Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 97, Thursday 15 August 2024, the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary depicted in the Dormition of the Theotokos, an icon in the new iconostasis in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship lists today simply and plainly as ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary’, without specifying what aspect of her life or death is being commemorated.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos or the Virgin Mary in the new iconostasis in the Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke 1: 46-55 (NRSVA):

46 And Mary said,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

A detail in the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos or the Virgin Mary in the new iconostasis in the Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

It was my privilege in Crete some years ago to watch a new icon on this theme in Orthodoxy being shaped and created by Alexandra Kaouki, perhaps the most talented and innovative iconographer in Crete today, as she worked in her studio, then below the Venetian Fortezza in the old town of Rethymnon.

She was creating this new icon for the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, or the Little Church of Our Lady (Mikri Panagia), on a small square in the old town. It was a careful, slow, step-by-step work in progress, based on El Greco’s celebrated icon. But, as her work progressed, Alexandra made what she describes as ‘necessary corrections’ to allow her to ‘entirely follow the Byzantine rules.’

The best-known version of this icon is by El Greco, or Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614), created in Crete probably before 1567. Alexandra and I discussed why El Greco places three candelabra in front of the bier. Perhaps he is using them as a Trinitarian symbol. However, Alexandra has returned to the traditional depiction of only one to remain true to Byzantine traditions.

How many of the Twelve should be depicted?

Should Saint Thomas be shown, or was he too late?

Why did she omit stories from later developments in the tradition, yet introduce women?

Alexandra completed her icon in time for the Feast of the Dormition in Rethymnon on 15 August that year.

The icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos or Virgin Mary usually bears the lettering Η Κοιμησις τησ Θεοτοκου, or ‘the falling asleep of the Theotokos’.

In the Calendar of the Orthodox Church, the Feast of the Dormition (Κοίμησις) or the Falling Asleep of the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary is on 15 August. For Roman Catholics, it is the Feast of the Assumption.

In his guidebook, The Holy Land, the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor points out that two places in Jerusalem are traditionally associated with the end of the Virgin Mary’s earthly life: a monastery on Mount Zion is the traditional site of her death or falling asleep; and the basilica in the Garden of Gethsemane is said to be the site of her tomb.

Since the end of the 19th century, however, Mereyama, 8 km east of Selçuk, near ancient Ephesus and the coastal resort of Kuşadasi, has been venerated by many Roman Catholics as the site of her last earthly home. This tradition is based not on tradition or history, but on the writings of an 18th century German nun and visionary, Sister Catherine Emmerich, who never left her own country, and the interpretation of her visions by some late 19th century French Lazarist priests who were living in Smyrna (Izmir). The pilgrim industry was boosted by a papal visit in 1967.

The Feast of the Dormition is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church. However, this belief has never been formally defined as dogma by the Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox Church teaches that the Virgin Mary died a natural death, like any human being; that her soul was received by Christ when she died; and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her burial and was taken up into heaven, so that her tomb was found empty on the third day.

The death or Dormition of Mary is not recorded in the New Testament. Hippolytus of Thebes, writing in the seventh or eighth century, claims in his partially preserved chronology to the New Testament that the Virgin Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus and died in the year 41 CE.

On the other hand, Roman Catholic teaching says she was ‘assumed’ into heaven in bodily form. Some Roman Catholics agree with the Orthodox that this happened after her death, while others hold that she did not experience death. In his dogmatic definition of the Assumption in 1950, Pope Pius XII appears to leave open the question of whether or not she actually underwent death and even alludes to the fact of her death at least five times.

In the Orthodox tradition, Mary died as all people die, for she had a mortal human nature like all of us. The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary was subject to being saved from the trials, sufferings, and death of this world by Christ. Having died truly, she was raised by him and she already takes part in the eternal life that is promised to all who ‘hear the word of God and keep it’ (Luke 11: 27-28). But what happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience and love.

In the Orthodox tradition, it is said that after the Day of Pentecost, the Theotokos remained in Jerusalem with the infant Church, living in the house of Saint John the Evangelist. That tradition says she was in her 50s at the time of her death. As the early Christians stood around her deathbed, she commended her spirit to God, and tradition says Christ then descended from Heaven, taking up her soul in his arms. The apostles sang funeral hymns in her honour and carried her body to a tomb in Cedron near Gethsemane. When a man tried to interrupt their solemn procession, an angel came and cut off his hands, but he was healed later.

The story says that the Apostle Thomas arrived on the third day and wished to see the Virgin Mary for the last time. The stone was rolled back, and an empty tomb was discovered. Orthodox tradition says that the Theotokos was resurrected bodily and taken to heaven, and teaches that the same reward awaits all the righteous on the Last Day.

Icons of the Dormition date from the 10th century. In traditional icons of the Dormition, the Theotokos is shown on the funeral bier. Christ, who is standing behind her, has come to receive his mother’s soul into heaven. In his left arm, he holds her as an infant in white, symbolising the soul of the Theotokos reborn in her glory in heaven.

