 1623; for about 10 years from 22 September 1623 to 4 October 1633; for 4½ months from 11 October 1633 to 25 February 1634; for 11 months from April 1634 to March 1635; and, finally, for 15 months from March 1637 to 20 June 1638.

When Cyril I was deposed for a fourth time in 1634, he was succeeded by Saint Athanasius, who lasted as Patriarch for little more than month, and Cyril returned to the patriarchal throne for a fifth time.

Cyril Lucaris was born in Candia, present-day Iraklion, in Crete in 1572, and travelled throughout Europe, studying theology in Venice, Wittenberg and Padua, and in Geneva, where he was influenced by Calvinism and Reformed theology and developed great antipathy for Roman Catholicism. During that time, he may also have been the Rector of Ostroh Academy, in present-day Ukraine. In 1596 he was sent to Poland by Patriarch Meletius I of Constantinople to lead Orthodox opposition to the Union of Brest, a proposed union of Kiev with Rome.

He became the Patriarch of Alexandria at the age of 29 in 1601. Apart from his first brief time as Patriarch of Constantinople in 1612, he remained in Alexandria for 20 years until he became the Patriarch of Constantinople for the second time.

As Patriarch, Cyril I adopted a theology that was heavily influenced by Reformation theology. Faced with Turkish oppression on the one hand, and on the other by Jesuit missionaries working among Orthodox people, he recognised the need for schools teaching Orthodoxy and the Greek language, and founded a theological seminary on Mount Athos and a Greek printing press in Constantinople. However, the French government protested when the press began publishing anti-Catholic pamphlets and the Ottoman authorities forced it to close.

In his efforts to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church along Calvinist lines, Cyril I sent young Greek theologians to study in Switzerland, the Netherlands and England. He was particularly interested in the Church of England, corresponded with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and sent Metrophanes Kritopoulos, a future Patriarch of Alexandria (1636-1639), to study at Balliol College, Oxford.

His Confessio or the Eastern Confession of the Christian Faith, was published in Geneva in two Latin editions In 1629, with four French, one German and one English edition, and a Greek edition in 1633.

Saint Athansios moved to the Monastery of Esphigmenou on Mount Athos at an early stage in his life (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cyril I was deposed by the sultan for a fourth time on 25 February 1634, and was imprisoned on the island of Tenedos. He was succeeded by Athanasius III, who assumed the Patriarchal throne on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1634. But he was Patriarch only for less than 40 days until April 1634, and he was deposed in intrigues that brought Cyril I back to the throne.

After he was deposed, Saint Athanasius was exiled to the island of Rhodes. He then lived in solitude on Mount Athos for over a year, fasting and praying at a that later became the Skete of the Prophet Elijah, near the Pantocrator Monastery.

For a time, Saint Athanasius lived in Ancona and Venice in Italy, where the Pope tried him to induce him to become a Catholic, promising to make him a cardinal.

Meanwhile, Cyril I, who had returned to Constantinople and replaced Athanasius as Patriarch, remained in office for only 11 months, and was deposed yet again in March 1635. Cyril returned as patriarch for his sixth and final time in March 1637 but was deposed on 20 June 1638. When Sultan Murad IV was to setting out for the Persian War, the Patriarch was accused of a design to stir up the Cossacks. To avoid trouble during his absence, the Sultan had him strangled by the Janissaries on 27 June 1638 aboard a ship in the Bosporus, and his body was thrown into the sea. The Council of Constantinople in September 1638 anathematised both Cyril I and his Eastern Confession.

Meanwhile Athanasius became Bishop of Thessaloniki once again in 1638. Because of a problem with paying metropolitan taxes, he was imprisoned and but was released through the intercession of Tsar Mikhail Romanov.

Athanasius was invited to Moscow in 1643, but on the way he fell ill in Moldova. He stayed there and founded there the monastery of Saint Nicholas near Galaţi, where he remained until 1651, returning often to Mount Athos where he hoped to spend his last days.

However, at the beginning of 1651 he returned to Constantinople. When Patriarch Cyril III was deposed in June 1652 after eight days, Athanasius was called back as Patriarch and was enthroned once again on 25 May was again enthroned. But on this occasions he remained patriarch for only 15 days. He found he was not acceptable to either the Muslims or the Catholics in the city, and in his sermon at his final Patriarchal service he denounced papal claims to universal jurisdiction over the whole Church.

After two weeks, he stepped down as Patriarch of Constantinople in favour of Metropolitan Paisius of Laureia, who remained in office as Patriarch Paisius I for only nine months, from July 1652 to April 1653.

After he was deposed a second time, Athanasius returned to Thessaloniki once again and renewed his connections with Mount Athos, expressing the hope that he could live out his life there.

Saint Athanasius visited Russia in April 1653, and he was met with honour in Moscow by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon (1652-1658) who donated generously to his monastery. He left to return to Galaţi in December 1653, but on the journey he fell ill and stayed at the Monastery of Transfiguration Mhar near Lubny in Ukraine in February 1654. When he died on 5 April at the Mhar Monastery, Abbot Petronios and the monks buried the former patriarch in a sitting position, according to the Greek custom for a bishop.

Saint Athanasius was recognised as a saint by the Russian Church on 1 February 1662 and his feast day was 2 May, the feast of Saint Athanasius the Great. His relics were later moved to Cathedral of the Annunciation in Kharkiv in Ukraine. Today the Mhar Monastery is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, affiliated to the Moscow Patriarchate, while the Annunciation Cathedral is the main Orthodox church of Kharkiv and the seat of the Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

A part of the saint’s relics, said to be a fragment of a finger, was brought to his home village of Axos near Rethymnon in 1993, and is kept in the Church of the Saint Athanasius Patellarios, built in 2008. The day the relic was moved, 21 August, is kept as his feast day in Crete. Alexandra Kaouki shared her icon of Saint Athanasius last Friday (21 August) to mark that feast day in Crete.

