Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 66, Monday 14 July 2025

‘Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me’ (Matthew 10: 38) … the cross outside Water Eaton Church Centre, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and yesterday was the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 13 July 2025). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers John Keble (1792-1866), Priest, Tractarian and Poet.

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.

‘I have not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10: 34) … the Sword of State of James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 10: 34 to 11: 1 (NRSVA):

Jesus said:

34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

39 Those who find their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward;
and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person
will receive the reward of the righteous;

42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple –
truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

11 Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

‘Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones’ (Matthew 10: 42) … ‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz on the steps of Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the weekday Gospel readings at the Eucharist in recent days, we have been reading in Saint Matthew’s Gospel how Christ calls the Twelve together and prepares them for their ministry and mission. In today’s reading, he concludes that preparation of the Twelve for this mission, as both their teacher and their master.

It is a wonderful piece of drama and poetry. Most English-language versions of this passage present it as prose narrative. But the original Biblical Greek is drama and poetry, so that its impact is powerful.

At the Last Day, Christ will speak out on behalf of those who are his faithful witnesses faithfully, but will deny those who deny him. The smallest act of kindness to those who marginalised and despised is the same as taking up my cross and following Christ.

To re-present that poetic and dramatic impact, I have presented the Greek text in poetic form at the end of this reflection.

In verses 34-36, Christ gives a new interpretation to the apocalyptic vision in Micah 7: 6, a verse thought to foretell the breakdown of society as the end-times approach (see also Ezekiel 38: 21). Spreading the gospel will have unfortunate consequences. There will be tension and division, even within families, between those who accept Christ’s message and the demands it makes, and those who oppose it.

Christians must put loyalty to Christ above family loyalties (verse 37). Following Christ involves the risk of death, and involves taking up the cross, a sure and certain death for those who rebel against the rulers of the day (verse 38). We are then presented with a paradox: those who try to save their own earthly lives will lose all, but those who die for Christ will find eternal life (verse 39).

Many years ago (2008), I was reading through some insightful essays submitted as part of an adult education course in theology. I was excited so many thinking people were engaging with their faith in a challenging, questioning way, seeking to explore and deepen their understanding of how relevant Christianity and the Church are to the world and its problems.

These were not raw, naïve students. They displayed a wide variety of age, experience, and background, and came with a variety of experiences that challenge our stereotypical image of the Church. Yes, there were suburban housewives and businessmen, and young people from rectory families. And they brought amazing, often unconventional, questions and insights to the discussions.

But they sat side-by-side – and sat comfortably side-by-side – with the other students: the single mother with teenage sons; the refugee who had seen horrific outrages, only to find herself marginalised in a new country; a farmer who travelled a round trip of hundreds of miles just to learn more, and to be challenged more deeply by the Christian faith.

Well, no-one said it was going to be easy, did they?

The Christian faith should be challenging. Our reflections on it should be challenging and should challenge us. And, as we integrate that reflection, our discipleship should be challenging to the world … even when that means that there is a price to pay.

If we are unable or unwilling to speak up about our beliefs in time of plenty, how difficult will it be to speak up for Christian values, the Christian point of view, when things are difficult, when things are tough?

Staying quiet when I should speak out will deal a death blow to my morals and my morale. Silence in the face of injustice and suffering is a silent denial of my faith, and of Christ.

For me, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gonville ffrench-Beytagh and Desmond Tutu stand out as people who knew the consequences but nevertheless took up their cross and followed Christ, and are worthy of the name Christian (Matthew 10: 38). They knew that despite their physical fears were, and the fears they had for the families, who would also suffer socially and physically, that they had little to fear spiritually.

How often do we take the easy option out? How often do we give nice names to the bad things we do? How often do we pretend that we are doing the wrong thing for the right reasons? Or simply because we are doing what is expected of us, what were told to do?

How often good labels have been hijacked to disguise the dreadful. The slogan on the gates outside Auschwitz, Dachau and other Nazi death camps was: Arbeit mach frei – ‘Work makes you free.’

The word ‘apartheid’ does not mean racism. It actually means ‘separate development,’ which sounds good except there were no hopes of development and opportunity for anyone but the white people in South Africa.

As he was leading the United States further-and-further along the nuclear arms race, developing new nuclear missiles that would eventually contribute to economic recession, President Ronald Reagan declared in his second inaugural address in 1984: ‘Peace is our highest aspiration. The record is clear, Americans resort to force only when they must. We have never been aggressors.’ They even named one new nuclear weapon ‘Peacemaker’ and named a nuclear warship Corpus Christi.

But it was always so throughout history. In an oft-quoted passage in De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, the Roman orator and historian Tacitus quotes a British chieftain Calgacus speaking about Rome’s insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder: ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (‘where they make a desert, they call it peace’).

The British chieftain’s sentiment was meant as an ironic contrast with the slogan, ‘Peace given to the world,’ frequently inscribed on Roman medals.

This phrase from Tacitus is often quoted alone. The poet Lord Byron, for instance, adapts the phrase in Bride of Abydos (1813):

Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it – peace.

The same poetic irony is found when Christ says to his disciples in this Gospel reading: ‘Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have come not to bring peace, but the sword’ (Matthew 10: 34).

It is not that Christ is encouraging his disciples to be warmongers – what a gross misreading of his teachings that would be. Nor is he encouraging family rows, encouraging sons to storm out on their fathers, mothers to nag and niggle at their daughters (Matthew 10: 35).

But he is warning his disciples it is not going to be easy. They are not going to have a quiet time. Those who want a quiet life as Christians can forget about it. And their hopes of a quiet life as passive Christians will vanish quickly.

