Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (153) 28 October 2023

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Chiesa Maria Immacolata) seen from the beach in Giardini Naxos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)


Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI, 29 October 2023). The Church Calendar today (28 October) celebrates the Apostles, Saint Simon and Saint Jude.

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

My reflections on the Week of Prayer for World Peace concluded last Sunday, and my reflections each morning throughout the rest of this week followed this pattern:

1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Sicily;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The beach at Naxos, where the first Greek settlers arrived in Sicily in 735 BC (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Giardini Naxos, Sicily:

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Chiesa Maria Immacolata) is a striking modern church, whose cone shape makes it a very visible landmark on the coast of Giardini Naxos in Sicily. The church was built in the San Giovanni district of Giardini Naxos in 1963-1968, and opened on 8 October 1968.

Giardini Naxos takes its name from the site of Naxos, the earliest Greek settlement in Sicily. Today, it is a popular tourist resort , close to Taormina, and within easy reach of Mount Etna, and the classical sites in Syracuse and Noto.

The site of the classical city of Naxos is behind a railed site, east of the beach at Recanati, and the entrance to the archaeological site and museum is beside La Sirena restaurant on the busy seafront, on the low, rocky headland now called Cape Schisò.

It is hard to imagine with these few scanty remains that this was once an important centre of Greek civilisation and culture on the island of Sicily, and it remained so until the Arab invasions of the Byzantine Empire. Classical Naxos stood on Cape Schisò, formed by an ancient stream of lava, immediately to the north of the Alcantara, one of the great gorges in Sicily. A small bay to the north separates it from the foot of the hill-top town of Taormina.

Classical writers say Naxos was the most ancient Greek colony in Sicily. It was founded a year before Syracusae (Syracuse), or in 735 BCE, by a group of colonists from Chalcis in Euboea and the island of Naxos in the Cyclades. The leader of the colonists and the founder of the city was Theocles or Thucles, who was born in Athens. But the name of Naxos is derived from the presence among the original settlers of a group of colonists from Naxos.

The new colony was soon joined by fresh settlers from Greece. Six years after it was established, the Chalcidians at Naxos were able to send out a fresh colony to set up the city of Leontini (Lentini) in 730 BCE, followed soon by another colony at Catana. Strabo also speaks of Zancle (modern Messina) as a colony from Naxos, although Thucydides does not mention this. Callipolis was another colony of Naxos, although the site is not known.

Surprisingly, little is known about the early history of Naxos, and the first accounts are of disasters that hit the Greek city. Herodotus recounts that Naxos was besieged and captured by Hippocrates, the despot of Gela, ca 498-491 BCE.

Naxos was in the hands of Gelon of Syracuse and his brother Hieron by 476 BCE. In a move to strengthen his own military power, Hieron moved the people of Naxos and Catana to Leontini, and brought in new Greek colonists to live in the cities he had emptied. However, Naxos was restored to the original inhabitants in 461 BCE, and the cities of Naxos, Leontini and Catana formed a close alliance against Syracuse and the other Doric cities in Sicily.

When Athens sent a force to Sicily under Laches and Charoeades, Naxos immediately came to its aid. In the war that followed, Naxos repulsed a sudden attack from Messina in 425 BCE. During a later expedition from Athens to Sicily, the Athenian fleet landed at Naxos in 415 BCE, and Naxos once again fought on the same side as the Athenians. Thucydides recalls that Naxos and Catania were the only Greek cities in Sicily that sided with Athens.

A revenge attack on Naxos by Syracuse was called off in 409 BCE because Carthage was posing a military threat to all the Greek cities in Sicily. But in 403 BCE, Dionysius of Syracuse captured Naxos which was betrayed by the general Procles. Dionysius sold all the inhabitants of Naxos into slavery, razed the city walls and buildings, and handed over the defeated city’s territory to neighbouring Siculi.

Naxos never recovered from this blow, and it is difficult to trace what happened to it in the immediate aftermath. A new settlement was built on the hill called Mount Taurus, which rises immediately above the site of Naxos, ca 396 BCE. This eventually became the town of Tauroménion (Ταυρομένιον), present-day Taormina.

In 358 BCE, Andromachus, the father of the historian Timaeus, gathered together the descendants of the people of Naxos, by now exiles throughout the island, and brought them to live on the hill of Tauroménion, which became the successor of ancient Naxos. Pliny the Elder is mistaken when he says Tauroménion was once called Naxos. The new city quickly prospered, and the site of Naxos was never fully resettled.

However, the altar and shrine of Apollo Archegetes continued to mark the spot where Naxos once stood, and it is mentioned in the war between Octavian and Sextus Pompey in Sicily in 36 BCE. It remained a tradition for all envoys setting out on sacred missions to Greece or returning to Sicily to stop at Naxos and offer a sacrifice on the altar.

The site stretches over a large area of Cape Schisò, among olive and lemon groves. It is poorly labelled, but it is possible to make out the foundations of a once-large town laid out in grids and a long stretch of the city wall of Naxos, as well as rubble indicating the later presence of a Byzantine town on the site.

During the Arab occupation of Sicily, Naxos was called al-Kusus. In the Norman period, Kusus became Kisoi and then Schisò. Since the area was widely cultivated with citrus orchards, it came to be known as Giardini and was part of the administrative area of Taormina.

Queen Adelasia, the wife of Count Roger of Altavilla, gave the Church of Saint Pantaleo at Schisò to monks following the rule of Saint Basil in 1005, granting them the right of tax-free fishing in the sea off Naxos.

Schisò Castle may date back to 1100. For centuries, the castle belonged to the De Spuches family. It is still owned privately by the Palladino family and is not open to visits or for archaeological research. It may date back to 1100. It has a square shape and four round towers and is surrounded by a large garden. The castle had its own independent supply of water thanks to a well immediately outside.

Underground passages connected to the Vignazza Tower, an impressive defence garrison on the promontory of Naxos, and to another small fortress east of the castle. Inside the Schisò Castle is the small Church of Saint Pantaleo, a martyr who was a missionary in Roman Sicily (feast day 29 July).

The towers and castles on the cape helped to protect the Sicilian coastline along the Ionian Sea against corsairs and pirates from the north African coast, and the raids did not cease until France conquered Algiers in 1830.

King Ferdinand II made Giardini an independent commune in 1846. On the evening of 18 August 1860, Garibaldi set sail from Giardini for the Calabrian coast at the beginning of the Italian War of Unification.