Greek icons of the Dormition follow a 1,000-year-old tradition that some say dates back to early texts.

Behind the bier, Christ stands robed in white and – as in icons of the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and the Last Judgment – he appears surrounded by the aureole, or elongated halo, depicting the Light of his Divinity and signifying his heavenly glory.

Christ receives the soul of the Mother of God, but here the imagery reverses the traditional picture of mother and son, as he holds her soul, like a child, in his arms.

The Twelve Apostles are present; sometimes they are shown twice: grouped around the bier, and transported to the scene on clouds accompanied by angels. The Apostles are usually seen on either side of the bier – the group on the left led by Saint Peter, who stands at the head of the bier; the group on the right led by Saint Paul, who stands at the foot of the bier.

Many icons include four early Christian writers, identified by their bishops’ robes decorated with crosses – James, Dionysios the Areopagite, Hierotheos and Timotheos of Ephesus. In the background, mourning women are a reminder of the women who wept when they met Christ carrying his cross to Calvary, or the women who arrived at his tomb early on Easter morning ready to anoint his dead body.

The cherubim in blue, the seraphim in red and the golden stars in these icons refer to the hierarchy of cosmic powers. Archangels are present in the foreground in the lower left and right corners. In the centre foreground, the Archangel Michael threatens the non-believing Jephonias who dared to touch her bier in an attempt to disrupt her funeral. The story is told that his hands were cut off but that later they were miraculously restored when he repented, was converted to Christianity, and was baptised.

In Greece, this celebration is called ‘Little Easter’ or ‘Summer Easter’, indicating the significance of the Dormition in Orthodox faith and in the church calendar. The day is marked with many festivals in villages and towns throughout the country, and this is the name day for many, including Maria, Mario, Panagiotis, Panagiota, Despina, Parthena, Miriam and Mariam.

In the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship, 15 August is marked simply as ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary’, without any indication of any event in her life or any commemoration. In Saint Mary and Saint Giles Parih Church in Stony Stratford, the feast was transferred this week, and was celebrated on Sunday (11 August 2024).

A reflection in the parish leaflet in Stony Stratford and Calverton on Sunday described the Assumption as ‘a powerful reminder that like her we have all been promised a share in the Resurrection of the Lord.’ It added that our celebration ‘is a sign of hope for us as we face death which seems to be the end of everything that is good in our lives.’

The icon of the Dormition by Alexandra Kaouki for the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in the old town of Rethymnon in Crete

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 15 August 2024, the Blessed Virgin Mary):

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 ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager Asia and Middle East, USPG, on the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s new programme launched in accompaniment with USPG, ‘Whom Shall I Send.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 15 August 2024, the Blessed Virgin Mary) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

Blessed is she who had faith that the Lord’s promise would be fulfilled. All generations shall call her blessed.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
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 most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ holding his mother’s soul wrapped like a new-born baby … a detail from Alexandra Kaouki’s icon of the Dormition as it neared completion in Rethymnon

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

A fresco depicting the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in a church in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Watching an icon of the Dormition taking shape in Rethymnon

The Dormition of the Theotokos … a new icon by Alexandra Kaouki, completed for a church in the old town of Rethymnon

Patrick Comerford

The Orthodox Church celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos today [15 August], the same day as the Roman Catholic Feast of the Assumption, and in recent weeks it has been a privilege to watch a new icon on this important theme in Orthodoxy being shaped and created by Alexandra Kaouki (Αλεξανδρα Καουκι), perhaps the most talented and innovative iconographers in Crete today, as she worked in her studio below the Venetian fortezza in the in the old town of Rethymnon.

The Dormition and the Assumption are different names for the same event, the Virgin Mary’s death departure from the earth, although the two feasts do not necessarily have an identical understanding of the event or sequence of events.

In the Orthodox Church, the Dormition of the Mother of God (Η Κοίμησις τησ Θεοτόκου, Koímēsos tis Theotokou) is a Great Feast and recalls the “falling asleep” or death of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, and her body being taken into heaven. In the Greek of Scripture and Orthodoxy, death is often called a ‘sleeping’ or ‘falling asleep’. The Greek word κοίμησις gives us the word κοιμητήριον and the Latin coemetērium for a cemetery, meaning ‘a place of sleeping.’

The tradition of the Dormition is associated with a number of places, including Jerusalem, Ephesus and Constantinople. In his guidebook, The Holy Land, the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor points out that two places in Jerusalem are traditionally associated with the end of the Virgin Mary’s earthly life: a monastery on Mount Zion is the traditional site of her death or falling asleep; and the basilica in the Garden of Gethsemane is said to be the site of her tomb. Since the end of the 19th century, Mereyama, 8 km east of Selçuk and Ephesus, has been venerated by many Roman Catholics as the site of Virgin Mary’s last earthly home, and it is a popular destination for tourists on day-trips from Kusadasi. It is also claimed that the Girdle of the Theotokos was enshrined in Constantinople for centuries. Since the 14th century, it has been kept in Vatopedi, the monastery where I have stayed on Mount Athos.