Are we prepared to stand up for our faith and its values even at the risk of being ridiculed? Even when this upsets the peace of our families, our communities, our society and our land?

Some of those essays I was reading from those students on that adult education course encourage me when it comes to worrying whether people prefer peace at any price or taking a costly stand, even when it challenges prevailing values today.

Many of them had looked at the way we treat immigrants, migrants and refugees in our society. Yes, they observed the rising levels of racism in our society. Yes, they noticed the inadequate welfare and support payments they receive. But they were even more challenging about the way they thought the Church was too comfortable about the problems we are facing in society today. We are too inward-looking, most of them said in their essays. We are too much of a club.

They had stopped and looked at ordinary, everyday parishes. There is no fear of fathers being set against their sons, mothers against their daughters, daughters-in-law against mothers-in-law, or of finding foes within the household (Matthew 10: 35-37). Most of them found our parishes were too like comfortable families or clubs, not open to the worries, concerns and fears of the outsider.

Do we love the clubbish atmosphere in the Church more than we love the Church, the Gospel and Christ?

Or are we prepared to speak out, not worrying about the consequences, knowing that ‘whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it’ (Matthew 10: 39).

Matthew 10: 34-42 in Greek:

34 Μὴ νομίσητε ὅτι ἦλθον βαλεῖν εἰρήνην ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν·
οὐκ ἦλθον βαλεῖν εἰρήνην ἀλλὰ μάχαιραν.

35 ἦλθον γὰρ διχάσαι ἄνθρωπον κατὰ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ
καὶ θυγατέρα κατὰ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῆς
καὶ νύμφην κατὰ τῆς πενθερᾶς αὐτῆς,
36 καὶ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οἱ οἰκιακοὶ αὐτοῦ.

37 Ὁ φιλῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος·
καὶ ὁ φιλῶν υἱὸν ἢ θυγατέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος·

38 καὶ ὃς οὐ λαμβάνει τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ὀπίσω μου, οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος.

39 ὁ εὑρὼν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσει αὐτήν,
καὶ ὁ ἀπολέσας τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν.

40 Ὁ δεχόμενος ὑμᾶς ἐμὲ δέχεται,
καὶ ὁ ἐμὲ δεχόμενος δέχεται τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με.
41 ὁ δεχόμενος προφήτην εἰς ὄνομα προφήτου
μισθὸν προφήτου λήμψεται,
καὶ ὁ δεχόμενος δίκαιον εἰς ὄνομα δικαίου
μισθὸν δικαίου λήμψεται.

42 καὶ ὃς ἂν ποτίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων ποτήριον ψυχροῦ μόνον εἰς ὄνομα μαθητοῦ, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ μὴ ἀπολέσῃ τὸν μισθὸν αὐτοῦ.

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matthew 10: 40) … a multilingual welcome at Saint Paul's Church, Marylebone (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 14 July 2025):

The theme this week (13 to 19 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Shaping the Future: Africa Six.’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from Fran Mate, Senior Regional Manager: Africa, USPG.

The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 14 July 2025) invites us to pray

Gracious God, we give thanks for the gathering in Lesotho. Thank you for the gift of time away together that helped the bishops and supporting staff to seek your wisdom and vision for the future. We pray for those unable to attend, continue to grow and sanctify your leaders by your Word.

The Collect:

Father of the eternal Word,
in whose encompassing love
all things in peace and order move:
grant that, as your servant John Keble
adored you in all creation,
so we may have a humble heart of love
for the mysteries of your Church
and know your love to be new every morning,
in 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 John Keble revealed the loving ervice 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.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matthew 10: 40) … a warm Greek welcome in Rethymnon

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

‘Dancer With Ribbon’ is Michael Rizzello’s tribute to Darcey Bussell high above Oxford Street

‘Dancer With Ribbon’ (1997) by Michael Rizzello … Darcey Bussell in bronze perched above the entrance to Next at 116-122 Oxford Street, with the initials B&H behind her (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I probably ought not to walk around London with my head in the air without making sure my feet are firmly planted on the ground and that I am watching what lies before me. That probably explains why had a bad tumble and fell crossing Oxford Street and ended up in A&E in University College Hospital four months ago (7 February 2025).

But, walking along Oxford Street with my head in the air, yet again, last week, I noticed for the first time Michael Rizzello’s bronze sculpture, ‘Dancer With Ribbon’, a bronze sculpture inspired by the former ballerina and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ judge Dame Darcey Bussell.

Michael Rizzello created this sinuous statue in 1997, when Darcey Bussell was well into her career. The bronze likeness perched above the entrance to Next at 116-122 Oxford Street was commissioned in 1996 when the former Bourne & Hollingsworth building was being redeveloped into the Plaza, a shopping and food outlet.

The building was designed by Slater and Moberly, an architectural partnership in London formed in the 1920s by John Alan Slater (1885-1963) and Arthur Hamilton Moberly (1886-1952). When Reginald Harold Uren (1906-1988) joined the practice in 1936, it was renamed Slater, Moberly and Uren, and it later became Slater, Uren and Pike.

Michael Gaspard Rizzello (1926-2004) was a sculptor and coin designer. Movement was a frequent element in his work – a difficult task in bronze – and it is famously seen in his statue of Lloyd George in Cardiff, where he shows the Welsh politician punching the air in a characteristic gesture.

Rizzello was born in London on 2 April 1926 of Italian parents, but never wanted to be a tailor like his father. He attended the London Oratory School and then enlisted in the army from 1944 to 1948.