As for Cyril I – the controversial patriarch whose career is intertwined with the life story of Saint Athanasius – his body was recovered from the Bosphorus and was buried in Nicomedia, and after many years was brought back to Constantinople. He has been reappraised in recent decades, and the overwhelming majority of Greek and Russian Orthodox scholars today deny the authenticity of the Eastern Confession. This recent rehabilitation has led to the canonisation of Cyril I by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria in 2009 and by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2022.

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

There is widening chasm between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Russia today, and it is in danger of becoming a real schism. On the surface, these problems centre around the attitude of the two churches to the competing claims of Orthodox churches in Ukraine at a time of war in Ukraine. But at its heart this is a deeper conflict about the attitude of the Patriarchate of Moscow towards the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Moscow has refused to take part in many Pan-Orthodox initiatives, including the synod in Kolymbari in Crete ten years ago (19-26 June 2016) and has since continued to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate in intrigues and conflicts that have drawn in other Orthodox churches, including those in Greece, Romania and Alexandria.

An example of how divisions within Orthodoxy have been exploited by the Patriarchate of Moscow has been seen in recent days with the visit to Moscow by Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu with relics of Saint Spyridon. The bishop’s decision to concelebrate with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has caused controversy within the Orthodox Church of Greece, with church circles in Greece describing the visit as a ‘coup’ and questioning why the bishop celebrated with a patriarch who does not commemorate Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, the head of the Church of Greece.

The Moscow Patriarchate suspended Eucharistic communion with the Church of Greece in October 2019 after the Church of Greece recognised the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Metropolitan has been criticised for praising and presenting honours and medals to Patriarch Kirill who supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. There are in Greece that visit is being exploited by Moscow for its own purposes.

The life of Saint Athanasius is a reminder that there is nothing new in these conflicts and intrigues and that they stretch back many centuries. But there is also a reminder in the story of this one saint from Rethymnon of the thread that links together all these churches, including Constantinople, Greece, Crete, Alexandria, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.

The Cathedral of the Presentation of the Theotokos in Rethymnon … Saint Athanasius is commemorated in Crete on 21 August (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A moral tale of the threats to civilisation as we know it on a journey with another Ulysses

Patrick Comerford

And if the soul is about to know itself, it must gaze into the soul
– Plato, Alcybiades, 133B

Today is Bloomsday (16 June 2026), and I marked Bloomsday wandering through the streets of Oxford, through Christ Church Meadow, and by the river and the boathouses, vainly searching for any connections James Joyce may have had with the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’.

I have been disturbed since Sunday of the spectacle of a ‘cage fight’ on the lawn of the White House to celebrate the birthday of a maniacal and egocentric president and how it so thoroughly represents the collapse of culture in the US and the way the steady decline of western civilisation – at the very least in America.

In their own way, James Joyce’s Ulysses and Homer’s Odyssey represent, to a degree, the best of literature at different stages or epochs in western culture and civilisation. But is it too harsh to fear that the banality and tastelessness of the Trump administration a warning of the eventual collapse of western civilisation, culture?

My fears are added to by the violence on our city streets away, where the people who are loudest in vocalising their opposition to cultural, ethnic and religious diversity in these islands are the ones least likely to have any appreciation of the foundations of what might be called European and Western civilisation. It seem they are, in fact, the Barbarians, and that the Barbarians are inside the gates, destroying the city.

In some new way, I find myself understanding the words of the taxi driver in the film Ulysses’ Gaze, where he talks of Greek civilisation as a 3,000-year fall from glory and says: ‘Greece is dying. We are dying as a people.’ Perhaps, instead, I might say fretfully after that vulgar display on the White House lawn, ‘Western civilisation is dying. We are dying as a people.’



In the midst of my bleak fretting about the prospects and uncertain political future of our western civilisation, built on the bedrock of classical – especially Greek – culture, it seemed appropriate to sit back recently for three hours once again and watch Ulysses’ Gaze (Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα, To Vlémma tou Odysséa) the 1995 epic Greek film by Theo Angelopoulos.

Ulysses’ Gaze is both a beautiful and a bleak film, with powerful images and haunting memories. This 176-minute epic is challenging and demanding, with no clear border between imagination and reality. It makes a devastating statement about the tragic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in the 1990s, and challenges the boundaries between ethnic identities that set up false borders and fail to recognise a shared humanity and a shared cultural heritage.



Angelopoulos, who died earlier this year, believed in shooting in the actual locations of his stories and felt he had no other option to take the risks involved, However, the UN refused Angelopoulos permission to film in Sarajevo, and so the scenes set there – including one supposedly in ‘Sniper Alley’ – were filmed in Mostar, Vukovar and the Krijena region. But all the other scenes were filmed on location in Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom or Skopje), Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.

A key to engaging with this movie and journeying with the main character on his Odyssey may be found in words by the Greek poet CP Cavafy, who opens his poem ‘Ithaka’ (1911) with the words:

Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body..

Return from Troy



‘A’ is an unnamed exiled Greek filmmaker who has been living in exile in the US since his time as a conscript in the Greek army in his late teens or early 20s. He returns home to Florina, like Odysseus returning from the Trojan wars, after a 35-year absence, for a special screening of one of his controversial films. But the true purpose of his journey home is to set out on an epic journey across the war-battered Balkans searching for three lost reels of film by the Manachia or Manákias Brothers.

Yiannákis Manákias (Γιαννάκης Μανάκιας, 1878-1954) and his brother Miltiádes Manákias (Μιλτιάδης Μανάκιας, 1882-1964) were pioneering filmmakers in the Balkans at the beginning of the last century, and the search for the mythical reels first filmed by the Manákias brothers around 1905 serves as the backdrop for a search for the shared history of the Balkans.

‘Why A?’ Theo Angelopoulos asked himself. ‘It’s an alphabetical choice. Every filmmaker remembers the first time he looked through the viewfinder of a camera. It is a moment that is not so much the discovery of cinema – but the discovery of the world. But there comes a moment when the filmmaker begins to doubt his own capacity to see things, when he no longer knows if his gaze is right and innocent.’