However, the first four Christian centuries are silent about the death of the Virgin Mary. Even as late as the fourth century, some Christian writers believed that she was martyred. For this reason, Saint Ambrose, for example, wrote: “Neither the letter of Scripture nor Tradition does not teach us that Mary had left this life as a consequence of suffering from bodily ulcers.”

Epiphanius of Salamis, who was born a Jew in Phoenicia and converted to Christianity when he was an adult, lived as a monk for over 20 years in Palestine in the late fourth century and died ca 403. He writes that nothing certain was known of the death of Virgin Mary: “If any think I am mistaken, moreover, let them search through the scriptures any neither find Mary’s death, nor whether or not she died, nor whether or not she was buried.”

There is no documentary evidence to support the claim sometimes made that the feast of the Dormition was observed in Jerusalem around the time of the Council of Ephesus in 431. Until the fifth century, the Church Fathers do not mention the Dormition of the Virgin. The earliest traditions about the Dormition are found in manuscripts in the late fifth century, when three distinct narrative traditions emerge describing the end of the Virgin Mary’s life.

Even in the early sixth century, the Dormition was not celebrated as a holy day. According to Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos in his History of the Church, the Emperor Maurice (582-602) issued an edict that set 15 August as the date for the marking the Dormition. In a sermon on this feast day a generation later, Patriarch Modestus of Jerusalem (630-632), regretted the lack of specific information about the death of the Virgin Mary. The Byzantine tradition was adapted in Rome when Pope Sergius I (687-701) declared the feast called Dormitio Beatae Virginis.

A 16th century icon of the Dormition from Crete

An early version of the story of the Dormition is found in ‘The Account of Saint John the Theologian of the Dormition of the Mother of God,’ a Greek text usually dated to the sixth century, although some would date it earlier.

After Pentecost, according to later traditions, the Virgin Mary spent her later life supporting the early Apostolic Church, and lived in the house of Saint John the Divine in Jerusalem. There the Archangel Gabriel told her she was going to die three days later. The apostles, scattered throughout the world, are said to have been miraculously transported to be at her side when she died.

Earlier traditions also say that the Virgin Mary was buried in Gethsemane, according to her request. However, Saint Thomas is said to have arrived from India three days after her death. When he saw her body in a cloud above her tomb and rising to heaven, he asked her: ‘Where are you going, O Holy One’ She took off her girdle and gave it to him, saying ‘Receive this my friend,’ and then disappeared.

When the Apostles arrived with Saint Thomas at her grave, her body was gone, and an apparition is said to have confirmed that Christ had taken her body to heaven three days after her death to be reunited with her soul.

Traditional icons of the Dormition depicting the death of the Virgin Mary incorporate many apocryphal elements or details from writings known as pseudepigrapha.

In the earliest of these icons in the Byzantine tradition, Christ is coming to receive the soul of his dying mother, surrounded by an aureola or cloud of blinding light and accompanied by the angels and prophets. Christ is shown in a similar cloud of light in icons of the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and the Last Judgment.

In the centre, Mary is lying on a bier. In the sky above, the Apostles are arriving on clouds, and they are see too after their arrival, standing around her bier, so that they are represented twice in the icon to show two stages of time.

The stories say Saint Peter arrived for her death from Rome, Saint Paul from Tiberia, Saint James from Jerusalem, and Saint Mark from Alexandria. Saint Andrew, Saint Philip, Saint Luke, Saint Simon the Cananaean, and Saint Thaddaeus who had died were raised from their tombs to be present. Only Saint Thomas was late in arriving from India.

Christ holding his mother’s soul wrapped like a new-born baby … a detail from Alexandra Kaouki’s icon of the Dormition as it neared completion

Christ stands directly above the Virgin Mary, holding his mother’s soul on his left arm. But her soul is shown wrapped in swaddling clothes as an infant because she is just born into Heaven. Above Christ is a red-winged angel of the rank of the cherubim.

In traditional icons, Dionysius the Areopagite is in the lower right in the stole of a bishop. Many icons also show the Apostle Paul’s companion, Saint Timothy, and Saint Hierotheus, the first Bishop of Athens. Other icons include saints of later periods.

In the clouds at the top, two angels wait on the other side of the opened doors of Heaven, their hands covered with cloths as a sign of veneration for a sacred object or person.

The Dormition … a traditional icon in the Benaki Museum in Athens

In many icons of the Dormition, there is a strange scene just below the bier where a man has his hands reaching upward. According to tradition, he is Athonios or Jephonias, a Jew who was jealous of the honour being shown to Mary. He tries to push over the bier but is blocked by an angel – some say the Archangel Michael – severed his hands with a sword. In some icons his hands have not yet been cut off, in others his hands are severed from his arms.