He had a good baritone voice and almost became a professional singer. He had to choose between music and drawing, and chose to attend the Royal College of Art, where he won both the Drawing Prize and the Travelling Scholarship in Sculpture.

He studied sculpture in Rome for two years and was awarded the Prix de Rome 1951 for Sculpture at the British School at Rome. He began his career making wax heads for Madame Tussauds.

Rizzello had an unprecedented term of two five-year periods as President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. His public work includes Dancer with Ribbon in Oxford Street and David Lloyd George in Cardiff. His portrait busts include Nelson Mandela and a bronze portrait of Lady Astor in the Palace of Westminster. He also designed coins and medals, including the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and the £2 coin commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, both in 1995.

Rizzello was made an OBE in 1977. He died in London on 28 September 2004.

Rizzello’s vital, swirling image of Darcey Bussell has survived the recent development of the building as a flagship store for Next. The Bourne and Hollingworth shop was built 100 years ago in 1925 to designs by Slater and Moberly, but the interior has been totally rebuilt many times since.

The three green panels behind Darcey Bussell still carry the letters ‘B’ ‘&’ ‘H’. The building was named after the founders of the department store, the brothers-in-law Walter William Bourne and Howard E Hollingsworth, who started the business as a drapery shop in Westbourne Grove in 1894, and moves to the Oxford Street in 1902. The shop was remodelled by Slater and Moberly, but all the interiors were lost in the subsequent redesigning and rebuilding over the past century.

As for Darcey Bussell, she retired from ballet on 18 years ago on 8 June 2007. But she is still widely regarded as one of the finest British ballerinas – and you can see her dance if you keep looking up when you’re walking along Oxford Steet.

Daily prayer in Easter 2025: 37, Monday 26 May 2025

‘And the fire and the rose are one’ (TS Eliot) … a candle and a rose on a dinner table in Minares on Vernardou Street, Rethymnon, in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (8 June 2025), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI, 25 May 2025), and this Thursday is Ascension Day (29 May 2025).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury; John Calvin (1564), reformer; and Saint Philip Neri (1591), founder of the Oratorians and spiritual guide. Today is the Spring Bank holiday in England. Before today begins though, 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.

‘The Advocate … whom I will send to you from the Father’ (John 15: 26) … Christ with the Holy Spirit depicted above as a dove on a gravestone in Calverton Road Cemetery, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

John 15: 26 to 16: 4 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

1 ‘I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.’

‘… all shall be well and / All manner of thing shall be well’ … sunset seen from the Sunset Taverna in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary at the Eucharist today (John 15: 26 to 16: 4) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel. Christ continues to prepare his followers for his departure, and repeats once again his promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf’ (verse 26).

I think our thinking about the Holy Spirit is made difficult by traditional images of a dove that looks more like a homing pigeon; or tongues of fire dancing around meekly-bowed heads of people cowering and hiding in the upper room in Jerusalem, rather than a room that is bursting at the seams and ready to overflow.

But the Holy Spirit is not something added on as an extra course, as an after-thought after the Resurrection and the Ascension.

This onth we are marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the agreement on the Nicene Creed, in which we say: ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit’. Do we really believe in the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ in the Holy Spirit as the way in which God ‘has spoken through the prophets’?

The gift of the Holy Spirit does not stop being effective the day after confirmation, the day after ordination, the day after hearing someone speaking in tongues, or the day after the Day of Pentecost.

God never leaves us alone. This is what Christ promises the disciples, the whole Church, in today’s Gospel reading. We need have no fears, for the Resurrection breaks through all the barriers of time and space, of gender and race, of language and colour.

If the Holy Spirit is the Advocate and is living in me and you, then who am I an advocate for? Who do I speak up for when there is no-one else to speak up for them?

Pentecost includes all – even those we do not like. Who do you not want in the Kingdom of God? Who do I find it easy to think of excluding from the demands the Holy Spirit makes on me and on the Church?

Pentecost promises hope. But hope is not certainty, manipulating the future for our own ends, it is trusting in God’s purpose.

‘Little Gidding,’ the fourth and final poem in the Four Quartets, is TS Eliot’s own Pentecost poem. ‘Little Gidding’ begins in ‘the dark time of the year’, when a brief and glowing afternoon sun ‘flames the ice, on pond and ditches’ as it ‘stirs the dumb spirit’, not with wind but with ‘pentecostal fire.’

At the end of the poem, Eliot describes how the eternal is contained within the present and how history exists in a pattern, and repeating the words of Julian of Norwich, he is assured:

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

I have no doubts that the Holy Spirit works in so many ways that we cannot understand. And no doubts that the Holy Spirit works best and works most often in the quiet small ways that bring hope rather than in the big dramatic ways that seek to control.

Sometimes, even when it seems foolish, sometimes, even when it seems extravagant, it is worth being led by the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit may be leading us to surprising places, and, surprisingly, leading others there too, counting them in when we thought they were counted out.

Whether they are persecuted minorities in the Middle East, immigrants threatened with deportation to a third country, or people who are marginalised at home, or those we are uncomfortable with because of how they sound, seem, look or smell, God’s generosity counts them in and offers them hope.