Giardini Naxos began to develop economically around 1870 after the Messina-Catania railway opened, changingd the small maritime village into a popular tourist destination. However, the site of Naxos has never been fully excavated by archaeologists, and some of the small number of pieces recovered are on display in the small two-room museum.

The tall, slender Church of the Immaculate Conception with its conical shape has become one of the modern landmarks on the coastline of Giardini Naxos. Bishop Carmelo Canzonieri, Auxiliary Bishop of Messina, blessed the laying of the foundation stone on 1 May 1963. Building work was completed by 8 October 1967, when Archbishop Francesco Fasola of Messina recognised the new parish.

Father Eduardo Di Felice, a Capuchin Franciscan, was the first parish priest. He worked hard to complete the church and the parish complex, and the church was later visited by Pope John Paul II. The parish continued to be run by the Capuchin Franciscans until the beginning of the 2000s.

The other churches in Giardini Naxos include the Church of Santa Maria della Racconmandata, known as the ‘mother church’ of Giardini Naxos and built in 1719, and the Church San Pancrazio (Saint Pancras), built in 1957 and dedicated to the patron of the nearby lofty hill-top town of Taormina.

The lengthy remains of the former city walls of Naxos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 17-27 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 17 ‘I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

18 ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 It was to fulfil the word that is written in their law, “They hated me without a cause.”

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.’

The Byzantine site at Giardini Naxos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:

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), has been ‘Praying for Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a prayer written by the Revd Tuomas Mäkipää, Chaplain of Saint Nicholas.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (28 October 2023, Simon and Jude, Apostles) invites us to pray in these words:

Let us give thanks for the lives and works of Saint Simon and Saint Jude. May we emulate them in our discipleship and witness to the Good News.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who built your Church upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets,
with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone:
so join us together in unity of spirit by their doctrine,
that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you;
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:

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

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Among the exhibits in the Archaeological Museum at the site of Naxos (Photographs: 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

Caves between the beaches on the coast at Giardini Naxos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Jewish presence in Taormina should not be relegated to a footnote in the history of Sicily

The façade of the Palazzo dei Giurati in Taormina displays Stars of David, indicating it may have been tin he heart of the Jewish district (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout this week, the reflections in my prayer diary on this blog each morning have drawn on places I have visited in Eastern Sicily, including Giardini Naxos, Noto, Syracuse and Taormina.

Taormina has long been a popular tourist destination. It is, arguably, the prettiest town in Sicily, with breathtaking views, food, restaurants, shops and hotels, with majestic Mount Etna as a backdrop and an ancient Greek amphitheatre. The crumbling Victorian follies in the Villa public gardens were once owned by Lady Florence Trevelyan.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Jewish Encyclopaedia, at one time there were 37,000 to 100,000 Jews living in 52 different places in Sicily. Rabbi Barbara Aiello, the US-born founder of the Italian Jewish Cultural Centre of Calabria, claims about 40% of people in Sicily and Calabria were Jewish 500 years ago.

Jews probably first came to southern Italy almost 2,000 years ago, perhaps at the time when the Maccabees, fearing annihilation by Antiochus and his forces, sent scouts out across the Mediterranean to search for possible new homes.

The remains of a fourth century synagogue have been found in Bova Marina in Reggio di Calabria, and when a mikveh from the same time was uncovered in Syracuse in 1987 it sparked renewed interest in Sicily’s rich Jewish heritage.

Early records date from 734 BCE, but the town did not begin to prosper until the fourth century BCE. There are references to the town throughout Roman history, and remains of its Greek and Roman past are still visible.

Taormina’s well-preserved Greek theatre is the second largest amphitheatre in Sicily. It was built in the third century BCE and was later renovated by the Romans.

The theatre, which is built into the hillside, has natural acoustics and offers amazing views of the Ionian Sea below and of Mount Etna. A brick with a Greek inscription from the Greek-Roman theatre was probably inscribed by some Christians who respected Saturday as a holy day. It was restored in modern times and is now used for summer performances.

A Greek inscription in the Greek-Roman theatre in Taormina was probably inscribed by Christians who respected Saturday as a holy day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

From the 14th century on, the Jews of Sicily faced open discrimination and in some places were forced to live in ghettoes.

Taormina once had a Jewish Quarter and a small Jewish community is referred to in documents from 1415 on. The Jewish quarter was in the area to the west of the cathedral. The imprint of their presence lives on in the placenames and street names in Taormina, such as the shopping street known as Vicolode gli Ebrei (Street of the Jews) and Via Giudecca (Jewish Street).

The façade of the Palazzo dei Giurati in the Piazza del Duomo, on the same square as the duomo or cathedral in Taormina, still displays three Stars of David, indicating many of the building there have Jewish origins and that this may have been the heart of the main Jewish district of Taormina.

A veterans’ hall has a three-sided second-floor balcony that may suggest, perhaps, that it was once a synagogue. In Castelmola, a hilltop village above Taormina, leaded Stars of David can be seen in the windows of the old church, set in stone panels on two sides of a bell tower.

However, there were frequent episodes of intolerance in Taormina. The Dominican friars twice forced Jews to move from the synagogue and the cemetery, claiming they were disturbed by their loud prayers.

This intolerance eventually led to a riot in in 1455, when the synagogue was destroyed. Finally, when the Spanish Inquisition reached the island, a decree was issued in 1492 ordering the expulsion of Jews from Sicily. The edict was similar to those issued in Spain, and by 1493 all Jews had either left Sicily or had been baptised in forcible conversions.

The Greek-Roman theatre in Taormina was built in the third century BCE and is the second largest amphitheatre in Sicily (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

The descendants of the Italian conversos were later known as neofiti, and many secretly continued some Jeiwsh practices. The Spanish-run administration in Sicily invited Jews to return to Sicily in a proclamation on 3 February 1740. A small number responded, but they felt insecure and returned to the Ottoman Empire.

Rabbi Barbara Aiello is both the first female rabbi in Italy and Italy’s first non-Orthodox rabbi. She was born in 1947 in Pittsburgh to a family of Italian Jewish descent and was ordained at the Rabbinical Seminary International in New York at the age of 51. In 2005, she conducted the first Passover seder in Sicily since 1492, when the Jews were expelled. She founded the Italian Jewish Cultural Center of Calabria and Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud in Calabria.