Tradition says Jephonias repented and with faith, was healed, joined the funeral procession, and became a Christian.

The legend of Jephonias first appears in apocryphal texts in the fifth and sixth centuries. But is this an early example of anti-Semitism? Professor Elisheva Revel-Neher of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, points out in her study of ‘The Image of the Jew in Byzantine Art,’ that the earliest known depictions of this scene are found in Cappadocia in the ninth and tenth centuries.

In Orthodox theology, the conception of Christ by the Theotokos is sometimes said to be foreshadowed in the Old Testament by the Ark of the Covenant, and the procession of the body of the Theotokos by the Apostles is then seen as being foreshadowed by the Ark of the Covenant being captured by the Philistines and eventually brought to Jerusalem.

The story of Jephonias has been compared with the story of how the Philistines captured the ark of God, took it to Ashdod, and placed it in Dagon’s temple, setting it beside Dagon. The next day, the people of Ashdod found Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord. They put Dagon back in place. But the next day they found Dagon had fallen on his face on before the ark of the Lord, with his head and hands broken off and lying on the threshold (see I Samuel 5: 1-5).

The Dormition by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος) was probably painted while he was still working in Crete

The best-known version is by El Greco, or Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, 1541-1614), from Crete. He painted his Dormition of the Virgin near the end of his Cretan period, probably before 1567. His signature on the base of the central candelabrum was found in 1983.

El Greco’s interpretation combines post-Byzantine and Italian mannerist stylistic and iconographic elements. El Greco’s icon, which is now venerated in the Church of the Dormition in Syros, was probably brought to the island during the Greek War of Independence.

His icon conforms closely to the established Orthodox pattern for this subject, although it has lost some elements of traditional Byzantine austerity.

The Church of Our Lady of the Angels in the old town of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Last month when I visited her studio in Rethymnon, Alexandra Kaouki, who is one of the foremost iconographers in Crete, was completing her new icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Κοιμησεωσ τησ Θεοτοκου). This new icon, measuring 45 cm X 33 cm, has been created for the Church of Our Lady of the Angels (Κυρίας των Αγγέλων, Kyrias ton Angelon), or the Little Church of Our Lady (Μικρή Παναγία, Mikrí Panaghía) in the old town of Rethymnon.

The Church of Our Lady of the Angels faces a small square on the corner of two of the main streets of the old town of Rethymnon, Nikifórou Foká Street and Arampatzoglou (Thessaloníkis) Street.

In the closing days of Venetian rule, the Dominican friars built a three-aisled church on this corner and dedicated it to Saint Mary Magdalene. After the Turkish conquest of Crete, Huseyin Pasha ordered that the church should be converted into a mosque. The new mosque was named after Huseyin Pasha’s successor, Angebut Ahmed Pasha, and was built with the support of a special edict from the Sultan. A minaret was built beside the former north aisle, but the top soon fell to the ground and the minaret was known to later generations as Koutsotroúlis, “the Old Stump.”

On the night of 3 and 4 April 1917, local people claimed the miraculous discovery of an icon of the Virgin Mary on the steps of the minaret. The mosque was turned back into a church, and was dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels – to distinguish it from the Venetian cathedral, “Great Saint Mary’s.” A shrine of the icon was set up in the restored church and a new belfry was added in 1920.

Alexandra Kaouki’s icon of the Dormition as it neared completion

It was a privilege to watch this icon taking shape. It has been a careful, slow step-by-step work in progress, based on the celebrated icon by El Greco. But as the work progressed, Alexandra made what she describes as ‘necessary corrections’ to allow her to ‘entirely follow the Byzantine rules.’

In her studio below the Venetian Fortezza in the old town of Rethymnon, we discussed why El Greco places three candelabra in front of the bier. Perhaps he is using then as a Trinitarian symbol. However, Alexandra has returned to the traditional depiction of only one to remain true to Byzantine traditions.

How many of the Twelve should be depicted?

Should Saint Thomas be shown as being present?

She also decided to omit the story of Jephonias, not because it is gruesome but because it is a later development in the tradition. On the other hand, she has included some of the woman we might imagine were present at the Dormition.

Alexandra has posted photographs of this work on her Facebook page as her work has progressed, and it was completed at the end of last week in time for today’s Feast of the Dormition.

Alexandra Kaouki at work on her icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos in her studio in Rethymnon

● Since 2011, the Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem has been Abbot Gregory Collins. He was born in Belfast in 1960 and was a monk Glenstal Abbey before going to Jerusalem. His books include The Glenstal Book of Icons (2002).

With the Saints through Christmas (2): 27 December, Saint John the Evangelist

An icon of Saint John the Divine in the cave on Patmos listening to the voice that tells him to write

Patrick Comerford

Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Fourth Gospel, also known as Saint John the Divine and as the beloved Disciple, is celebrated in the Calendar of the Church on today [27 December].