In the early years of cinema, the Manákias brothers criss-crossed the Balkans tirelessly as they recorded the history and customs of the region, and they disregarded national and ethnic strife. But their primitive images were never developed, and ‘A’ must ask whether those three reels ever really existed. And if they still exist, where are they?

In a some way, these films are the first ‘gaze’ into the soul of the Balkans. As the title of the movie suggests, the story is an odyssey, but it begins in Greece and moves through Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Bosnia.

Before the titles, the film opens with an old black and white silent film that shows the brothers’ 114-year-old grandmother spinning wool in their home village. In a voice-over, Harvey Keitel, who plays ‘A’, comments: ‘Weavers in Avdella, a Greek village, 1905, the first film made by the brothers Miltiades and Yiannákis Manákias, [who filmed] all the ambiguities, the contrasts, the conflicts in this area of the world.’



We then move to 1954 and Thessaloniki, where an old man stands at the west end of the seafront near the White Tower, preparing to film a sailing ship coming out of the harbour to the east.

The old man is Yiannákis Manákias, and the scene is recounted to ‘A’ by an old man who had once worked with Manákias as his assistant.

As the assistant recounts Manákias and his work, the films takes on colour and Manákias collapses from a heart attack and dies. His assistant continues to recall the past as ‘A’ arrives at the very place where Manákias had been filing with. In one long scene, Angelopoulos has covered 60 years of Greek filmmaking, and sets the tone for the whole journey that is about to unfold.

Finding Penelope at home



After the titles, ‘A’ has arrived in a rainy Florina in northern Greece, where one of his controversial films is being shown in the market place. All the cinemas have refused a screening , and religious fanatics are planning to protest in the streets. ‘A’ is advised to leave and as he is about to catch a taxi, a woman in her 30s (Maia Morgenstern) passes by.

The Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern plays the roles of four different women in this film, and ‘A’s’ four lovers also represent the four key women in the story of Odysseus. In this scene, she becomes ‘A’s’ old lover abandoned by him years ago, a Penelope figure. A stunned ‘A’ follows her, muttering to himself: ‘I did not expect to see you here.’



But she disappears into the crowds of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators. Like Penelope’s battling suitors, the two groups are marching towards each other, separated only by a thin line of police. But we do not see the clash that follows. Instead, the film cuts to a dreary, snow-covered winter day when ‘A’ has arrived in the taxi at an Albanian border crossing.

As the taxi driver (Thanassis Vengos) looks after formalities with the police, ‘A’ notices a frail elderly woman (Dora Volanaki) standing alone with a suitcase. She asks ‘A’ for a lift to a town across the border, where she plans to visit the sister she has not seen for 47 years.

‘A’ helps her into the taxi as a group of illegal Albanian migrants, who have been rounded up by the Greek police, arrive on a bus to be forced back across the border. As ‘A’ and the woman cross the border from Greece into Albania, hundreds of desolate Albanians are lining the roadside in the snow, waiting in desolate hope for a chance to slip across into Greece. The taxi reaches Korytsa, and in an empty square ‘A’ helps the elderly woman out.

She has returned from one exile to face a second exile in this vast open space, surrounded by concrete. Her silence gives way to an unseen muzzein’s call to prayer from a minaret, symbolising the return to the old religion in post-communist in Albania.



As the taxi leaves, the bleak image of an empty town creates a compelling sense of loss But non-Greek viewers are unlikely to make a connection with either the history of the Greek minority in Northern Epirus or with the capture of Korytsa by the Greek army in 1912 during the first Balkan War.

Calypso in Monastiri

The taxi continues on to the border with Skopje, but is forced to stop because of snow on the road. The taxi driver decides against crossing and waits for the snow to be cleared. As he and ‘A’ listen to Greek music and drink raki, cementing their friendship, the taxi driver says: ‘Greece is dying. We are dying as a people.’

‘A’ arrives by bus in Monastiri in search of the original home of the Manákias brothers. As he stands at their front door, we are brought back to black and white footage by the Manákias brothers from 1956.

The house is now a museum. Inside, ‘A” meets a young librarian (Maia Morgenstern in her second role), who remains distant and aloof in her refusal to help him. That evening, they meet again on the train to Skopje, and ‘A’ tells her in detail about the purpose of his journey.

The librarian’s name is Kali – and so she is about to become the nymph Calypso who held Odysseus captive for seven years on her island Ogygia. She tells ‘A’ that the Manákias films are not in the archives in Skopje.



In Skopje, ‘A’ boards the overnight express train to Sofia and Bucharest, but he continues talking to Kali on the station platform, telling her of an event two years earlier on Delos, when he tried to photograph the birthplace of Apollo. The train starts to leave and picks up speed, and Kali, enticed like Nausicaa by a story from Delos, is now running along the platform. Finally, ‘A’ grabs her on board. He continues his story, and Kali is so moved they cannot escape a passionate embrace – they are on a journey together.

When the train pulls in at the Bulgarian border, the guards say something is wrong with ‘A’s’ passport. Past and present mix again in a surreal scene as he is questioned by an official in 100-year-old clothing, as though he is Yiannákis Manákias, accused of sedition against Bulgaria. ‘A’ protests that he does not understand, but he is blind-folded in front of a firing squad. He is Odysseus captive to the half-blind Cyclops.

At the last moment, a messenger arrives, saying King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has commuted the sentence to exile until the Balkan war (1912-1913) is over.

He tells the modern Bulgarian border guard he is going to in Philippoupolis, but is corrected. Today it is Plovdiv.

Telemachos greets his father


‘A’ and Kali are reunited and board another train for Bucharest. As they step off the train, it is the 1940s and a young women (Mania Papadimitriou) comes forward and speaks to ‘A’ as if he were a child. She is his mother, and he apologises for missing her funeral. They are back in his childhood, and they travel on to their old home in Constanţa on the Romanian Black Sea. There, all his dead relatives are dancing. Like a well-mannered child, he greets each in turn.