And if God counts them in, so should the Church. And so should I.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Saint Augustine of Canterbury (left), the Archangel Michael and Saint Alban in a window by Charles Eamer Kempe in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 26 May 2025):

The Feast of the Ascension is on Thursday next (29 May 2025) and provides the theme for this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections from Dr Paulo Ueti, Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 26 May 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord creator of the earth, air, waters, and sky, creator of our homeland, we cry out for people and communities most affected by climate change, especially the vulnerable and marginalised. Guide us to act with love, justice, and mercy as stewards of your creation.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose servant Augustine was sent as the apostle
of the English people:
grant that as he laboured in the Spirit
to preach Christ’s gospel in this land,
so all who hear the good news
may strive to make your truth known in all the world;
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 Augustine 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.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Chiesa Nuova or the Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella is closely associated with the life of Saint Philip Neri (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

Saint Mary Major, where Pope Francis is being buried, is one of the Papal basilicas in Rome

The Basilica of Saint Mary Major … Pope Francis is to be buried there on Saturday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Pope Francis is to be buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore or the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome after his funeral in Saint Peter’s Basilica on Saturday. Pope Francis had long made the arrangements for his funeral and, despite some media comments, Saint Mary Major is not so unusual a choice for his funeral.

The high altar, by tradition, is reserved for Mass celebrated by the Pope, who is the archpriest of the basilica, and it is the burial place of a number of previous popes, Pope Sixtus V and Pope Pius V. The crypt is the burial place of Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin. It is also an appropriate place for the burial of the first Jesuit Pope: after his ordination as a priest, Saint Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first Mass there on 25 December 1538.

Saint Mary Major is also the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Of all the great churches in Rome, it has the most successful blend of different architectural styles, and has magnificent mosaics.

Saint Mary Major contains a successful blend of different architectural styles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore or Basilica of Saint Mary Major is a Papal basilica, along with Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s, and Saint Paul outside the Walls.

Under the Lateran Treaty signed in 1929 by the Holy See and Italy, Saint Mary Major stands on Italian sovereign territory and not the territory of the Vatican City State. However, the Vatican fully owns the basilica, and in Italian law it enjoys full diplomatic immunity.

This ancient basilica enshrines the image of Salus Populi Romani, depicting the Virgin Mary as the protector of the Roman people.

The Basilica is sometimes known as Our Lady of the Snows, with a feast day on 5 August. The church has also been called Saint Mary of the Crib because of a relic of the crib or Bethlehem brought to the church in the time of Pope Theodore I (640-649).

A popular story says that during the reign of Pope Liberius, a Roman patrician named John and his wife, who had no heirs and decided to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary. They prayed about how to hand over their property, and on the night of 5 August, at the height of summer, snow fell on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. That night, this childless couple resolved to build a basilica in honour of the Virgin Mary on the place that was covered in snow.

However, this story only dates from the 14th century and has no historical basis. Even in the early 13th century, a tradition had common currency that Pope Liberius had built the basilica in his own name, and for long it was known as the Liberian Basilica. The feast of the dedication was inserted for the first time into the General Roman Calendar as late as 1568.

But the legend of the snowfall and the bequest it inspired is still commemorated each year on 5 August when white rose petals are dropped from the dome during Mass and the Second Vespers of the feast.

The canopied high altar in Saint Mary Major is reserved for Mass said by the Pope (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Despite appearances, the earliest building on the site was the Liberian Basilica or Santa Maria Liberiana, named after Pope Liberius (352-366). It is said Pope Liberius transformed a palace of the Sicinini family into a church, which was known as the Sicinini Basilica.

A century later, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) replaced this first church with a new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the first churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary, was built in the immediate aftermath of the Council of Ephesus in 431, which proclaimed the Virgin Mary the Mother of God.

The present church retains the core of this structure, despite several later building projects and damage caused by an earthquake in 1348, and Saint Mary Major was restored, redecorated and extended by successive popes, including Eugene III (1145-1153), Nicholas IV (1288-1292), Clement X (1670-1676), and Benedict XIV (1740-1758).

When the Popes returned to Rome after the papal exile in Avignon, the Lateran Palace was in such a sad state of disrepair, and Saint Mary Major and its buildings provided a temporary Palace for the Popes. Later they moved to the Palace of the Vatican on the other side of the River Tiber.

Between 1575 and 1630, the interior of Santa Maria Maggiore underwent a broad renovation encompassing all its altars. In the 1740s, Pope Benedict XIV commissioned Ferdinando Fuga to build the present façade and to modify the interior. The 12th-century façade was masked during this rebuilding project, with a screening loggia added in 1743. However, Fuga did not damage the mosaics of the façade.

Although Saint Mary Major is immense in area, it was built to plan. The design of the basilica was typical for Rome at that time. It has a tall and wide nave, an aisle on either side. and a semi-circular apse at the end of the nave, with beautiful mosaics on the triumphal arch and nave.

The Athenian marble columns supporting the nave may have come from the first basilica, or from another antique Roman building. They include 36 marble and four granite columns that were pared down or shortened to make them identical by Ferdinando Fuga, who provided them with identical gilt-bronze capitals.

The 16th century coffered ceiling, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo, is said to be gilded with the first gold brought back from the Americas by Christopher Columbus and presented by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to Pope Alexander VI.

The canopied high altar is reserved for Mass said by the Pope, the basilica’s archpriest and a small number of priests. Customarily, the Pope celebrates Mass there each year on the feast of the Assumption (15 August). Pope Francis visited Saint Mary Major a day after his election.

The Coronation of Mary depicted in the apse mosaic (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The unique treasure in Saint Mary Major must be the fifth century mosaics, commissioned by Pope Sixtus III. The mosaics include some of the oldest depictions of the Virgin Mary in Christian art, celebrating the declaration of her as the Theotokos or Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The nave mosaics recount four cycles of sacred history featuring Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Joshua; seen together, they tell of God’s promise to the Jewish people and his assistance as they strive to reach it.