Saint John has a prominent place throughout the Gospels. He is:

● one of the three disciples at the Transfiguration,
● one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
● one of the three disciples present in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ is arrested,
● the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
● the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
● the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
● the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

Scenes from the life of Saint John the Evangelist in the chapel of Saint John’s College, Cambridge: on the left, he survives being thrown into boiling oil outside the Latin gate (ante portam Latinam); on the right, he survives drinking from a poisoned chalice.

After the Ascension, Saint John travels to Samaria and is thrown into prison with Saint Peter (Acts 4: 3). He also travels to Ephesus and is credited with founding the church there.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect.

A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison is one of his symbols, so that the image of Saint John with the poisoned chalice is still seen above the main gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (right, photograph: Patrick Comerford).

There is a custom in some places of blessing wine on this day and drinking a toast to the love of God and to the saint.

Tradition also holds that Emperor Domitian had Saint John beaten and thrown into a pot of boiling oil but that he emerged unscathed from each of his trials. The emperor then banished Saint John to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine Epistles in the New Testament.

In spite of exile and attempts to kill him, Saint John lived to a great old age. By the late 2nd century, the tradition of the Church was saying that Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus.

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John the Evangelist continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

Saint John was so enfeebled with old age that the people had to carry him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. And when he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on every occasion and say simply: “Little children, love one another.” This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: “Little children, love one another.”

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: “John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?” And John replied: “Because it is enough.” If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. “Little children, love one another.”

He is said to have died in Ephesus when he was about 100 years old.

The site of Saint John’s tomb is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Traditionally, Saint John is intimately associated with the Christmas celebration, and the prologue to Saint John’s Gospel (John 1: 1-14) is one of the traditional Gospel readings for Christmas Day.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: “In the beginning …”

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him;
yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.

As Saint John is sometimes called the Apostle of Love, his message is truly appropriate in the Christmas season. In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle. He is also shown with a chalice from which a serpent is rising in reference to the attempted poisoning by Domitian.

In the calendars of the Western Church, Saint John is commemorated on 27 December. However, he is celebrated on a wide variety of dates in the Eastern Church: 29 December (Armenians), 30 December (Copts), 7 May (Syrians), and 26 September (Greek Orthodox).

Collect:

Merciful Lord,
cast your bright beams of light upon the Church;
that, being enlightened by the teaching
of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John,
we may so walk in the light of your truth
that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life
through Jesus Christ your incarnate Son our Lord.

Readings:

Exodus 33: 7-11a; Psalm 117; I John 1: 1-9; John 21: 19b-25.

Post Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we pray,
that the Word made flesh proclaimed by your apostle John
may ever abide and live within us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Tomorrow (28 December): The Holy Innocents.

Canon Patrick Comerford is lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

New beginnings in … the Johannine Letters

Saint John the Divine on his deathbed ... from a window in Chartres Cathedral

Patrick Comerford

Reading: 1 John 4: 7-16

Like Saint John’s Gospel, the Johannine letters begin at the beginning too.

The first of these letters begins: “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …” (I John 1: 1).

This prologue to I John resembles a primitive sketch of the prologue to the Fourth Gospel. It is a new beginning. And then, the Johannine epistles are punctuated with the advice, nay, the command, “Little children love one another,” or similar words.

There are seven such words of advice in 1 John:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous … (1 John 2: 1).

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name (1 John 2: 12).

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming (1 John 2: 28).

Little children … let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous (1 John 3: 7).

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action (1 John 3: 18).

Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4: 4).

Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5: 21).

Love is so central to opening and understanding Johannine theology and spirituality that the three Johannine letters, which are among the shortest books in the Bible, contain the word “love” in advice no less than 32 times.

Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians 6 (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that John the Evangelist continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

The evangelist was so enfeebled with old age that the people had to carry him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher.

And when he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on every occasion and say simply: “Little children, love one another.” This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: “Little children, love one another.” One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: “John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?” And John replied: “Because it is enough.” If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. “Little children, love one another.”

If you want to know the rules, there they are. And there’s only one. “Little children, love one another.”

As far as John is concerned, if you have put your trust in Jesus, then there is only one other thing you need to know. So week after week, he would remind them, over and over again: “Little children, love one another.” That is all he preached in Ephesus, week after week, and that is precisely the message he keeps on repeating in his first letter (I John), over and over again: “Little children, love one another.”

Saint John’s, John Street, Lichfield

I often share the story of my first adult experience of God pouring out his light and love into my life when I was at the age of 19. It happened for me when I walked into the church attached to Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield. It was an experience of being filled with the Light and the Love of God, and so the Johannine writings have had a special meaning for me ever since: “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all … if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another” (I John 1: 5, 7).

In recent years I have been privileged too to visit Patmos, where the Book of Revelation was written, to pay a number of visits to Ephesus, which appears to have been the centre of the Johannine Community addressed in the Johannine Letters, where John is said to have moved after his exile on Patmos ended, and where he is said to be buried, and to have visited many of the places associated with the Seven Churches of Revelation.