Rabbi Stefano Di Mauro, who was born in Syracuse in Sicily, is a descendant of neofiti. He emigrated to the US in his teens, but when his mother was dying he learned that his family was Jewish. He converted, returned to Syracuse in 2007, and opened a small synagogue in 2008. He was the first orthodox rabbi in Sicily for more than 500 years, and said many descendants of neofiti were being drawn back to Judaism.

Eventually, however, according to a report in the Jewish Chronicle five years ago (2018), his relationship with Italy’s established Jewish authorities broke down irretrievably, his community in Syracuse is no more and he is now living in Israel. He says Italy’s Jewish establishment was not being welcoming enough, an accusation that is rejected by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.

Since 2013, Palermo has hosted a public Menorah lighting in the Palazzo Steri, the former headquarters of the Inquisition, where many Jews were detained, tortured and killed.

The Archdiocese of Palermo donated a building to the Jewish community in 2018 to build a synagogue in Vicolo Meschita, the old Jewish quarter. Archbishop Corrado Lorefice was honoured with the Wallenberg Medal for enabling the rebirth of the Jewish community of Palermo and for promoting interfaith dialogue.

It is said locally that former Jewish buildings in Taormina were converted into churches or secular buildings during and after the Inquisition, but that subsequent residents often retained and preserved small signs of their Jewish past Jewish. Perhaps this was to guard against retribution, perhaps it was to soothe guilt, perhaps it was a sign of remorse for the end of the Jewish presence in Taormina.

The signs and symbols of a once thriving Jewish community and a former Jewish Quarter in Taormina usually go unnoticed by most residents and tourists alike. But they are signs and symbols of a community that must never be relegated to a mere footnote in history.

Shabbot Shalom

The Sicilian coastline below Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (152) 27 October 2023

The Church of San Pancrazio or Saint Pancras in Taormina stands on the site of a Greek temple dedicated to Isis and Serapis in the third century BCE (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX, 22 October 2023).

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

My reflections on the Week of Prayer for World Peace concluded on Sunday, and my reflections each morning for the rest of this week are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Sicily;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The shrine of Saint Pancras above the High Altar in the Church of San Pancrazio in Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Church of Saint Pancrazio (Saint Pancras), Taormina, Sicily:

Saint Pancras is the patron saint of Taormina, and the church in Taormina dedicated to this first century bishop and martyr was built in the late 16th and early 17th century on the ruins of a Greek temple dedicated to Isis and Serapis and built in the third century BCE.

The sanctuary of Isis and Serapis, dating from the Hellenistic period, was in the northern part of Taormina. Much of the temple survives in the walls of the Church of San Pancrazio or Saint Pancras. The temple stood on a high podium and is generally dated between the late third and early second century BCE.

Two inscriptions, one in Greek from the second century BCE, the other in Latin from the first or second century CE, identify the temple with the cult of the two Egyptian deities, Isis and Serapis. A statue of a priestess also survives from the second century CE.

The Church of Saint Pancrazio or Saint Pancras stands in an arcaded courtyard. Traces of Greek masonry can still be see in the south walls of the church, and the large blocks of stone that are now seats in the courtyard are also Greek.

According to legend, Saint Pancras (Greek: Παγκράτιος; Italian: Pancrazio) was born in Antioch in Cilicia (modern Adana). He travelled to Jerusalem with his parents during the time of Christ. Later, the entire family was baptised in Antioch. Pancras withdrew to a cave in Pontus where he was found by Saint Peter, who sent him to Sicily in the year 40 as the first Bishop of Tauromenium or Taormina.

A miracle attributed to Saint Pancras says he saved the city of Taormina from destruction by the pagan commander Aquilinus. He was martyred there with two of his disciples, the holy women Aesia and Susanna, by stoning to death.

He is the patron saint of Taormina and Canicattì. His feast day in the Roman Martyrology was on 3 April, but this was later changed to 8 July. More often he is celebrated on 9 July, the traditional day of his martyrdom. Most of his relics are preserved at Rome, and a portion of his relics are kept on Mount Athos.

Saint Pancras of Taormina should not be confused with Saint Pancras of Rome, a young man who was martyred by being beheaded ca 304 and who gives his name to two churches in London (see HERE and HERE).

The Church of Saint Pancras is built of Taormina stone. The outside is plain apart from the west door with its marble columns and statues of Saint Pancras and Saint Procopius, who was the Bishop of Taormina at the time of the Arab conquest of Sicily. The church has a small attached bell tower.

The Baroque-style church dates from the second part of the 16th century. The main doorway has jambs and architraves in Taormina stone. Two Ionian columns decorate each side of the doorway.

Inside, the church is quite bright considering the only light is through the door and small windows at the base of the ceiling. The decorative work is Baroque with decorative plasterwork and pillars.

The High Altar is a splendid Baroque marble altar set in the apse at the east end. It is lavishly decorated with polychrome marble slabs and an Ionian column on each side. At the centre is a seated statue of Saint Pancras that is processed around the town on 9 July, his feast day. Above, in a small roundel is the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child surrounded by putti. At the top is God the Father. On either side set in decorative plaster frames are images of Saint Pancras arriving in Naxos.

A fresco to the right of the High Altar depicts the martyrdom of Saint Pancras during a banquet.

There are paintings in oil on canvas above the two side altars to the right, one depicting the torture of Saint Nicone and the other the consecration of Saint Maximus, the successor of Saint Pancras. Between the two other side altars to the left, a fresco depicts Teofano Cerameo, Taormina’s last bishop in the 11th century.

The side walls are lined with altars with large paintings depicting different periods in Taormina’s religious history. Running round the top of the walls is a shelf with small paintings and urns.

The organ is in the gallery above the west door, and there are interesting and elaborate marble memorials set in the nave floor.

The bell tower of the Church of San Pancrazio in Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 54-59 (NRSVA):

54 He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 ‘And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? 58 Thus, when you go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.’

There are interesting and elaborate marble memorials set in the nave floor in the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:

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 ‘Praying for Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a prayer written by the Revd Tuomas Mäkipää, Chaplain of Saint Nicholas.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (27 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for the Diocese in Europe which serves diverse communities across the continent and has been pivotal in providing support to refugees fleeing Ukraine.