His father appears in rags, back from a concentration camp. It is 1945, and ‘A’ is not only Telemachos, welcoming home his father Odysseus, but his memory has merged with that of the Manákias brothers. We witness a dance through a period of five years, 1945-1950, that signifies the end of the presence of the Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities in Romania and the arrival of the new Stalinist regime.

Farewell to Calypso



‘A’ and Kali wake up together in bed in a modern hotel in Constanţa. They go down to the harbour, where a larger-than-life but broken statue of Lenin is being loaded on a barge, to be taken up the Danube to Germany. A tear-filled ‘A’ tells a sorrowing Kali: ‘I cannot love you’ – as Homer’s Odysseus tells Calypso when he leaves her. He boards the barge, leaving a bewildered Kali behind on the quay.

As the barge makes its way up the Danube, groups of people on the riverbank stand in awe of Lenin, paying their respects and many crossing themselves. This long travelling shot, with Lenin’s severed head gazing at the skies – almost like the floating ruins of Ozymandias – is a stark reminder of the ruins and failures of the past, the confusion created after the collapse of the Communist system. Like the muzzein’s call in Albania, the people on the riverbank crossing themselves as Lenin passes symbolise the passing of an old order and the return of the old religion.

Odysseus in Hades

When ‘A’ arrives in the Serbian capital Belgrade, he is met by an old journalist friend from Greece, Nikos (Giorgos Michalakopoulos). Nikos greets him quoting the Greek poet George Seferis (1900-1971): ‘When God created the world, the first thing he made were journeys.’

‘A’ replies: ‘And then came doubt … and nostalgia.’

In an old people’s home, they meet Yovisitsa, an old man who was in charge of the Belgrade Film Archives for many years. He admits he failed to develop the Manákias films but tells them they are now in the Sarajevo Film Archives in Bosnia.

In a café in Belgrade, Nikos and ‘A’ drink to the memory of old, now-dead friends, to poets and revolutionaries, to Cavafy, Che Guevarra, May 1968, and Santorini, and the departed giants of cinema: ‘To Orson Welles! To Dreyer! To Murnau!’ They continue their voyage into nostalgia while drinking ion the tram tracks and on the street. For ‘A’, Belgrade is Odysseus’ descent into Hades in the Odyssey, where he meets old friends and is given instructions to complete his journey. He decides, despite the dangers, to journey on to Sarajevo.

Nausicaa washes Odysseus’ clothes



Nikos helps ‘A’ to find a boat on the River Sava that will take him to Sarajevo. It is night time when ‘A’ is woken on the boat by a young woman (played again by Maia Morgenstern), who now is Naursicaa. Together they row up the River Sava in a small boat towards Sarajevo.

But we are brought back to 1915 and they are back in Philippoupolis (Plovdiv) in Bulgaria. They arrive at a ruined village and walk to the charred remains of the woman’s ruined home.

The grief-stricken woman cries out: ‘Vania! Vania! Vaniushka!’

In the debris, ‘A’ finds a framed wedding photograph. Is this the woman and Vania?

In the evening in the rubble, a table is set and she and ‘A’ dine together to the sound of gunfire and explosions in the background.



When he awakes, ‘A’ wraps himself in a blanket and walks outside to see the woman, like Nausicaa, washing his clothes in the river. Back in the house, she gives him her husband’s clothes, and then goes down to the river to break up the boat with an axe – now she is Circe is trying to keep Odysseus captive. She returns to the house, sees ‘A’ dressed in her husband’s clothes, pulls him to the floor and they make passionate love. But in the darkness, ‘A’ escapes and in the night drifts down the river in a small boat.

Nausicaa and Penelope in Sarajevo



Two hours into the film, ‘A’ arrives at dawn in Sarajevo, where the siege has left the city in ruins, and people risk their lives each day, braving Serbian snipers to fetch water.

‘A’ finds his way to the Film Archives, where a young boy takes him to meet the Jewish curator, Ivo Levy (Erland Josephson). Together, they walk back to the damaged archives building, each carrying a container of water.

‘A’ tells Levy he is in Sarajevo to find the three Manákias films. Although Levy has the films but has never been unable to develop them. Now he agrees to try one more but last time.

‘A’ falls asleep at the archives, and is awoken by Levy’s daughter, Naomi (Maia Morgenstern in her fourth role). Naomi is his Nausicaa, and we realise ‘A’ has projected his past lovers onto every woman he meets. When Naomi leaves, ‘A’ finds Levy at work in the lab. Later, Levy is successful and he and ‘A’ are overwhelmed with joy that, after almost 100 years, an image of Greece from the early 20th century has been brought to life once again.



Outside in the fog, they walk through the streets of Sarajevo, where a lull in sniping allows a small orchestra of young Muslims, Croats and Serbs to perform in a small square, while a small group of actors nearby us staging Romeo and Juliet. The lull in sniping also allows Muslims and Christians to bury their dead.

Further on, some couples are dancing to pop music, and Naomi appears through the fog, inviting ‘A’ to dance. The music changes to a 1950s tune, and Naomi becomes Penelope, left behind in Florina by ‘A’ so long ago.

‘A,” Naomi and Levy are joined by Levy’s family and they walk together in the fog towards the river, with Levy and ‘A’ straggling behind. Suddenly, a car pulls up, doors slam, and men shout. Levy tells “A” to stay where he is and runs in the fog towards the rest of the family. Naomi cries out: ‘Not the children!’ Gun shots are followed by splashes as bodies are dumped in the river. The car reverses and then speeds off.

There is total silence. We are left staring, guessing what has happened, what we have not seen.

‘A’ rushes to the scene of the massacre has taken place and be the riverbank he finds Levy dead in the snow, and then Naomi. He embraces her, embracing all the women he has loved and lost, and in primal screams we hear his helpless rage and anger.