These are short Epistles, but it is surprising how familiar they are to so many. Within the traditions of the Church of Ireland, I think of how familiar they are with those words from I John 1: 8-9 used as sentences to introduce Morning Prayer I and Evening Prayer I:

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (The Book of Common Prayer (2004), p. 84).

Or these words from I John 2: 1, 2 after the absolution in Holy Communion 1:

“Hear also what Saint John saith, If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation of our sins” (The Book of Common Prayer (2004), p. 186).

The site of Saint John’s tomb in in Selçuk near Ephesus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

But I’d like us to turn for a few moments to I John 2: 12-14. This poetic section in I John deals with our true relationship with God in Christ. The two main assurances the writer gives the readers are found in verses 12 and 14, and concern the principle difficulties with the false propagandists. These two assurances are: the forgiveness of sins, and true knowledge of the Father.

John is reassuring rather than rebuking his readers, and he does this by using a poetic structure that is built on patterns of three and that is presented in two parts, so that verse 14 is a poetic restating of verses 12-13, then followed by a contrasting pair of concluding lines.

Sadly, many English translations of the New Testament (including the Authorised Version, the Revised Standard Version and the Living Bible) miss the poetic presentation of these three verses by editing them as three prose verses rather than as three stanzas, the first two in three paired lines each, and the third in two single paired lines:

12 Γράφω ὑμῖν, τεκνία,
ὅτι ἀφέωνται ὑμῖν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.

13 Γράφω ὑμῖν, πατέρες,
ὅτι ἐγνώκατε τὸν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς.

Γράφω ὑμῖν, νεανίσκοι,
ὅτι νενικήκατε τὸν πονηρόν.

14 ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, παιδία,
ὅτι ἐγνώκατε τὸν πατέρα.

ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, πατέρες,
ὅτι ἐγνώκατε τὸν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς.

ἔγραψα ὑμῖν, νεανίσκοι,
ὅτι ἰσχυροί ἐστε

καὶ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν μένει
καὶ νενικήκατε τὸν πονηρόν.

I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young people,
because you have conquered the evil one.

I write to you, children,
because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers,
because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young people,
because you are strong

and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.

The poetic structure of these verses is emphasised in the significant switch in tenses in the verb Γράφω (grapho, “I am writing”) from the present to the aorist.

The present tense of Γράφω (grapho) is used three times in verses 12-13, while the aorist tense ἔγραψα (egrapsa, I write) is used three times in verse 14. The content of the three aorist clauses is virtually a repetition of the three present clauses.

At first, it appears the author is addressing three groups or categories of believers in these poetic verses. Firstly, we have τεκνία (teknia, “little children”), who are also addressed in the second part as παιδία (paidia, “children”). Secondly, we have πατέρες (pateres, “fathers”); and finally we have νεανίσκοι (neaniskoi, “young people”). They are dealt with in two sequences: in verses 12-13 and then again in verse 14.

All believers are τεκνία (teknia, “little children”), because we are born again and our sins are forgiven. All of us are πατέρες (pateres, “fathers”), because we believe in him who was from the beginning. And all are νεανίσκοι (neaniskoi, “young people”), because we are resisting the devil. This fits in with the poetic construction of these three verses.

Another interpretation suggests that two groups of people are being considered in I John 2: 12-14. They are first addressed as a whole – little children and children. Then they are addressed as two separate groups, fathers and young people. The author uses of τεκνία (teknia) elsewhere in I John to refer to the entire readership, rather than a select group within it (see 2: 1, 2: 28, 3: 7, 3: 18, 4: 4, and 5: 21). The same is true of παιδία (paidia), which is used of everyone in 2: 18, and which probably is a stylistic variation with τεκνία (teknia).

On the other hand, the use of πατέρες (pateres) and νεανίσκοι (neaniskoi) to refer to groups within the Christian community is appropriate, because nowhere in the New Testament does either term refer to the Church at large or to the entire community of Christians.

We could conclude that the first clause in each group of three, introduced by τεκνία (teknia) in 2: 12 and παιδία (paidia) in 2: 14, addresses the entire group of readers, while the next two terms address groups within the community. Whether these subgroups are distinguished by actual age or by spiritual maturity is not entirely clear; either could be the case and the evidence from the text is inconclusive.

The children or little children

The first group are the children or little children. These may be taken as general terms of address for the whole Christian group, which includes both the fathers and the young men (see I John 2: 1, 18, 28).

Having begun a direct exhortation to his readers in 2: 1 with the address τεκνία μου (teknia mou, “my little children”), the author now continues that exhortation.

In 2: 12, the author says: “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.” He addresses his readers directly as little children, and assures them that their sins are forgiven. Elsewhere in I John, the term “little children” refers to the entire group of readers rather than a select group (I John 2: 1, 2: 28, 3: 7, 3; 18, 4; 4, 5: 21). Thus in 2: 12-14, it is not three distinct groups that are addressed, but the whole group, who are little children, followed by two sub-groups, addressed as fathers and young people. It is not clear whether these two sub-groups are distinguished by age or spiritual maturity.