The story, which is not told in chronological order, starts on the left-hand wall near the triumphal arch with the Sacrifice of Melchisedek. The next scenes illustrate earlier episodes from the life of Abraham. The stories continue with Jacob, with whom God renews the promise made to Abraham, Moses, who liberates the people from slavery, and Joshua, who leads them into the Promised Land.

The journey concludes with the two final panels. These frescoes date from the restoration commissioned by Cardinal Pinelli and show David leading the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and the Temple of Jerusalem built by Solomon.

Christ’s childhood, as told in apocryphal Gospels, is illustrated in four images in the triumphal arch. The first, in the upper left, shows the Annunciation, with the Virgin Mary robed like a Roman princess. The story continues with the Annunciation to Joseph, the Adoration of the Magi and the Massacre of the Innocents. The upper right illustrates the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight into Egypt and the meeting between the Holy Family and the Governor of Sotine. The last scene represents the Magi before Herod.

At the bottom of the arch, Bethlehem is depicted on the left and Jerusalem on the right. Between these scenes, the empty throne waiting for the Second Coming is flanked by Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Together they will form the church of which Peter is the leader, and Sixtus III is his successor.

In the 13th century, Pope Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope, decided to destroy the old apse and build the present one, placing it several meters back in order to create a transept for the choir between the arch and the apse. The decoration of the apse is the work of the Franciscan friar Jacopo Torriti, and the work was paid for by Cardinals Giacomo and Pietro Colonna.

Torriti’s mosaic, dating from 1295, is divided into two parts. The central medallion in the apse shows the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, while the lower band illustrates the most important moments of her life. In the centre of the medallion, enclosed by concentric circles, Christ and Mary are seated on a large oriental throne. Christ is enthroned like a young emperor and he is placing a jewelled crown on her head; she is dressed in a colourful veil, like a Roman empress. The sun, the moon and a choir of angels are arranged around their feet, while Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Francis of Assisi along with Pope Nicholas IV flank them on the left. On the right, Torriti portrays Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Anthony and the donor, Cardinal Colonna.

In the lower apse, mosaic scenes to the left and the right show the life of the Virgin Mary, while the central panel represents the Dormition, telling the story in a way that is typical of Byzantine iconography rather than western narratives. She is lying on a bed, as angels prepare to lift her soul to Heaven, the apostles watch astonished and Christ takes her soul into his arms. Torriti embellishes the scene with two small Franciscan figures and a lay person wearing a 13th century cap.

The Crypt of the Nativity is said to contain wooden relics from the Crib in Bethlehem (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Under the High Altar, the Crypt of the Nativity or Bethlehem Crypt has a crystal reliquary designed by Giuseppe Valadier and said to contain wooden relics from the Crib of the Christ Child in Bethlehem.

The statue in the crypt of Pope Pius IX in prayer is by Ignazio Jacometti, ca 1880, and is over the tomb of Saint Jerome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The crypt is also the burial place of Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin or Vulgate version and died in 420. Above his burial place is a kneeling statue of Pope Pius IX, who proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1854 and who ordered the reconstruction of the crypt.

In the right transept, the Sistine Chapel or chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, is named after Pope Sixtus V. This chapel, which was designed by Domenico Fontana, includes the tombs of Pope Sixtus V and Pope Pius V. After his ordination as a priest, Saint Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first Mass in this chapel on 25 December 1538.

Just outside the Sistine Chapel is the tomb of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his family.

The Assumption of Mary was painted inside the cupola of the Borghese Chapel by Galileo’s friend Ludovico Cardi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The celebrated icon of the Virgin Mary in the Borghese Chapel is known as Salus Populi Romani, or Health of the Roman People. The icon is said to have saved the people of Rome from the plague. Tradition attributes the icon to Saint Luke the Evangelist, and this richly decorated chapel was designed for Pope Paul V Borghese.

The Assumption of Mary was painted inside the cupola of the chapel by Ludovico Cardi nicknamed Il Cigoli. Above the clouds, the Virgin Mary is seen being transported towards Heaven. The moon beneath her feet is painted as it was seen through the telescope of Galileo, who was a friend of Cigoli.

The floor of the church is paved in opus sectile mosaic, featuring the Borghese heraldic arms of an eagle and a dragon.

The 1995 rose window symbolises the link between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In 1995, a new, rose window in stained glass was created for the main façade by Giovanni Hajnal. It reaffirms the declaration of the Second Vatican Council that Mary, the exalted daughter of Zion, is the link that unites the Church as the New Covenant to the Old Testament and the Covenant with the Children of Israel. To symbolise the Old Testament, Hajnal used the two tablets of the Ten Commandments and the seven-branched Menorah or candlestick, and for the New Testament he used the Cross, the Host and the Chalice of the Eucharist.

The 14th century campanile or bell tower is the highest in Rome at 75 metres. It was erected by Pope Gregory XI after his return from Avignon.

Outside, the column in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore came from the Basilica of Constantine in the Forum and was designed by Carlo Maderno. It was erected in 1615 and has since become the model for numerous Marian columns throughout the Catholic world.

The church is served by Redemptorist and Dominican priests. In the portico, there is a fine statue by Bernini and Lucenti of King Philip IV of Spain, one of the benefactors of the church. The King of Spain is ex officio a lay canon of the basilica. In a similar manner, the President of France is ex officio an honorary canon of Saint John Lateran.

The development of the city has taken away the impact of Santa Maria Major’s commanding position on the summit of the Esquiline Hill, but the church is still considered by many to be the most beautiful church in Rome after Saint Peter’s.

Inside the Baptistery in Saint Mary Major (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The death of Pope Francis today: ‘The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds’

Pope Francis died in Rome earlier this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Pope Francis died in Rome early this morning, Easter Monday (21 April 2025), at the age of 88, was from a far country. It would be impossible to add to outpourings of grief and tributes that are being paid to him all day since the news was announced.

There are others I know who have met him and who are saying all the things I would like to say myself. It is a symbol of his commitment to ecumenism that he went out of his way to meet King Charles just a few days ago, even though the king’s state visit to the Vatican had been cancelled due to the Pope’s final illness.

And it is indicative of the appalling tasteless and hectoring approach of the Trump/Vance/Musk regime that JD Vance could bully his way into seeing the Pope virtually on his deathbed a day before Pope Francis died. I can just imagine Vance pontificating to the Pope about he thinks it is to be Catholic, and the Pope gently rebuking him, reminding him of what true Christian values actually are, and about the hope and love that are at the heart of the Easter message.

Pope Francis shares a light moment during a visit to All Saints' Anglican Church in Rome

Pope Francis’s papacy was very different from those of his two predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. And it would be remiss of me to let this moment pass without saying something about the values that marked his Papacy.

He chose the name Francis after Francis of Assisi and as a reminder to never forget the poor, to protect creation and to seek peace. Throughout this papacy, he was known for his humility, for living simply, for his commitment to social justice and his conservatism on church teachings.

His casual informality was one of his hallmarks. He wore a simple white cassock instead of the red ermine-trimmed cape favoured by previous popes, and wore the same simple iron pectoral cross he wore as Archbishop of Buenos Aires rather than the gold ones that bedecked his predecessors.

Many had feared that the spirit of the reforms and advances made by Pope John XXIII had been reversed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but since 2013 Pope Francis has put the Catholic Church back on track, and has admitted that he was ‘completely inspired’ by John XXIII.

His papacy was an attempt to move power from the centre of the church to the margins and the marginalised. Perhaps the single greatest achievement of this papacy has been the synodal process he launched in 2021, trying to return the church away from clericalism and urging priests to become ‘shepherds with the smell of the sheep on them’, grounded in their flock.

He chose to live simply and modestly in the Santa Marta guesthouse at the Vatican rather than in the Papal Palace. But all this made him an outsider in the Vatican, a champion of the marginalised, those on the periphery, and the excluded, and he faced determined internal opposition within the Vatican and within the Curia, which he criticised for abuses, clericalism and careerism.

His style was one of ‘the frayed edges’, allowing for and demanding compassion at all times. ‘Who am I to judge?’ he responded when he was asked in 2013 about the church’s attitude to gay people. ‘If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?’

Shortly after his election, he declared: ‘The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds … And you have to start from the ground up.’

He told victims of a clerical sexual abuse scandal: ‘I ask forgiveness of all those I offended …’

At times, he was messy in his use of language, speaking off-the-cuff and leaving it to his communications staff to clarify later what he meant. But he was never afraid to be wrong, to admit it, and to ask forgiveness, in public.

His encyclical Laudato sí (2015) on care for our common home has made creation and the environment an important agenda item in all theological and ecumenical dialogue.

He had strong views on migration, and one of his first acts as Pope was to visit to the small island of Lampedusa between Italy and Tunisia where thousands of people attempted to enter Europe, many drowning in the Mediterranean during the journey. He condemned global indifference to the plight of migrants and refugees and cast a wreath into the sea in memory of the many people who had drowned trying to reach refuge and safety.

His firm teachings brought him into direct conflict with the Trump regime in Washington and he condemned the forced deportations in a letter to the US Catholic bishops two months ago (February 2025), when he warned that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprived them of their inherent dignity and would end badly.

He appeared in his wheelchair yesterday to bless the people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Day. He died this morning in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. His appointment of so many cardinals from around the world is going to strongly the election of his successor.

As he would say at the end of his prayers, ‘Good Night and Sleep Well.’

Father John-Paul Sheridan presents a box set of ‘Treasures of Irish Christianity’ to Pope Francis in Rome

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 41, Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week

Mary anoints the feet of Jesus in Bethany … a window in the north aisle of Saint Mary’s Church in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Holy Week, the last week in Lent, as we prepare for Good Friday and Easter, and today is the Monday of Holy Week (14 April 2025). Passover also continues until next Sunday evening (20 April 2025), which is also Easter Day.

A parish retreat on the theme of ‘I will you rest’ takes place this week in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, with three days of prayers and reflection today, tomorrow and Wednesday, including Readings and Morning Prayer at 8:15, Angelus and Mid-Day Prayer at 12, Confessions at 5 pm, Daily Prayers at 6 pm, a talk at 6:30, Stations of the Cross at 7 pm, and Mass at 7:30 pm.

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.

The Hardman window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, with the Anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

John 12: 1-11 (NRSVA):

12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

‘There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him’ (John 12: 2) … dinner in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the lectionary (John 12: 1-11) is an extended version of the Gospel reading eight days ago on the Fifth Sunday in Lent or Passion Sunday (Lent V, John 12: 1-8).

Many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, the then Rector of Killanne and Killegney, Canon Norman Ruddock, invited me to speak at one of his Lenten reflections in Clonroche, Co Wexford.

I was then living on High Street in Wexford, working as a journalist with the Wexford People, and I was probably invited as a Lenten speaker because I also had a weekly column in the local newspapers in Co Wexford and Co Wicklow.