The Collect:

God, the giver of life,
whose Holy Spirit wells up within your Church:
by the Spirit’s gifts equip us to live the gospel of Christ
and make us eager to do your will,
that we may share with the whole creation
the joys of eternal life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Son, the light unfailing,
has come from heaven to deliver the world
from the darkness of ignorance:
let these holy mysteries open the eyes of our understanding
that we may know the way of life,
and walk in it without stumbling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Looking out of the church into the courtyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The Church of San Pancrazio stands in an arcaded courtyard, where the seats are masonry from the Hellenistic temple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (151) 26 October 2023

The Duomo or Cathedral of Taormina in Sicily is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari and dates from the 13th and 14th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XX, 22 October 2023). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today (26 October 2023) remembers Alfred the Great (899), King of the West Saxons, Scholar, and Saint Cedd (644), Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons.

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

My reflections on the Week of Prayer for World Peace concluded on Sunday, and my reflections each morning for the rest of this week are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on a church or cathedral in Sicily;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Inside the Duomo or Cathedral of Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Taormina, Sicily:

Taormina is a small hill-top city on the east coast of Sicily. It predates the time when ancient Greeks established their first colony in Magna Graecia in Sicily in 734 BCE. The ancient theatre of Taormina may have been rebuilt by the Romans on the foundations of an older theatre of the Greek period.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Taormina continued to be one of the more important towns of the island and, like the rest of Sicily, it was ruled by successive foreign monarchs. After Italian unification, Taormina began to attract well-off tourists from northern Europe, and the coastal resort of Giardini Naxos is nearby. The beaches on the Ionian sea, including Isola Bella, are accessible by an aerial tramway built in 1992. Taormina hosted the G7 summit in 2017.

The Duomo or Cathedral of Taormina is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari and dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. It stands on the site of an earlier church also dedicated to Saint Nicholas and was rebuilt in the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries.

The cathedral is one of the mediaeval buildings of Taormina and is built in the Sicilian Romanesque-Gothic style with large stone blocks. It looks more like a fortress than a church, with its austere stone façade, its crowning battlements and its massive bell tower.

The façade has a large rose window made of Syracuse stone with excellent workmanship. There are two other rose windows on the sides of the church.

The main door, between two 15th-century windows, was rebuilt in 1636. At each side of the main door are two fluted columns in Corinthian style rising from high bases. There is a broken pediment over the lintel, and above the capitals of the columns are the faces of two angels.

Each doorjamb bears 11 carved figures of saints with their symbols. These 22 characters include Saint Peter (keys), Saint Paul (sword) King David (harp), Saint Mark (winged lion), Saint John (eagle), Saint Luke (winged ox) and Saint Matthew (angel). Identifying the other saints and apostles is not always simple or obvious.

At the top of each side of the marble frame are two bishops with mitre and pastoral staff: Saint Nicholas, the titular saint of the cathedral, and Saint Pancras, the patron of Taormina.

The side doors belong to different periods: the left door dates from the 15th century and presents an image of Saint Peter and Saint Paul with Christ in blessing in the architrave; the right door has images from 1500.

Inside, the duomo is in the shape of a Latin cross, with three naves and three apses. The nave is supported by six columns of pink Taormina marble, with capitals with leaf motifs and fish scales. Four of these marble columns are made from single blocks of marble or monoliths and it is thought the columns came from the Greek-Roman theatre of Taormina.

The ceiling has large wooden beams with carved shelves and Arab motifs in a Gothic style.

There are side chapels at each side of the main altar: the Baroque chapel of the Holy Sacrament on the left dates from the late 17th century; the Chapel of Our Lady of Graces on the right was rebuilt in 1747 reusing materials of a demolished Gothic chapel of Saint Peter fuori le mura in Taormina.

In the right nave, a depiction of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary with Saint Joseph and Saint Zechariah was painted by Antonino Giuffré in 1463.

A polyptych in the same nave is by Antonello de Saliba (1504). The first panel depicts the Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Sebastian; the second panel depicts the Pietà with Saint Lucy of Syracuse and Saint Agatha; and the panel below depicts the Last Supper. The Polyptych is from the former Church of San Sebastiano, used by the Augustinian friars, in Piazza IX Aprile.

One of the most precious and oldest treasures in the cathedral is a Byzantine icon of Madonna, covered with a layer of silver encrusted with semi-precious stones.
In the left nave is an image of the Enthroned Virgin and Child between Saint John the Baptist and the Prophet Elia. The lunette depicts the Eternal Father and the Crucifixion, painted on wood by Alfonso Franco (16th century).

In the right nave, close to the entrance, is a statue of Saint Agatha, by Martino Montanini (16th century). The statue was originally in Church of Sant’Agata in the Dominican convent, destroyed by bombing on 9 July 1943.

The cathedral was fully restored in 1945-1948 by the Neapolitan architect Armando Dillon, who strengthened the whole building and brought to light the early structures of the arches of the apses, hidden under Baroque stucco work. He also entirely rebuilt the original roof terraces on the aisles.

Pope John Paul II gave the cathedral the status of a minor basilica in 1980.

The central, paired position of the Duomo and the Palazzo dei Giurati in the square symbolises the relationship between the religious and civil power in mediaeval Sicily.

The 17th-century Baroque fountain in the square in front of the Duomo is built on circular steps surrounded by four pretty side fountains. In the centre of the fountain, the crowned centaur, the symbol of the city of Taormina, holds the world in his left hand and the sceptre of command in the right hand.

The six columns in the nave of the duomo are thought to come from the Greek-Roman theatre of Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 12: 49-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 49 ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’

The baptismal font in the duomo in Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers: USPG Prayer Diary:

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 ‘Praying for Peace.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a prayer written by the Revd Tuomas Mäkipää, Chaplain of Saint Nicholas.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (26 October 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

We pray for churches that are in and surround conflict areas. May they be beacons of God’s love and peace, providing hope for all.

The Collect:

God, our maker and redeemer,
we pray you of your great mercy
and by the power of your holy cross
to guide us by your will and to shield us from our foes:
that, after the example of your servant Alfred,
we may inwardly love you above all things;
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 our redeemer,
who inspired Alfred to witness to your love
and to work for the coming of your kingdom:
may we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven,
be fired by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living
and never to rest content until your kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The 17th-century Baroque fountain in the square in front of the Duomo, with a crowned centaur, the symbol of the city of Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The cathedral can look more like a fortress than a church, with its austere stone façade, its crowning battlements and its massive bell tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen Saint George’s Churches on Saint George’s Day

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Southwark, in street art in front of the church, one of the earliest churches in England dedicated to Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Today is normally celebrated as Saint George’s Day (23 April), and earlier this morning I attended the Patronal Festival for Saint George’s Day at Saint George’s, Church, Wolverton. However, as we are still celebrating Easter, the Church of England calendar and lectionary recommend celebrating Saint George’s Day tomorrow, and the Saint George’s Day celebrations in Lichfield were held yesterday.

In Tamworth this afternoon, the Tamworth and District Civic Society Tamworth and District Civic Society is celebrating Saint George’s Day in the chapel of the mediaeval Guild of Saint George in Saint Editha’s Church,.

I thought it would be appropriate to invite you to join me this afternoon a virtual tour of a dozen church dedicated to Saint George.

My virtual tour this afternoon visits the now-closed village church in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth. a chapel in Tamworth, a church and cathedral in Southwark, churches in Holborn and Wolverton, two churches in Venice, one in Sicily, churches on the Greek islands of Kastellórizo and Crete, and two churches named after Saint George in Dublin.

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint George, Comberford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

1, The Church of Saint Mary and Saint George, Comberford:

I was back in Comberford village, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth, earlier this year. The response is always positive whenever I use photographs of the Church of Saint Mary and Saint George, although, sadly, the church has been closed for the last ten years. But

The architects of the Church of Saint Mary and Saint George in Comberford were Hicks and Charlewood of Newcastle-on-Tyne and the church was built by Robert Bridgeman (1844-1918), the architectural sculptor, ecclesiastical sculptor, stone carver and stonemason, who was based for most of his career at Quonians Lane in Lichfield.

Bridgeman was born in Burwell, Cambridgeshire, the son of Charles Bridgeman (1825-1903), a farmer, turf dealer and digger. Robert learned his craft with one of the large carving firms in Cambridge, such as Rattee and Kett. He married the daughter of his landlady in 1872, and by 1877 they were living in Lichfield where Robert worked on the cathedral.

He first worked from a small workshop close to Minster Pool, but later moved to larger premises in Quonians Lane, off Dam Street. Bridgeman lived on Dam Street and established his own firm in Lichfield in 1879, specialising in ecclesiastical and architectural work in wood, stone, alabaster and metal.

When the west front of Lichfield Cathedral was being restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the Bridgeman workshops produced the majority of the statues on the new façade, which include more than 100 biblical figures, saints, kings and other figures.

By 1912, Robert’s son Joseph had joined the firm and it traded as Robert Bridgeman & Son. Robert Bridgeman died on 1 March 1918.

A third generation, Charles William Bridgeman (1902-2004), son of Joseph, later joined the business It traded as Bridgeman & Sons of Lichfield until his retirement in 1968, when it was sold to Linfords and operated as Linford-Bridgeman.

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint George in Comberford was built by Bridgeman’s on a site donated in May 1914 by Howard Francis Paget (1858-1935) of Elford Hall to the Lichfield Diocesan Trust for the erection of a mission church. Howard Paget’s father, the Revd Francis Edward Paget (1806-1882), was Rector of Elford, an early follower of the Oxford Movement, and the author of Tractarian fiction, including The Curate of Cumberworth (sic) (1859).

Saint Mary’s and Saint George’s Church in Comberford closed ten years ago in 2013 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Bridgeman’s other works from the workshops in Lichfield include:

● The lone sailor, originally intended for a Boer War memorial in York, later given to the City of Lichfield by Robert Bridgeman in 1901, and placed on the Free Library and Museum, Bird Street, now the Registry Office.

● The statue of King Edward VII (1908) in the Museum Gardens in Beacon Park.

● The War Memorial in the Gardens of Remembrance,with its statue of Saint George.

● The medallions of George V and Queen Mary on the Bore Street façade of the Guildhall.

Until recently, the former Bridgeman premises in Lichfield had an interesting collection that has since been dispersed. This included a 1920s panel of the Last Supper, based on Bridgeman’s earlier marble frieze for Saint Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh; a carving of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child on his back; and a plaque warning the reader of impending death and to ‘prepare to meet thy descending God’ … with delightful punctuation, capitalisation and syntax, including perfect ‘greengrocer’s apostrophe’s’ in both clod’s and erect’s.

After Saint Mary’s and Saint George’s closed in 2013, Bridgeman’s rood in the church in Comberford was transferred by faculty to the church at Coven near Brewood in 2014.

The Pre-Raphaelite East Window in Saint George’s Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

2, Saint George’s Chapel, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth:

The Tamworth and District Civic Society Tamworth and District Civic Society is celebrating Saint George’s Day today in the chapel of the mediaeval Guild of Saint George in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, with the Bishop of Lichfield, bellringers, singers, standard bearers, a new flag, and dragon cake. The society invited me some years ago to speak in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth, on the Comberford family of Comberford Hall and the Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth.

Visitors to Saint Editha’s are easily taken aback by the windows in the church, and by the number of side chapels, dating back to its days as a collegiate church with a large number of priests, each in need of an altar to celebrate Mass daily.

The surviving chapels include Saint Catherine’s Chapel, generally known as the Comberford Chapel, and Saint George’s Chapel. When I spoke there in 2019, the venue was Saint George’s Chapel, and the reception was held in the Comberford Chapel.

A four-light window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Saint George’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The real treasure in the church is the Pre-Raphaelite East Window in Saint George’s Chapel by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. This window is a memorial to Sir John Peel (1804-1872), MP for Tamworth. The window, known as ‘Angels of Creation,’ connects the story of the six days of creation with redemption. The glass is by William Morris. The central figure is Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child, and lower panels depict Old Testament prophets and New Testament saints.

Saint George’s Chapel also has four sets of four-light windows, including one set by Burne-Jones and William Morris, one by William Morris and two sets by the Camm Brothers.

Saint George the Martyr Church, Southwark, is one of the oldest churches in England dedicated to Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

3, Saint George the Martyr Church, Southwark:

I got to know the Church Saint George the Martyr on Borough High Street, Southwark, when I was attending meetings around the corner in the offices of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This is, historically, the parish church of Southwark, and many people also think of it as the parish church of ‘Little Dorrit.’

In the Roman period (43 CE to 410 CE), this area was effectively an extension of the Roman city of Londinium on the north bank of the Thames, and there is archaeological evidence of Roman habitation on the site of Saint George’s Church.

Saint George the Martyr is one of the oldest churches in England dedicated to Saint George. According to tradition, Saint George was a soldier in the Roman army and was killed on the orders of the Emperor Diocletian in 303 for refusing to persecute Christians and for confessing to his own Christianity.

The first confirmed reference to the church is in the Annals of Bermondsey Abbey, which claims that the church was given by Thomas Ardern and Thomas his son in 1122. The date follows the Battle of Acre. when the myth of Saint George was by English crusaders. Perhaps the dedication of the church is related to the involvement of the Arderns in the Crusade.

Inside Saint George the Martyr, looking east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint George’s is the first and the oldest church with this dedication in the London area. It predates by more than 200 years King Edward III’s adoption of Saint George as the patron of the Order of Garter. Henry V he was welcomed on the steps of the church when returned from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The standard with the red cross was used for the first time in this battle, and in the same year Saint George became the patron saint of England.

The present church is the third on the site and was built in 1736. The left-hand window in the chancel shows Saint George trampling down the decree of the Emperor Diocletian. There is a second depiction of Saint George the Martyr on the south wall.

The church has many associations with Charles Dickens, whose father was jailed for debt in nearby Marshalsea prison. Dickens lived nearby in Lant Street during the darkest period in his life. Later, he set several scenes of his novel Little Dorrit in and around Saint George’s Church. One cold night, Amy Dorrit sought shelter in the vestry. A small representation of Little Dorrit in Marion Grant’s east window, below Saint George, shows her kneeling in prayer as her woven bonnet falls across her back like the wings of an angel.

Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark … first designed by AWN Pugin in 1848 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

4, Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark:

Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark.

Father Thomas Doyle (1793-1879), the son of Irish immigrants, first came to Saint George’s Chapel in Southwark in 1820. He acquired the site of the future Saint George’s, then the Royal Belgian Chapel, and bought part of Saint George’s Fields, a site associated with the anti-Catholic Gordon riots in 1780.

The cathedral was designed by AWN Pugin, who was critical of Henry Rose’s work at this time in Saint Saviour’s, later tSouthwark Cathedral in the Church of England. The funds available did not match Pugin’s first ambitious plans, however, and he was forced to compromise his design. The money for the upper part of the tower and a spire was never found.

The church was solemnly opened on 4 July 1848 by Bishop Nicholas Wiseman, later Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster. Pugin was the first person to be married in Saint George’s, when he married his third wife Jane Knill there on 10 August 1848.

Two years later, when Pope Pius IX restored the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850, Saint George’s was chosen as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Southwark, which was to cover the whole of Southern England.

Saint George’s was one of the first four Roman Catholic churches in England and Wales – and the first in London – to become a cathedral since the English Reformation. Thomas Doyle, who became the Provost of Saint George’s, died in 1879.

For half a century, Saint George’s remained the centre of Roman Catholic life in London until Westminster Cathedral opened in 1903.

Saint George’s was the venue for the funeral Mass of the nationalist Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, in October 1920 after he died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.

Inside Saint George’s Cathedral … chosen as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Southwark in 1850 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A German bomb hit the cathedral on the night of 16 April 1941, starting a fire that destroyed the wooden roof and much of the cathedral. An adjoining hall became the pro-cathedral, and the architect Romilly Bernard Craze (1892-1974) was commissioned to rebuild the cathedral.

Work began in 1953, and in the new cathedral, Craze tried to blend an Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival styles with surviving elements of the pre-war building. He used different types of Gothic used to suggest age, as in ancient cathedrals built over different time periods. The Day Chapel (1963) has a Tudor-derived pattern, while the Baptistry (1966) was inspired by the Perpendicular.

The addition of the clerestory introduced light, air and a grandeur that were previously lacking. But once again, there was no money for the upper part of the tower and a spire.

The rebuilt cathedral was consecrated on 4 July 1958, and solemnly opened by Bishop Cyril Cowderoy. When the Diocese of Southwark became a metropolitan see in 1965, Bishop Cowderoy became the first Archbishop of Southwark.

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Holborn, on the south end of Queen Square, was first built in 1703-1706 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

5, The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Holborn:

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Holborn, is on the south end of Queen Square. The church is popularly known as Saint George Holborn and should not be confused with the later nearby Saint George’s Church, Bloomsbury, although the two churches have shared a burial ground, now known as Saint George’s Gardens.

Saint George Holborn was built in 1703-1706 as a proprietary chapel and a chapel of ease to Saint Andrew, Holborn. The church was built by public subscriptions from a group of residents of the newly developed area of Queen Square.

The church was designed by the architect Arthur Tooley, and the church was dedicated to Saint George to recall that one of the early trustees, Sir Streynsham Master (1640-1724), was the Governor of Fort St George in India.

Saint George’s Church was consecrated on 26 September 1723 by the new Bishop of London, Edmund Gibson. A new parish of Saint George the Martyr was constituted and separated from Saint Andrew, Holborn, and the two parishes remained united for the care of highways and the poor.

The church was remodelled in 19th century by John Buonarotti Papworth and Samuel Sanders Teulon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church was remodelled in the early 19th century by the architect John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847), and once again in 1867-1869 by the Gothic Revival architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873).

The Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and the American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath were married in this church on Bloomsday, 16 June 1956.

Today, the church is part of the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) network of evangelical churches, and the vicar or priest-in-charge, the Revd Jamie Haith, describes himself as the ‘Lead Pastor.’

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Wolverton, is said to be the world’s first railway church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

6, The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Wolverton:

Earlier this morning, I attended the Patronal Festival for Saint George’s Day in Saint George’s Church, Wolverton. Wolverton is one of the four towns incorporated into Milton Keynes – along with Stony Stratford, Bletchley and Fenny Stratford – in 1967. But Wolverton developed long before the planning of Milton Keynes with the development of the railway.

Wolverton was established in 1838 as the site of the locomotive repair shop at the midpoint of the world’s first trunk railway, the London and Birmingham Railway, then being built. The London and Birmingham became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1846.

The Church of Saint George the Martyr in Wolverton was built in 1843 as the District Church of Saint George the Martyr, Wolverton Station, to provide a place of worship for the inhabitants of the new company town and was paid for by the railway company, with the help of the Radcliffe Trust.

So, Saint George’s can claim to be the world’s first railway town church – beating Saint Mark’s, Swindon, into second place.

The Church of Saint George the Martyr, Wolverton, was designed by the Irish-born architect Thomas Henry Wyatt (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The new church was designed by the Irish-born architect Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880), who worked mainly in the Gothic style. The church was built in local Cosgrove limestone, with dressings of red sandstone from Hollington, Staffordshire. It originally consisted of a nave and small chancel, with lancet windows in the Early English style.

The landmark feature of the church is the tower at the north-east corner of the nave, housing one bell and a porch. This is the only church tower with a spire in Milton Keynes.

When the Revd FW Harnett was rector, plans were drawn up to enlarge the church to meet the demands of a growing congregation and a much larger town. His son, the Revd WL Harnett, put forward designs by J Oldrid Scott to increase the church capacity in 1895.

The work included the addition of north and south aisles to the nave in the form of a pair of transepts or double transepts, a large clergy vestry on the north side of the chancel, and an organ chamber on the south side. The work was completed by Easter 1896.

The final enlargement of the church was undertaken in 1902, when the east wall of the chancel was taken down to enlarge it by 12 ft, and the original three-light east window was replaced by a five-light window with new stained glass.

San Giorgio Maggiore can be seen clearly from Saint Mark’s Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

7, Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice:

San Giorgio Maggiore can be seen clearly from Saint Mark’s Square. It is a landmark building just beyond the entrance to the Grand Canal, yet it is visited by few tourists during their brief stay in Venice. But this 16th-century Benedictine church on an island that shares the same name is of architectural importance and was designed by the great architect of Venice, Andrea Palladio.

The church, which was built between 1566 and 1610, is a basilica in the classical renaissance style. Its white marble gleams above the blue water of the lagoon opposite the Piazza San Marco, and it forms the focal point of the view from every part of the Riva degli Schiavoni.

The first church on the island was built about 790, and in 982 the island was given to the Benedictine order by the Doge Tribuno Memmo. The Benedictines founded a monastery there, but in 1223 all the buildings on the island were destroyed by an earthquake.

The church and monastery on the island were rebuilt after the earthquake. The church, which had a nave with side chapels, was not in the same position as the present church, but stood farther back at the side of a small campo or square. The cloisters in front were demolished in 1516, and from 1521 the monks began planning a new church.

The church and monastery were built by Palladio in the late 16th century … a view from the Campanile in Saint Mark’s Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Palladio arrived in Venice in 1560, when the refectory of the monastery was being rebuilt. He made improvements to this, and in 1565 he was asked to prepare a model for a new church.

His model was completed in 1566 and the foundation stone was laid in the presence of the Pope that year. The work was not finished before Palladio died in 1580, but the body of the church was complete by 1575 apart from the choir behind the altar and the façade. The decoration of the interior was completed later and the choir was built between 1580 and 1589.

Work on the façade began in 1599 and was completed in 1610.

The campanile or bell tower is a landmark on the skyline of Venice, but was not designed by Palladio. It was first built in 1467, fell in 1774, and rebuilt in neo-classic style by 1791.

The façade of the church is a brilliant white and represents Palladio’s solution to the difficulty of adapting a classical façade to the form of this church, with its high nave and low side aisles. On either side of the central portal are statues of Saint George and of Saint Stephen, the patrons of the church.

Two very large paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto, ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘The Fall of Manna,’ depict the institution of the Eucharist. In the Cappella dei Morti or mortuary, a second painting by Tintoretto depicts ‘The Entombment of Christ.’

A chapel associated with the Morosini family, who gave their name to the Morisini fountain in Iraklion in Crete, is dedicated to Saint Andrew. Here a painting by Jacopo and Domenico Tintoretto depicts ‘The Risen Christ and Saint Andrew with Vincenzo Morosini and members of his family.’ Other works in the chapel are by Jacopo and Domenico Tintoretto and Leandro Bassano.

Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Greci, with its leaning bell tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford 2022)

8, Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Greci, Venice:

A significant Greek community has lived close to Ponte dei Greci (the Bridge of the Greeks) since the 11th century, when the first Greek artisans arrived to decorate Saint Mark's Basilica and many of the early churches of Venice. They expanded significantly with the influx of refugees following the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453.

The church of San Giorgio dei Greci, with its leaning bell tower – similar to the contemporaneous tower of Saint Spyridon in Corfu – was built at a cost of 15,000 gold ducats between 1539 and 1573, and the vivid iconostasis or icon screen was painted by Michael Damaskinos, the greatest Cretan iconographer of the day and a contemporary of El Greco.

As the Serene Republic lost its Greek colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, Greeks continued to flood into Venice, and their presence helped to spread classical culture throughout Europe. A whole Greek neighbourhood took shape around the church on the banks of the Rio dei Greci, and at its peak the Greek community numbered 15,000 people.

Inside San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Napoleon’s abolition of the Republic of Venice in 1797 marked the beginning of the decline of this prosperous community as their assets and church treasures were confiscated. However, a convent of Greek nuns and their girls' school survived until 1834, and until 1905 the Greek College provided Greek communities in the Ottoman territories with educated priests and teachers.

Despite their decline in recent generations, the small Greek community continues in Venice. The Collegio Flangini now houses the Hellenic Institute for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies, a museum in the former Scuola di San Nicolo dei Greci displays a unique collection of icons, and San Giorgio dei Greci has become a cathedral, with an archbishop living in the old palace.

9, Saint George’s Church, Taormina, Sicily:

A view from inside Saint George’s Church, Taormina, to the Sicilian coast and the Ionian Sea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint George’s Anglican Church in the centre of Taormina is a relatively in Sicilian town that dates back to Greek and classical antiquity. It is close to all the main attractions in the town, and the Eucharist is celebrated there in English every Sunday. The church has spectacular panoramic views from its windows and from the terrace in the green garden behind the church that looks out across the Ionian Sea.

The site for the church was donated by Sir Edward tStock Hill (1824-1922). The architect was his son-in-law, Sir Harry Triggs (1876-1923), and Saint George’s Church was completed in Spring 1922 at a cost of £25,000. The writer DH Lawrence, who was then living in Taormina, refused to come to any of the meetings organised by the English-speaking community to organise the building programme, for fear he would be asked to pay for the whole project.

Inside Saint George’s Church in Taormina (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John Henry Newman was an early English visitor to Taormina. When he arrived in 1833, he was a young Anglican priest, recovering from a fever that almost caused his death. He made a full recovery thanks to the kindness of strangers, and also visited Catania and Syracuse.

Newman described the Greek theatre in Taormina as ‘the nearest approach to seeing Eden’ and said: ‘I felt that for the first time in my life I should be a better and more religious man if I lived here.’

After he recovered from his fever in Sicily and had visited Taormina, Newman left Palermo for Marseille in June 1833, on the first stage of his journey back to England. He was convinced that God still had work for him in England, and on the journey home from Sicily he wrote his hymn ‘Lead, kindly light.’

He arrived back in Oxford on 9 July, and five days later, on 14 July 1833, John Keble preached his Assize Sermon, marking the beginning of the Oxford Movement.

The Church of Saint George of the Well, with its high Byzantine-style dome, in Kastellórizo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

10, Saint George of the Well, Kastellórizo:

Kastellórizo is known officially in Greece as Megísti and is the smallest inhabited Dodecanese island and the most remote Greek island. The best-known of the harbour-front houses is the so-called ‘blue house’ or Mediterraneo House, famous for its role in the 1991 Academy Award winning Italian film, Mediterraneo.

The most visible church in the town, the Church of Saint George of the Well (1906), with its high Byzantine-style dome, stands on Australia Square, a small square recalling the island’s emigrants. Hidden in a side street is Saint Merkourios, an example of late 18th century architecture restored to its former glory three years ago.

The island of Kastellórizo is dotted with dozens of churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Above the harbour and the town, two monasteries look down benignly on Kastellórizo, the Prophet Elías and the Holy Trinity, the former now an army base.

Smaller churches dot and decorate the hillside, including the imposing Saint George of the Fields, half a dozen other churches named after Saint George, the twin churches of Saint Nicholas and Saint Dimirtios, Panaghía, Saint Spyridon, and Saint Paraskeví and Saint Savvas at the small bay of Mandráki, the island’s second harbour. They are testimony to the piety and generosity of exiles and their descendants.

11, The Monastery of Saint George, Karydi, Crete:

The Monastery of Aghios Georgios in Karydi was founded around 1600 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Monastery of Saint George in Karydi is about 2 km south-east of the village of Vamos, between Rethymnon and Chania in Crete. It is best-known as an architectural monument because of its former olive oil factory with its 12 arches and the remains of four olive mills.

The monastery was founded ca 1600, and took its name from a settlement in an area abundant with walnut trees.

When the Turks captured Crete later in the 17th century, they realised the strategic location of the monastery on a road linking Sfakia and Vamos. But the monastery survived with the help of the Monastery of Aghia Triada at Tzagarolon, near Chania.

In the 19th century, the monks bought the properties of the Muslim residents in the locality, and gradually the monastery became an important place of work. The monastery’s property and estates expanded rapidly, as many people left bequests and legacies or donated their land to the monastery, including even some Turks.

The scale of olive oil production at the monastery was so great, that an impressive olive oil factory with four mills was built here in 1863. The size of the factory and the existence of four oil mills is evidence of the enormous quantities of olive oil once produced here.

Several monks moved from Aghia Triada to Karydi, and rebuilt the church its present form in 1850-1880. A reliquary in the church is said to hold a small part of a bone of Saint George.

A reliquary in the monastery church holds what is said to be a small part of a bone of Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The last monk left the monastery of Aghios Georgios in 1900, and five years later, in 1905, part of the monastery land is ceded to local farmers and the monastery became forlorn and deserted.

The rest of the monastery lands were granted in 1922 to Greek veterans of the Balkan wars and the Asia Minor campaign. The monastery and many of the surrounding olive groves were destroyed around 1923.

For many years, the monastery was left abandoned. However, the Greek Ministry of Culture began working with Bishop Irenaeus Galanakis in 1986 on a plan to restore the monastery.

Almost a century after the last monks left Aghios Georgios, one lone monk, Father Dorotheos, moved back into the monastery in 1996. He continues to live there, and with the support of local people he is continuing the restoration of the monastery and the church, and welcoming visitors.

The pediment of the former Saint George’s Church, Hardwicke Place, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

12, Saint George’s Church, Hardwick Place, Dublin:

Saint George’s Day is seldom marked in Ireland, even in churches that bear his name. Dublin has North Great George’s Street, and South Great George’s Street; there is a George’s Street in Wexford, and there was once a George’s Street in Limerick, although it was renamed O’Connell Street many years ago.

I imagine there are similarly named streets in most Irish cities and large towns. In his book, Churches of the Church of Ireland Dedicated to Saint George, Duncan Scarlett records how the cult of Saint George was popular in the Pale until the Reformation.

Many of these are Georgian churches, and may have been named not in memory of Saint George but in honour of one the Hanoverian monarchs, usually King George III or King George IV.

There never was a liturgical provision in the Church of Ireland for the Feast of Saint George – not even in the period when the Church of Ireland the Church of England were united, from the Act of Union in 1801 to disestablishment in 1871.

Since 1928, Saint George’s Church in Belfast has celebrated this feast day liturgically – but only since 23 April 1928. Yet the bells of Saint George’s in Hardwicke Place, Dublin, were rung throughout the afternoon of 23 April at one stage in the 19th century.

Saint George’s in Hardwicke Place was built after a new parish was formed out of Saint Mary’s in 1793. The church was designed by Francis Johnston and built in 1802-1813 on a site donated by the Gardiner family who give their name to nearby Gardiner Street and Gardiner Square. The spire imitated that of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

In James Joyce’s Ulysses, Leopold Bloom is busy with his breakfast in the kitchen at 7 Eccles Street when he hears the sound of the bells of Saint George’s.

Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s Church, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin … closed on 24 April 2017 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When Saint George’s closed, its name was transferred to Saint George’s and Thomas’s Church, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin. This church was built in 1931 as Saint Thomas’s Church, to replace Saint Thomas’s Church in Marlborough Street, which was burned down by anti-Treaty forces on 6 July 1922 during the Irish Civil War.

Saint Thomas’s Parish was formed in 1749. The parishes of Saint George and Saint Thomas were united in 1966, and Saint George’s Church on Hardwicke Place closed in 1990.

For some years, I was involved with Canon Katharine Poulton in the Discovery project which had a home in Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s. The speakers included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African ambassador Melanie Verwoerd, and Muslim and Christian leaders on an interfaith visit to Dublin.

A closing service was held on 24 April 2017 – a day after Saint George’s Day – with a promise that a new use would be found for the church within the Church of Ireland. The future of this city centre church still remains uncertain.

With Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Discovery Gospel Choir in Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s Church in Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin

Collect (Common Worship):

God of hosts,
who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the 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.

Charles Eamer Kempe’s window depicting Saint George (right) and Saint John the Baptist in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)