The fathers

Those addressed as fathers are more likely to have been Christians for a lengthier period of time, rather than aged or elderly members of the community. They are appropriately connected with knowledge of the One who is from the beginning.

The young people

Those addressed as young people, are more likely to be recent Christians, than being youthful in years. They are appropriately connected with temptation and strength in overcoming Satan.

‘Because’ or ‘so that’

A poetic and dramatic impact is provided by the use of the word ὅτι (oti, because), which follows all six occurrences of the verb Γράφω (grapho) in 2: 12-14. By using the word ὅτι (oti) after each of the six occurrences of the present and aorist forms of the verb Γράφω (grapho), the author gives his reason for writing to his readers, underlining his assurance to them that runs throughout the letter. He is concerned that some of his readers could accept the claims of the opponents (see I John 1: 6, 8, and 10). The author’s counter-claims in 1: 7, 9, and 2: 1 are intended to strengthen the readers and to reassure them that their sins are forgiven.

The author is dealing with a community discouraged by the controversy that has arisen within it, a community in need of exhortation.

As you begin a new academic year, there are times during this coming academic year when you are going to feel discouraged. There are times in the coming year when, like all communities, you will wonder whether the problems you face are so grave that they are in danger of creating divisions.

But at all times in the coming year, it is important that all who are fathers (and mothers) in the faith, and those who are new to the call of ordained ministry – if, in Johannine terms, I may refer to the students among you as their children – that you love one another.

To paraphrase Jerome’s account of John’s abiding sermon, “Little children, love one another. Because it is enough.” If you want to know the basics of living together as Christians, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. “Little children, love one another.”

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin. This address the second of three addresses at “I Make all Things New,” a quiet day for the beginning of the academic year, in Edgehill Theological College, Belfast, on 23 September 2011.

A pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint John the Evangelist and a Byzantine basilica

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Patrick Comerford

Selçuk is a charming town 20 km (12 miles) north-east of Kuşadasi, and 5 km from Ephesus. It was originally called Aghios Theologos (Άγιος Θεολόγος), after Saint John the Divine or Saint John the Theologian, and from this it derived its Ottoman Turkish name, Ayasluğ. Statistically, this is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Turkey. However, moist of those tourists are only passing through and few of them stop here on their way to the city of Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, or the reputed House of Mary at nearby Meryemana, or as they catch a dolmuş to the pretty mountainside village of Şirince, with its bitter tale of the forced eviction of its Greek-speaking people in 1923.

But Selçuk has its own charms. After a morning spent by the pool at Palmin Sunset Plaza Hotel, it took only two dolmuş trips, costing 6YTL (€4) in all and less than an hour in travel time, to get to Selçuk on Wednesday afternoon.

There may have been a settlement here from as early as 2000 BC, and this may have been the original location of Ephesus before a new town was built closer to the Temple of Artemis. The present town of Selçuk first grew up around the slopes beneath the church where Saint John was said to have lived after his exile on Patmos ended and where he was buried at the turn of the first and second centuries.

Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that John the Evangelist continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

The evangelist was so enfeebled with old age that the people had to carry him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. And when he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on every occasion and say simply: “Little children, love one another.” This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: “Little children, love one another.” One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: “John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?” And John replied: “Because it is enough.” If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. “Little children, love one another.”

By the fifth century, the harbour of Ephesus was silting up. As Ephesus was abandoned in stages, the village on the slopes of the hill developed into a large town. The Goths had sacked the Temple of Artemis in 263 AD and the Byzantines later carted off most of the remaining masonry to supplement building materials for the burgeoning town around the basilica on the hill.

The remains of the Basilica of Saint John the Divine and the later Byzantine fortress share the peak and still dominate both the town and the surrounding countryside. This was one of the largest and most ornate basilicas in the Byzantine world until it was razed by Tamerlane’s Mongols over 600 years ago in 1402. Modern restoration works, mainly in redbrick, has been carried out by the University of Pamukkale and some US foundations, and give some idea of the extent and the majesty of this holy site.

The Gate of Persecution was once decorated with a carved relief of Achilles in combat (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

The site is approached through the through the three-arched “Gate of Persecution,” with square towers on either side – one of the original gates of the city walls surrounding the basilica. It was named the “Gate of Persecution” in the Byzantine era not because of the earlier persecutions of Christians but because it was once adorned by a carved relief of Achilles in combat – which was mistaken for a depiction of the martyrdom of Christians in the amphitheatre in Ephesus.

The “Gate of Persecution” opens into a courtyard with some monumental inscriptions that were removed where from neighbouring Ephesus. But beyond the courtyard, the buildings are from a later date.

Initially, a simple church structure may have been built over the Apostle’s grave. But by the fifth century there was a long-standing basilica with a wooden roof on the site. Following its destruction by an earthquake in the early fifth century, a new basilica was built the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora, who also built Aghia Sophia in Byzantium and the fortified Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai.