As he walks back slowly to the archives, the orchestra is still playing in the snow-covered square in Sarajevo.

In the final scene, a film has just been shown on a blank projection screen, perhaps one of the Manákias films – if they ever existed. But the film reels have been burned and he faces the camera in tears, speaking the words of Odysseus to Penelope: ‘When I return, it will be with another man’s clothes.’

Fulfilling a vow

Ulysses’ Gaze received the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, but has been largely ignored by film critics and distributors in Western Europe.

This was a response by Angelopoulos to the Balkan crises following the break-up of Yugoslavia. With the many allusions to images in Greek poetry that bring together the values of classical Greece and modern Greece, Angelopoulos is claiming a continuity between the ancient and modern Greek worlds, between the Hellenistic and the Byzantine worlds, but also expressing a nostalgia for a Balkan world once shared by all irrespective of religious or ethnic identities.

‘A’s’ belief in the innocence of Manákias brothers’ creative gaze may hold the key to lost innocence and essential truth, to an understanding of the Balkans. In his journey, this modern Odysseus is not seeking to return to a geographical homeland but is searching for rue meaning and true identity. Indeed, ‘A’s’ journey in search of the Manákias reels is less of a practical quest and more like the fulfilment of a vow, almost like a pilgrimage religious people undertake to honour the memory of a saint.

His wanderings have taken ‘A’ on a double journey: a journey through space, as he wanders across the Balkans at war; and a journey across time, as he revisits his past, the past of the Manákias brothers and the past of the Balkans. Those journeys across take him through a landscape peopled by ghostly figures and broken dreams, and take him to the heart of darkness.

Our modern Odysseus has reached his Ithaka, but his odyssey may not be over.

Cast:

Harvey Keitel (‘A’).
Maia Morgenstern (woman in Florina, Penelope; Kali, Calypso; widow, Circe; Naomi Levi, Nausica)
Erland Josephson (Ivo Levy) – the actor Gian Maria Volonté died during filming and was replaced by Josephson
Thanassis Vengos (taxi driver)
Giorgos Michalakopoulos (Nikos)
Dora Volanaki (old lady in Albania)
Mania Papadimitriou (‘A’s’ mother in Romania)



Music:

The score by Eleni Karaindrou, featuring Kim Kashkashian on viola, was recorded in December 1994 at Sound Studio, Athens, and was released on the ECM label in 1995.

Kim Kashkashian, viola soloist
Vangelis Christopoulos, oboe
Andreas Tsekouras, accordion
Socratis Anthis, trumpet
Vangelis Skouras, French horn
Christos Sfetsas, cello
Georgia Voulvi, voice
Lefteris Chalkiadakis, conductor

Theo Angelopoulos (1935-2012) died in an accident in Athens 24 January 2012, aged 76, while working on a new film.

19 million people in Romania, Trump’s secret $19 million, £19 million for Wolverhampton, and 19 million blog readers

Mount Olympus seen from the Monument of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki … Central Macedonia in Greece, has a land area of 19 million sq metres or 19,000 sq km (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog continues to reach more and more readers, and has reached yet another staggering today, with 19 million hits within the past hour (9 December 2025) and almost 400,000 readers so far this month, with over 396,000 hits by 6 pm today.

I first began blogging back in 2010, and the 18.5 million mark was reached less than a fortnight ago, at the end of last month (27 November 2025), having passed the 18 million earlier that month (2 November 2025), the 17.5 million mark the previous month (18 October) and the 17 million mark less than three weeks earlier (30 September 2025).

The latest figure of 19 million is all the more staggering because half of all those hits (9.5 million) have been within this year, since January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 19 million readers today, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 19 million people look like?
• Where do we find 19 million people?
• What does £19 million, €19 million or $19 million mean?
• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

The courtyard in Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest … Romania has a population of 19 million people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Official estimate earlier this year show Romania has a population of 19 million, and São Paulo in Brazil has a population of 19 million, making it the 19th largest city in the world.

A report earlier this year shows over 19 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid due to conflict. There 4.5 million people who internally displaced people in Yemen with major humanitarian need.

By the end of March 2025, East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region hosted some 19 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 5.7 million refugees and asylum-seekers, or a total of 24.7 million displaced people. The internally displaced persons are mainly in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Burundi, while the majority of the refugees and asylum-seekers are in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.

Central Macedonia, the largest region of Greece, has a land area of 19 million sq metres (19,000 sq km) and a population of 1.8 million. It is the second most populous region in Greece after Attica, Thessaloniki – the city of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle – is the capital and largest city of the region, and Mount Olympus (2,918 m) is its highest mountain.

Central Macedonia is fourth-most-popular tourist region in Greece and the most popular destination that is not an island. The Chalkidiki peninsula has 550 km of sandy beaches, including 85 Blue Flag beaches. Chalkidiki is also home to Mount Athos, one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in the Orthodox world.

According to a recent report from Family Carers Ireland, Irish family carers provide 19 million hours of unpaid care every week.

A £19 million scheme is underway to transform Wolverhampton city centre, with works focused on Lichfield Street, Queen Square, and Darlington Street. The improvements, which began early this year, are expected to take 24 months, and aim to create wider, safer streets with new street furniture, tree planting, and improved event spaces. The project is fully funded by the UK central government.

Lichfield District Council submitted a bid for over £19 million in ‘levelling up’ funding in August 2022 to help deliver a new leisure centre and other regeneration projects. This specific bid was not entirely successful, but a new leisure centre project is progressing.
The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19 million into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, according to analysis published in July, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil.

Altogether, Global Witness identified $19,151,933 in donations from fossil fuel-linked donors. That number is probably an underestimate, it says, as it does not include contributions from unverified energy-linked donors, or from diversified investors and businesses that do not work primarily in oil and gas. Trump’s profile of inaugural fund donors starkly contrasts with that of Joe Biden, who banned contributions to his fund from the oil and gas sector.

Following the stock market crash in October 1987, Trump claimed he had taken no losses and sold all his stock a month before. But SEC filings show he owned large stakes in some companies during the crash. Forbes calculated that Trump lost at least $19 million related to Resorts International stock, while the journalist Gwenda Blair noted $22 million from stock in the Alexander’s department store chain.

The Horsman Fountain in Saint Peter’s Garden, facing onto Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton … a £19 million scheme is transforming Wolverhampton city centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Your blood can travel 19 million metres (19,000 km) a day, which just goes to show how hard your body is working for you. And 19 million minutes is 13,194.45 days or about 36.12 years.

Once again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 80-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings at noon. It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to 700 people twice a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 19 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Lichfield District Council submitted a bid for over £19 million in ‘levelling up’ funding in 2022 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Dublin church closed by the Church of Ireland has become the cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church

At Romanian Orthodox Vespers in Leeson Park, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Some times church news from Ireland is a little late in reaching me here in north Buckinghamshire. But it was pleasant to hear in recent days that the former Church of Ireland parish church in Leeson Park, Dublin, has become the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Dublin.

The reopening of the church as the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Dublin coincided with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September 2025). On the previous evening, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Ireland and Iceland, Bishop Nectarie, with a large number of Romanian Orthodox priests in Ireland, celebrated the service of the Blessing of the Water, followed by Great Vespers in what was once Christ Church Leeson Park.

Christ Church Leeson Park was deconsecrated by the Church of Ireland six months ago (11 March 2025) after the Select Vestry decided to sell the building. At the final service of Evening Prayer in Christ Church, Leeson Park, Archbishop Michael Jackson encouraged the congregation to cherish memories of all that had happened in the church over 150 years. After the service he read the Act of Deconsecration.

The Molyneux Chapel was renamed Christ Church Leeson Park in 1873, and it became a parish in 1892

Christ Church traced its origins to the Molyneux Asylum for the Female Blind, which moved from Peter Street to Leeson Park in the 1860s. The Molyneux Chapel was rebuilt and consecrated in 1868. The architect was James Rawson Carroll (1830-1911), whose other buildings include Saint John the Baptist Church, Clontarf (1860), Saint Philip and Saint James Church, Booterstown (extension and remodelling), Saint Mary’s Church, Athlone (chancel, 1869), Saint John’s Church, Abington, Co Limerick (1869), the Mageough Home, Rathmines (1871-1878), Classiebawn Castle, Co Sligo (for Lord Palmerston’s family, later the home of Lord Mountbatten), the Richmond Hospital (1899-1901), the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (1902-1906), and various buildings in Ardagh village, Co Longford.

The Molyneaux Chapel was renamed Christ Church Leeson Park in 1873, and became a parish in 1892 and was united with Saint Bartholomew’s, Clyde Road, in 1972.

Christ Church was shared with the former congregation of Methodist Centenary Church from 1972 for some years, and the church was used at times for opening services at the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan synods.

Christ Church became a Romanian Orthodox Church in 2005, but the Church of Ireland had continued to use it for many years, including a mid-week Eucharist on Wednesdays. I was invited to preach there by both the Church of Ireland parish and the Methodist ministers, and after the changes about 20 years ago, I occasionally celebrated the mid-week Eucharist there.

When it became a Romanian parish church, I sometimes brought students and ordinands there from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) to experience the beauty of the Orthodox liturgy.

Father Godfrey O’Donnell, Patrick Comerford and Ruth O’Donnell at the IOCS course in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 2014 (Photograph courtesy IOCS, Cambridge)

My friend the late Father Godfrey O’Donnell, who died over five years ago [14 February 2020], was instrumental in establishing the first parish of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland in 2000, and later he was the first Orthodox churches priest to serve as President of the Irish Council of Churches (ICC), and co-chair of the Irish Inter-Church Meeting (2012-2014).

I was a guest at his ordination to the priesthood in the Orthodox Church in 2004, and while I was living in Dublin we continued to meet regularly, often at the same Church gatherings and ecumenical events. He was a frequent visitor to CITI when I was on the staff, and he was the first Orthodox priest to preach in the chapel. We were both students too at times at the summer courses in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS).

His work in establishing the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland and his service to the Romanian Orthodox community were recognised in 2013, when he was honoured with the accolade of ‘Stavrophore,’ the highest award given to married priests in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

But my connections with the Romanian Orthodox Church and Romania go further. I was visited Romania many times between 1991 and 2007, visiting Bucharest and places such as Brașov, Sinaia, Harman, Buzau, Urziceni and Harman.

At first, these visits were for family reasons. But I also worked there as a journalist with The Irish Times, and I subsequntly worked in partnership with parish churches in the Church of Ireland and the Romanian Orthodox Church on projects in Bucharest and Brașov, preached in the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest, and was invited to take part in events in Romanian Orthodox churches.

The Romanian Orthodox Cathedral at Leeson Park reopened 10 days ago (Photograph: Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland)

The Romanian Orthodox community in Ireland had been using Christ Church, Leeson Park, under a licence agreement since 2005, and the decision by the Church of Ireland to put it on the market last February and to deconsecrate the church left a question mark hanging over the future of the building.

The Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland said the purchase was made possible through a 10 million lei (€2 million) grant from the Roman Government Department for Romanians Abroad, donor contributions in Ireland and from abroad, a Go Fund Me campaign and fundraising efforts that were met with a generous response.

The Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland was established in February 2024, with headquarters in Dublin and Bishop Nectarie is its first bishop. He was elected in October 2024 and was enthroned in January 2025. Before that, he was an auxiliary bishop in the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western Europe and a monk and abbot at Crasna Monastery in western Romania.

Bishop Nectarie presided at the services marking the formal opening of the new cathedral in Dublin on 13-14 September. In his address, he said the church had been the cradle of the Romanian Orthodox community in Dublin since 2005, and from it many other parishes have been established across Ireland. He emphasised that the cathedral will continue as a place of prayer, unity, and mission for all.

The Romanian Orthodox Church has seen significant growth in these islands in recent years (Photograph: Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland)

On Sunday 14 September, on the patronal Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Bishop Nectarie celebrated the Divine Liturgy with diocesan priests and deacons. In his sermon, he recalled Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, who said that ‘the bishop is the guardian of apostolic faith and the visible sign of Christ’s presence in the Church and in society.’

The Romanian Orthodox Church has seen significant growth in these islands in recent years, and official figures show there are more than 50,000 Romanians in Ireland and about 2,800 in Iceland.

Hundreds of Romanian and Irish people attended the celebrations, including representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Ireland. ‘This is not just a real estate acquisition, but a restoration of the sense of home for thousands of Romanians in Ireland,’ Father Călin Florea said.

The West Doors of the former Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 27, Saturday 1 March 2025

‘The Preaching of the Kingdom of God' (see Mark 10: 13-16) … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. We have come to the beginning of a new month and the beginning of the meteorological Spring. Tomorrow is the Sunday before Lent (2 March 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship celebrates Saint David (ca 601), Bishop of Menevia and Patron of Wales. There is a break in the Six Nations championship this weekend, and so there are no international rugby matches this afternoon. But, as this is the first Saturday of the month, I hope to drop in this morning to Το Στεκι Μας (‘Our Place’), the Greek café at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall in Stony Stratford.

Before this day begins though, 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.

‘Suffer the Little Children to come unto Me’ window by Harry Clarke (1926) in Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Three children in street art in Singapore by Yip Yew Chong, who draws inspiration from his childhood and everyday life experiences (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Orthodox Church, the final Sunday before Lent is known as Cheesefare Sunday and also as Forgiveness Sunday. After the dismissal at Vespers this evening, the priest stands beside the analogion of lectern, or before the ambon, the steps leading up to the icon screen. The people come up one by one and venerate the icon, after which each person makes a prostration before the priest, saying, ‘Forgive me, a sinner.’

The priest also makes a prostration before each, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’ The person responds, ‘God forgives’, and receives a blessing from the priest. Meanwhile, the choir sings quietly the irmoi of the Paschal Canon, or else the Paschal Stichera. After receiving the priest’s blessing, people also ask forgiveness of one other.

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 13-16) in the lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of England echoes a similar story just a few verses earlier (see Mark 9: 36-37), which we read on Tuesday (25 February 2025).

These stories are easily trivialised. They are not just about being childlike in an almost Victorian way that romanticises childhood. But, in fact, they are about the dignity and worth of children.

I hear few sermons or discussions in churches about the exclusion, demeaning exploitation, abuse, violation, enslavement, or killing of children. The extent of abuse of children, teenagers and young adults throughout the Church is shocking, vile and revolting. The front-page report in the current edition of the Church Times this weekend reveals that ten members of the clergy in the Church of England, including two bishops, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth.

They include Archbishop George Carey and Bishop Paul Carey, two prominent evangelicals, and figures whose names have been linked with the Scripture Union, the Church Mission Society and Zambezi Ministries, all leading evangelical bodies, and prominewnt evangelical chuches including All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, and Saint Aldate’s, Oxford. The Makin Report must demand more introspection and self-examination among conservative evangeicals, who too often deflect from their own deeply probelmatic issues by being vocal about other debates about sexuality, including divorce and remarriage and same-gender marriagegender-related issues such as the ordination of women.

A Victorian romantic image of childhood needs to be balanced with a challenge to the continuing Victorian experiences of many children, listening to the cries of children in the slums, in the sweat shops and in the brothels, to the cries of children behind the bedroom doors of respectability, and to the children who were abused within the boundaries of Church activities.

And, in the Orthodox tradition of Forgiveness Sunday, there are many priests, bishops and church-based organisations who need to kneel before the people humbly, saying, ‘God forgives. Forgive me.’

Refugee children at the Ukrainian Space daycare programme in Budapest … this week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day):

This week has marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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), was ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 1 March 2025, Saint David’s Day and Zero Discrimination Day) invites us to pray:

‘Be joyful, keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things’. Today, as we remember David, patron saint of Wales, let us pray to God who calls people in every generation to be faithful witnesses to his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your servant David
to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries
for the people of Wales:
in your mercy, grant that,
following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ,
we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life;
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.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant David revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Collect on the Eve of the Sunday before Lent:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them’ (Mark 10: 14) … a refugee child’s painting in Ukrainian Space in Budapest (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 prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 26, Friday 28 February 2025

A summer wedding in a monastery in Crete … but the Gospel reading may bring us to ask whether a marriage should last longer than love (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (23 February 2025), we have come to the end of a month, March begins tomorrow, and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

Before this day 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.

From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’ (Mark 10: 6) … ‘The Arnolfini Wedding’ by Jan van Eyck (1390-1440)

Mark 10: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ 3 He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ 4 They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ 5 But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” 7 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

Wedding flowers strewn on the lawn at Lisnavagh House, Co Carlow, in the late evening … what happens when love fades in a marriage? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 10: 1-12) challenges us to think about the differences between how we see God’s ways and the actual working out of God’s ways. It challenges us to think about the foundations of faith, which are weak if they depend on God meeting our expectations, and are weakened when God does not meet our expectations.

The Gospel reading also challenges old ideas and customs – in the Pharisees’ tradition about divorce. But, instead of accepting yet another tradition, how might we accept what Christ says as a way of challenging custom and tradition, and as a way of being brave enough to come to new conclusions that reflect the priorities of God and the compassion of Christ?

If our family life and domestic situation become desperate, our income dries up, our family breaks up, we find ourselves down in the dumps and marginalised, do we blame God? How is God with us in our woes?

Do we see material success, prosperity, family life and children as rewards from God?

Is faith, like love, not without seeking reward?

Or do we only love – and believe – because there are rewards?

When this Gospel reading occurs as a Sunday reading, many decide to preach on one of the other readings. But if they do this, they leave us in danger of thinking that Christ is too harsh on those who go through a divorce.

I know only too well how people who go through a marriage breakdown and divorce, and who still cling on to going to church, perhaps just by their fingernails, may well ask, ‘Where is the Good News in this reading?’

So, what is happening here? Herod Antipas was the Governor of Galilee. He had divorced his wife Aretus to marry Herodias, the wife of his brother, Herod Philip. This caused such a scandal that when Saint John the Baptist confronted Herod about it – he was beheaded (see Mark 6: 18-19).

If Christ says it is unlawful for a man to divorce his wife, does he end up like John the Baptist?

If he says it is acceptable, does he contradict the teaching of the Torah and leave himself open to the charge of blasphemy?

The Pharisees were divided on the legality of divorce and the grounds for divorce. So, the question is a trap in another way. They say: ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her’ (Mark 10: 4). The Law of Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife, if he finds ‘something objectionable about her’ (Deuteronomy 24: 1).

Mind you, it never said a woman could divorce her husband (see Mark 10: 12).

A man could simply ‘write a certificate of dismissal’ (verse 4), without going through any formal legal proceedings. ‘Something objectionable’ could cover a multitude, from adultery to an eccentric hair-do on a bad hair day. Indeed, by the time of Christ, divorce was allowed for the most trivial of reasons, and was so common that many women suffered.

However, instead of falling into the trap being set for him, Christ asks the Pharisees: ‘What did Moses command you?’ (Mark 10: 3). In other words, what does the law say? He tells them Moses allowed this ‘because of your hardness of heart’ (Mark 10: 5), perhaps hinting at how hard-hearted men were now making women suffer even more.

There are other places in the New Testament where Christ, and Saint Paul and Saint Peter, accept that a man may divorce an unfaithful wife. Saint Mark alone mentions the possibility of women also divorcing. This may have been normal in non-Jewish contexts, but cases of Jewish women initiating divorce are rare.

In this reading, Christ reminds those around him of God’s original intention. Marriage is a covenant relationship in which the two people become one and live in mutual love and affection.

Christ devotes much of his teaching time interpreting scripture in a way that gives priority to human wellbeing. For example, the Sabbath is made for us rather than we being made for the Sabbath. Similarly, we could say he is saying here that the order of marriage is made for us, not that we are made for the ordering of marriage, or worrying about the minutiae in the details religious people construct around marriage.

The way Christ interprets scriptural law ought to provide a clue to how we interpret his teaching.

Today, many of us may appear to be on the side of the Pharisees on the question of divorce. Divorce is common today and most of us accept it as a reality. Our laws and our customs, like those of the Pharisees in this Gospel story, assume divorce happens.

On a first reading this morning, Christ appears to be harsh and uncompromising. But many marriages get stale or toxic, relationships can dry up or lose focus, self-destruct, or break down. Things go wrong for far too many reasons.

A divorce may be a burial for a dead marriage. Divorces do not kill marriages any more than funerals kill people … although one of the tragedies today is that many couples are burying their relationship when it is only sick or injured.

Is it not possible that the promise to be together until death can refer to the death of the relationship as well as the death of the person?

Is it not possible to recall that the original intent of our loving and caring God who gave us the gift of marriage was to make our lives better?

Does that desire of God evaporate when we are no longer in a marriage?

From the opening of this story, it is clear the Pharisees are not seeking Christ’s wisdom or compassion. Instead, they are trying to trap him. But marriage is not a trap and not a matter of expediency in which the wife is the inalienable property of an abusive or violent husband, or the husband the inalienable possession of a controlling or narcissist wife.

Of course, the covenant of marriage is still just as valid today. Ideally, when two people marry, they commit themselves to an exclusive relationship of love and devotion in a new entity.

But that is easier to say than it is to face up to reality, which includes the complexities of child-rearing, careers and competing religious, social and economic claims and responsibilities.

Ideally, we are not to live alone, but in loving and committed relationships. In an ideal world, there would be no such thing as divorce. But we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a fallen and broken world in which human nature always falls short of the glory of God. Whether we like it or not, divorce is a reality and we have to live with that.

Sadly, when people go through a divorce, the church is often the last place they can turn to for help and understanding, as I have experienced.

But divorce is like a death. It is the death of a relationship, and so people grieve, and they need sympathy and to be consoled. Would you dare chastise someone who was grieving after the death of a family member?

I was reminded once by a divorced priest and colleague that when God says: ‘I hate divorce ... I hate divorce’ (Malachi 2: 16), that of course God hates divorce because he has gone through the sufferings and grieving of divorce through our faithlessness and wandering.

God hates divorces because God has suffered divorce.

What a profound insight.

Too often, in debates, passages of Scripture taken out of context, or one-sided interpretations of the tradition of the Church, can be used to set a trap so that people are forced to accept only one standard or practice for marriage in the world today. But in this Gospel reading, Christ responds to those who seek to trap him by refusing to accept to be trapped into accepting their interpretation of Scripture or Tradition.

Instead, he challenges those around them to think for themselves and to think with compassion.

Let us not use this reading to trap Jesus through hardness of heart. And let us not use this reading to trap vulnerable, suffering and grieving people who remain open to loving and being loved.

We must face questions about marriage and divorce, about who can be married and who can be divorced, as challenges that ask us to think outside the box, without trying to trap Jesus or to trap those who are faced with honest questions about marriage and about divorce.

Enjoying a country house wedding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 28 February 2025):

This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 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 ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 28 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we praise you for the Church of the Resurrection and their faithful service to you and their community. Bless Father Nevsky and the team’s ministry with strength, wisdom, and continued impact as they bring hope and healing to those in need.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Cretulescu Church (Biserica Crețulescu) in Bucharest city centre, was built in the Brâncovenesc style … the reflections in the USPG prayer this week are from the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest (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