I remember how Philip Corish kindly drove me to and from Wexford that evening. Later that year, he was elected an Alderman on Wexford Corporation, and he would go on to become a Mayor of Wexford, while Norman Ruddock later became the Rector of Wexford, and he was a constant encouragement to me to go forward for ordination.

I remember that evening as a balmy spring evening, and Norman Ruddock remarked on how my talk was challenging politically and socially. There was only one written follow-up: an anonymous parishioner sent me an unsigned letter, telling me I had abused the Gospel for political purposes. She (or he) chose to remind me of a saying in today’s Gospel reading: ‘You always have the poor with you’ (John 12: 8), or perhaps? ‘The poor will always be among us!’ (Matthew 26: 11).

That was more than half a century ago. I never kept that letter, but I still think about when I hear far-right activists criticising people like me, accusing us of being ‘Woke’ or showing ‘empathy’.

These verses continue to be misinterpreted and weaponised as a justification of wealth accumulation and ignoring the plight of the poor and the causes of their poverty.

As today’s Gospel reading makes very clear, it is Judas Iscariot who elicits this response from Jesus. The setting in John 12 is a destitute village, Bethany, whose name means ‘house of the poor’, ‘house of affliction’ or ‘house of misery’; in Matthew 26, it is the house of Simon the Leper, one of the poorest of the poor in a village full of poor people.

In the parallel story in Mark 14: 7, Jesus says: ‘For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish’ If anyone think ‘the poor will always be among you’ is a universal statement that somehow allows them to avoid responsibility from seeking to eliminate poverty, Mark 14: 7 turns that interpretation on its head.

In addition, we should remember that when Jesus cites Scripture he expects those who are listening to be familiar with the passage, and that they should be able to finish the quotation as they take it to heart. Jesus here is quoting from Deuteronomy 15, but the full passage (Deuteronomy 15: 1-11) he cites provides the context:

15 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. 2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbour, not exacting it from a neighbour who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed. 3 From a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you. 4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, 5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. 6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. 8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

I suppose all I was doing that Lenten evening over 50 years ago was sharing my interpretation of Biblical economics – an interpretation that is even more relevant today.

‘Christ the Beggar’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week):

A ‘Holy Week Reflection’ 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).’ This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Bishop David Walker of Manchester, who is the chair of USPG trustees.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 14 April 2025, Monday of Holy Week) invites us to pray:

Lord, during this Holy Week, we pray that each of us may deeply experience the love that Jesus has for us. May this profound love transform our hearts and guide our actions as we reflect on His sacrifice and grace.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The ‘Homeless Christ’ by the Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (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

Towcester has Roman origins and it claims to be the oldest town in Northamptonshire

Towcester in Northamptonshire, like many towns along Watling Street, has Roman origins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Many people know Towcester in Northamptonshire because it is close to Silverstone or because of the racecourse. Towcester is only 14 km from Stony Stratford, further north along the A5, but – despite an hourly bus link – I only visited the market town for the first time earlier this week.

Like many towns along the route of Watling Street, Towcester too has Roman origins: think of St Albans (Verulamium) in Hertfordshire, Fenny Stratford (Magiovinium) in Buckinghamshire, Mancetter (Manduessedum) near Atherstone, or Wall (Letocetum) outside Lichfield.

Towcester is a growing market town with a population of 11,500 that is growing to 20,000 with new housing. It claims to be the oldest town in Northamptonshire and one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in England.

As a former coaching town along Watling Street, Towcester has many similarities with Stony Stratford. But I was interested too in seeing the remains of the motte and bailey or ancient castle known as Bury Mount, visiting Saint Lawrence’s Church, which has Norman, Saxon and possibly even Roman roots, and learning a little more about the town’s associations with Charles Dickens.

Bury Mount is the site of the motte-and-bailey castle built by the Normans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Towcester was the Roman garrison town of Lactodurum on Watling Street, and it was enclosed by a wall and a ditch. The name Towcester indicates the town’s Roman origins, referring to a Roman camp or settlement by the River Tove.

Saint Lawrence’s Church is said to stand on the site of a large Roman civic building, possibly a temple, and there was a bath house in the area too. There are two possible sites for the Battle of Watling Street, fought in 61 CE, close to the town: Church Stowe 7 km (4.3 miles) to the north, and Paulerspury, 4.8 km (3 miles) to the south.

When the Romans left in the fifth century, the area was settled by Saxons. In the ninth century, Watling Street became the frontier between the kingdom of Wessex and the Danelaw, and Towcester became a frontier town. Edward the Elder fortified Towcester in 917.

The Normans built a motte-and-bailey castle on the site in the 11th century. Bury Mount is the remains of the fortification and was renovated in 2008.

The Saracen’s Head, the best-known coaching inn in Towcester, was known to Charles Dickens as the Pomfret Arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sir Richard Empson (1450-1510), who owned the Manors of Towcester and Easton Neston, was a powerful political figure in Tudor Northamptonshire. He was MP for Northamptonshire, Speaker of the House of Commons, High Steward of Cambridge University and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

After John Comberford’s wife Joan Parles had died, John, his son Thomas Comberford and his daughter-in-law Dorothy (Beaumont), sold the former Parles and Comberford family estates near Towcester, including Stoke Bruerne, Shutlanger, Alderton and Wappenham, totalling about 400 acres, to Sir Richard Empson in 1504.

Empson and Edmund Dudley made Henry VII very rich when they raised taxes using extortion, harassment, and other dubious though legal means. When Henry VIII became king, he had the two arrested; they were tried in Northampton for treason in 1509 and were beheaded on Tower Hill on 17 August 1510.

Empson’s estates were later bought by Richard Fermor, and they remained with the Fermor family – later the Fermor-Hesketh family and Earls of Pomfret – until 2005. William Fermor, who inherited the estates, married Jane, a cousin of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1671, and rebuilt Easton Neston to designs by Wren’s assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. Work started in the 1690s, and the work was completed in the late 1720s.

Meanwhile, the Monastery, once the manor house of the Comberford estate in Shutlanger, outside Towcester, had become a farmhouse on the Fermor estate. It was included in an exchange between the trustees of the 5th Earl of Pomfret and the 5th Duke of Grafton at the time of inclosure in 1844.

Figures of Venus (left) and Apollo (right) on the façade of the Saracen’s Head in Towcester, said to have come from Easton Neston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

When the stagecoach and the mail coach were in their heyday in the 18th and early 19th centuries, Watling Street became a major coaching road between London and Holyhead and the main route to Ireland, and Towcester flourished as a major stopping point. Many coaching inns were established in Towcester, and they provided stabling facilities for travellers. The coaching inns that remain include the Saracen’s Head, alongside older pubs in Towcester such as the Brave Old Oak and the Plough.

Charles Dickens refers to Towcester in The Pickwick Papers (1837). The Saracen’s Head, which was renamed the Pomfret Arms in the 1830s, dates from the18th century but has older origins. The central carriage arch typifies these coaching inns. The round-arched window above the arch is flanked by niches holding fine lead statuettes of Venus (left) and Apollo with a harp (right). They are said to have come from Easton Neston.

Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers recommends it as a place where a ‘very good little dinner’ could be got ready in half an hour. It returned to the name of the Saracen’s Head in 1944.

A year after Dickens published The Pickwick Papers, the coaching trade came to an abrupt halt in 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway was opened. It by-passed Towcester and passed through Blisworth, which is four miles away but near enough to result in Towcester quickly returning to being a quiet market town.

The Town Hall was designed by the Towcester-born architect Thomas Heygate Vernon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Town Hall and Corn Exchange was designed by the Towcester-born architect Thomas Heygate Vernon (1837-1888) and built in 1865. Leading figures in Towcester formed a company, issued shares and raised the capital to build the town hall, and its Italianate frontage is a reminder of their confidence and enterprise.

Towcester was linked to the national rail network in 1866 with the first of several rail routes. In time, Towcester had rail links with Blisworth (1866), Banbury (1872), Stratford-upon-Avon (1873) and Olney and Bedford (1892). But these links closed one-by-one, and goods traffic finally closed in 1964 with the Beeching cuts.

The nearest station today is in Northampton, 16 km (10 miles) away, and the site of the old railway station is now a Tesco supermarket.

The Chain Gate was built by the Fermor family in 1824 as part of the Easton Neston estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Towcester Racecourse on the east side of the town is a venue for both horse races and greyhound racing. It was originally part of the Easton Neston estate. The Chain Gate, today the main entrance to the racecourse, was built in 1824 and was designed in the classical style as the entrance to Easton Neston House and Park. The Roman archway which is supported by Corinthian columns and flanked with colonnades and gatehouses.

When the Empress Elizabeth of Austria (‘Sisi’), who built the the Achilleion Palace in Corfu in 1888-1891, visited England in 1876, she rented Easton Neston House, with its fine stabling for her horses. During that visit she established a race meeting of her own, when a course was laid out in Easton Neston Park and a stand erected for guests. It was the first horse race at Towcester.

After Sisi left Towcester, a meeting at the Pomfret Arms decided to repeat the steeplechase meeting and Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh gave a 51-year lease to hold Easter Monday races at Easton Neston Park.

Three years later, while she was hunting in Co Kildare in 1879, Sisi strayed on her horse into the grounds of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. There she encountered the Acting President of Maynooth, William Walsh, a future Archbishop of Dublin. On her return to Ireland a year later, Sisi presented the college with a statue of Saint George and she later donated a set of vestments of gold cloth, decorated with gold and green shamrocks and the coats of arms of Austria, Hungary and Bavaria. While she was visiting Geneva, Sisi was assassinated at the Beau Rivage Hotel on 10 September 1898 by an Italian anarchist Luigi Luccheni. She was 61.

The Easton Neston estate was sold by the Hesketh family in 2005 to the Russian oligarch Leon Max, who was born Leonid Maksovich Rodovinsky.

Towcester is bypassed by the A43, but traffic on the A5 still passes through the town centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Although Towcester is now by-passed by the A43, traffic along the A5 still passes directly through the town centre. Towcester is twinned with Zhydachiv in the Lviv region in west Ukraine.

Towcester has sent five ambulance, filled with medical supplies and other aid, to Ukraine, and I heard this week about how the town is sending a sixth ambulance to charity workers in Lviv. The ambulances are filled with essential items, including warm clothing, blankets and disability aids.

The initiative is led by Saint Lawrence Church in Towcester and the Tove Benefice, which have been working to acquire and fill ambulances with supplies for Ukrainian paramedics. The Tove Benefice and the local Rotary Club continue to work to raise money through various events, including a Vicarage Fete and Open Gardens, selling ribbons and sunflowers, a concert and hosting families.

In Saint Lawrence’s Church on Monday, I saw yet another ambulance being filled with medical equipment. The ambulance is due to leave Towcester next Sunday (23 March), when Steve Challen from the Tove Benefice and Alex Donaldson begin a 1,350-mile drive to Lviv.

But more about Saint Lawrence’s Church in Towcester on another day, hopefully.

Signs of hope for Ukraine … Bansky-style street art in Whitton’s Lane in Towcester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)