The site of Saint John’s tomb is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Inside, the ruined basilica, the site of the original tomb, where the bema or altar once stood, is marked out by four marble columns from the Middle Byzantine period (10th to 12th centuries). Originally, the remains of three tombs were found when the crypt below was excavated, and the tomb at the centre was believed to be Saint John’s. But his relics were brought to Byzantium in the 13th century and the tomb has remained empty ever since.

The Baptistery has a cross-shaped baptismal pool which was entered and left by three steep steps at each end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

On the northern side of the church, the Baptistery dates from the pre-Justinian church. It has a round baptismal pool at the centre of a cross-shaped plan. The candidates for baptism descended, and subsequently ascended from the pool by three steep steps of stairs on each side, forming the head and the base of the cross. Two square pools for fresh water complete the arms on each side of the cross. Halls at each end of the Baptistery were used for rituals before and after baptism, and the channels for bringing in fresh water can still be seen in the floor of the basilica.

An elaborate marble fountain was supplied with fresh waters from the channels that once brought water to the pool in the Baptistery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

The Baptistery ceased to be used and was closed off after the Emperor Justinian built his six-domed basilica. The flowing waters from the channels were diverted to an elaborate, ornamented marble fountain built at the door.

The basilica also has a unique Treasury (Skeuophylakion) in the north transept. This circular treasury has corner rooms, and a two-storey structure, with niches opening out into the centre to hold the sacred vessels and treasures of the church. The only other circular-plan treasury in a Byzantine church is at Aghia Sophia.

Scattered around the basilica and in the courtyard are stones with inscriptions in Greek that are still legible (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010).

Beside the western atrium of the basilica lay the ruins of a second church and a monastery still awaiting excavation. Above the basilica, the Byzantine castle appears like a crown decorating the top of the hill, with its 15 towers, but it has been closed for excavation and restoration work for some years following the partial collapse of one of its walls.

The grand entrance of the Isa Bey Camii, beneath the Basilica of Saint John, but does it stand on the site of an earlier church? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

The site looks down on the ruins of the Temple of Artemis. But immediately below the basilica on the slope of the hill is the Isa Bey Camii, a grand mosque, built by the Seljuk Turks in 1375 and representing the transition between the Seljuk and Ottoman styles of architecture.

The mosque probably stands on the site of an earlier church – Isa Bey was the name of a Turkish warrior, but the name in Turkish also translates as “Lord Jesus.” Did the mosque replace a church named after Christ, perhaps the Church of the Pantocrator, for inside the mosque there are signs of earlier work, including Roman columns that support the high, gabled roof?

A unique pair of domes in the main prayer hall was once matched outside by two minarets at each side of the courtyard. One fell, the other was badly damaged in earthquakes, and the tall stump of the remaining minaret is home to nesting storks.

The courtyard is breath-taking in its beauty, and its trees offered welcome shade on an afternoon when temperatures had risen to 38 or 39. Over against one high wall, beneath the atrium of the basilica, old headstones stand side-by-side in a line, inscribed in old Ottoman script that is as illegible to most Turks today as the Greek inscriptions found in the basilica above.

A stall outside the Isa Bey Camii sells souvenir statues of both Artemis and of the Virgin Mary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Outside the mosque, a souvenir stall sells statues of both Artemis and of the Virgin Mary, incongruously side-by-side, the stallholder perhaps unaware of either Saint Paul’s sermon in Ephesus that angered the manufacturers of statues of Artemis (Acts 19: 23 – 20: 1) or of the decrees of the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 AD, declaring the Virgin Mary to be the Theotokos, the Mother of God.

The lone remaining column of the Temple of Artemis, seen from the streets below the hill of Aysoluk in Selçuk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

A few steps away, goats graze in a field between the fenced-off remains of a 14th century bath-house and the lone remaining column of the Temple of Artemis.

Around the Isa Bey mosque and beneath the basilica, the old quarter of Selçuk remains generally undisturbed and undeveloped. A decade before Ataturk rose to power, the town was renamed Selçuk in 1914, after the Seljuk Turks who settled in the region in the 12th century. It could be easy to get lost here in the back streets that look like a Cretan village from decades ago.

The back streets of Selçuk look like a Cretan village from decades ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

The streets are lined with pomegranate trees, olive trees covered at the base in Greek-style white protective line, and almond trees now blossoming with white flowers. The balconies of houses are dripping with vines full of maturing bunches of grapes, or with the riotous colours of hibiscus and bougainvillea in full bloom.

As I sipped Turkish coffee in the shade in the delightful and slightly eccentric Karameşe Restaurant, across the street from the “Rebetika Boutique Hotel,” I wondered whether this area was once home to Muslims from Crete after the “population exchanges” of the 1920s.

Canon Patrick Comerford is Director of Spiritual Formation, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin