Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 91, Thursday 8 August 2024

How do you see Christ? Who is Christ for you? (see Matthew 16: 13) … a damaged Byzantine fresco in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X). The Church Calendar today (8 August 2024) remembers Saint Dominic (1221), Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).

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 keys of Saint Peter seen at Saint Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 16: 13-23 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

The Acropolis at night, standing on a large rocky outcrop above Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen view)

This morning’s reflection:

This Gospel reading includes Christ’s words to the Apostle Peter: ‘I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church …’ (Matthew 16: 18, NRSVA). The debates about the interpretation of this one phrase and the following words have not only divided Christians in the past but have stopped us from discussing the full implications of a very rich passage, full of many meanings.

The reading is set in the district of Caesarea Philippi, then a new Hellenistic city west of Mount Hermon, on the slopes of what are known today as the Golan Heights. The city was built on the site of Paneas, which was known for its shrine to the god Pan.

Herod the Great built a temple of white marble there in honour of Caesar in 20 BCE. Herod’s son Philip inherited the site 18 years later and named it Caesarea Philippi, to honour Caesar as a living god and himself.

The cave at Caesarea Philippi was seen as a gate to the underworld, where fertility gods lived during the winter. The rock was filled with niches for these idols, and the water of the cave was seen as a symbol of the underworld through which the gods travelled from the world of death to the world of life.

Christ is alone with the disciples at Caesarea Philippi when he asks them who do people say that he is.

Herod thinks that Jesus is ‘John the Baptist’ (verse 14), although John had already been beheaded. Elijah was expected to return at the end of time. Jeremiah foretold rejection and suffering. Perhaps Herod is being portrayed as truly believing in the context of the cave and rock at Caesarea Philippi that the god-like figures can travel from the world of death to the world of life.

But Christ does not ask who does Herod say he is, or who do other people say he is. These are less important questions than who do the disciples say he is. Is he a prophet, a spokesman for God, a harbinger of suffering and rejection? Or, is he something more than all these?

Simon Peter offers an insight and answer of his own: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

The Theatre of Dionysus on the southern slopes of the Acropolis … the ekklesía or assembly of the citizens Athens met twice a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Understanding the vocabulary

Christ acknowledges this vital insight, saying Peter is blessed (μακάριος, makários), as people in the Beatitudes are singled out as being blessed (see Matthew 5: 3-11). This is an insight that comes not from human knowledge but through revelation from God the Father (verse 17).

Then, in a word play, Christ tells Simon Peter he is Πητρος (Petros), his nickname Peter, and on this petra, rock, are the foundations of the Church (ἐκκλησία, ekklesía), the assembly in which all are equal.

The distinction between the word used for Peter, Πητρος (petros), the Greek for a small pebble, and a different Greek word, πητρα (petra), meaning a giant rock, existed in Attic Greek in the classical days, but not in Koine Greek, the Greek spoken at the time of Christ or at the time Saint Matthew’s Gospel was being writen. Πητρος (Petros) was the male name derived from a rock, while πητρα (petra) was a rock, a massive rock like Petra in Jordan.

Other words related to these concepts include λιθος (lithos), used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble – it is the Greek word that gives us words like lithograph and megalithic, meaning Great Stone Age – and πάγος (pagos), which in Ancient Greek means ‘big piece of rock.’

In classical Athens, the ekklesía (ἐκκλησία) was the assembly of the citizens in the democratic city state in classical Athens. The citizens of Athens met as equals twice a year at the Theatre of Dionysus, on the southern slopes of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is the highest point in Athens. It stands on an extremely rocky outcrop and on it the ancient Greeks built several significant buildings. The most famous of these is the Parthenon. This flat-topped rock rises 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level and has a surface area of about 3 hectares (7.4 acres).

The Septuagint uses this word ekklesíafor the Hebrew qahal or congregation (see Deuteronomy 4: 10, 9: 10, 18: 16, 31: 30; II Samuel 7; I Chronicles 17). The Hebrew word is still used by Jews to described the synagogue as the people or community rather than the synagogue as a building. Matthew is the only one of the four gospels to use this term.

There are only two places in the four Gospels where Christ uses the word for the Church that is found in this Gospel reading, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia): the first use of this word is in this reading (Matthew 16: 18), when Christ relates the Church to a confession of faith by the Apostle Peter, the rock-solid foundational faith of Saint Peter.

His second use of this word is not once but twice in one verse in Matthew 18: 17. It is a peculiar word for Christ to use, and yet he only speaks of the Church in these terms on these two occasions.

In total, the word εκκλησία (ekklesia) appears 114 times in the New Testament: four verses in the Acts of the Apostles, 58 times in the Pauline epistles, twice in the Letter to the Hebrews, once in the Epistle of James, three times in III John, and in 19 verses in the Book of Revelation. But Christ only uses the word twice, in these incidents in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

Hades (ᾍδης or Ἅιδης) was the Greek god of the dead and his name had become synonymous with the underworld or the place of the dead. Death shall not destroy the Church, whether we see this as the death of Christ, the death of Peter and the other disciples, or our own, individual death.

Christ gives Peter the keys, the ability to unlock the mysteries of the Kingdom, or the symbol of authority in the Church. To ‘bind’ and ‘loose’ are rabbinical terms for forbidding and permitting in a juridical sense. They were used earlier in the story of the Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman in the district of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15: 21-28), which we read yesterday.

Christ sternly orders the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah (verse 20).

The Hill of the Areopagos and the Agora of Athens seen from the Acropolis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Building on the rock:

Immediately north-west of the Acropolis, the Areopagus is another prominent, but relatively smaller, rocky outcrop. In classical Athens, it functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide. It was said Ares (Mars) was put on trial here for deicide, the murder of the son of the god Poseidon. In the play The Eumenides (458 BCE) by Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother.

Later, murderers sought shelter there in the hope of a fair hearing. There too the Athenians had an altar to the unknown god, and it was there the Apostle Paul delivered his most famous speech and sermon, in which he identified the ‘unknown god’ with ‘the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth’ (Acts 17: 24), for ‘in him we live and move and have our being’ (verse 28).

This is the most dramatic and fullest reported sermon or speech by Saint Paul. He quotes the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and he must have known that the location of his speech had important cultural contexts, including associations with justice, deicide and the hidden God.

The origin of the name of the Areopagus is found in the ancient Greek, πάγος (pagos), meaning a ‘big piece of rock’, in contrast to λιθος (lithos), a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble.

Breathtaking sights such as the Acropolis and the Areopagus reveal how culturally relevant it was for Christ to talk about the wise man building his house on a rock rather than on sand (Matthew 7: 24-26). Ordinary domestic buildings might have been built to last a generation or two, at most. But building on rock, building into rock, building into massive rock formations like the Acropolis, was laying the foundations for major works of cultural, political and religious significance that would last long after those who had built them had been forgotten.

And so, when Christ says to Peter in this reading that the Church is going to be built on a rock, he is talking about the foundations for a movement, an institution, a place of refuge and sanctuary, an organisation, a community that is going to have a lasting, everlasting significance.

In the past, Christians have got tied up in knots in silly arguments about this Gospel story. Some of us shy away from dealing with this story, knowing that in the past it was used to bolster not so much the claims of the Papacy, but all the packages that goes with those claims. In other words, it was argued by some in the past that the meaning of this passage was explicit: if you accepted this narrow meaning, you accepted the Papacy; if you accepted the Papacy, then you also accepted Papal infallibility, Papal claims to universal jurisdiction, and Papal teachings on celibacy, birth control, the immaculate conception and the assumption of the Virgin Mary.

And that is more than just a leap and a jump from what is being taught in this Gospel reading. But to counter those great leaps of logic, Protestant theologians in the past put forward contorted arguments about the meaning of the rock and the rock of faith in this passage. Some have tried to argue that the word used for Peter, Πητρος (Petros), is the word for a small pebble, but that faith is described with a different word, πητρα (petra), meaning a giant rock, the sort of rock on which the Greeks built the Acropolis or carved out the Areopagus.

But they were silly arguments. The distinction between these words existed in Attic Greek in the classical days, but not in the Greek spoken at the time of Christ or at the time Saint Matthew was writing his Gospel. Πητρος (Petros) was the male name derived from a rock, πητρα (petra) was a rock, a massive rock like Petra in Jordan or the rocks of the Acropolis or the Areopagus, and the word lithos (λιθος) was used for a small rock, a stone, or even a pebble.

Saint Peter is a rock, his faith is a rock, a rock that is solid enough to provide the foundations for Christ’s great work that is the Church.

The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul holding the church in unity … an early 18th century icon in the Museum of Christian Art in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Rock-solid faith

How could Saint Peter or his faith be so great? This is the same Peter who wanted Christ to send away the desperate Canaanite woman because ‘she keeps shouting at us’ (Matthew 15: 21-28).

This is the same Peter who earlier was among the disciples who wanted to send away the crowd and let them buy food for themselves (Matthew 14: 15).

This is the same Peter who seems to get it wrong constantly. Later in this Gospel, he denies Christ three times at the Crucifixion (Matthew 26: 75). After the Resurrection, Christ has to put his question three times to Peter before Peter confesses that Christ knows everything, and Christ then calls him with the words: ‘Follow me’ (John 21: 15-19).

Saint Peter is so like me. He trips and stumbles constantly. He often gets it wrong, even later on in life. He gives the wrong answers, he comes up with silly ideas, he easily stumbles on the pebbles and stones that are strewn across the pathway of life.

But eventually, it is not his own judgment, his own failing judgment that marks him out as someone special. No. It is his faith, his rock solid faith.

Despite all his human failings, despite his often-tactless behaviour, despite all his weaknesses, he is able to say who Christ is for him. He has a simple but rock-solid faith, summarised in that simple, direct statement: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16).

Peter’s faith is a faith that proves to be so rock-solid that you could say it is blessed, it is foundational. Not gritty, pebbly, pain-on-the-foot sort of faith. But the foundational faith on which you could build a house, carve out a temple or monastery, or a place to seek justice and sanctuary, rock-solid faith that provides the foundation for the Church.

There are other people in the Bible and in Jewish tradition who are commended for their rock-solid faith, including Abraham and Sarah (see Isaiah 51: 1f). It is the sort of faith that will bring people into the Church, and even the most cunning, ambitious, evil schemes, even death itself, will not be able to destroy this sort of faith (verse 18).

Throughout the Bible, as people set out on great journeys of faith, their new beginning in faith is marked by God giving them a new name: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul, and Simon son of Jonah is blessed with a new name too as he becomes Cephas or Peter, the rock-solid, reliable guy, whose faith becomes a role model for the new community of faith, for each and every one of us.

Why would Christ pick me or you? Well, why would he pick a simple fisherman from a small provincial town?

It is not how others see us that matters. It is our faith and commitment to Christ that matters. God always sees us as he made us, in God’s own image and likeness, and loves us like that.

The faith that the Church must look to as its foundation, the faith that we must depend on, that we must live by, is not some self-determined, whimsical decision, but the faith that the Apostles had in the Christ who calls them, that rock-solid, spirit-filled faith in Christ, of which Saint Peter’s confession this morning is the most direct yet sublime and solid example.

Apostolic faith like Saint Peter’s is the foundation stone on which the Church is built, the foundation stone of the new Jerusalem, with Christ as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2: 20; Revelation 21: 14).

It does not matter that Saint Peter was capable of some dreadful gaffes and misjudgements. I am like that too … constantly.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 8 August 2024):

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 ‘Understanding each other by walking together’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Right Revd Eduardo Coelho Grillo, Anglican Bishop of Rio de Janeiro.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 8 August 2024) invites us to pray:

Remind us Lord, that none of us were discovered since none of us were lost, but that we are all gathered within the sacred circle of your community. Guide us through your wisdom to restore the truth of our heritage.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose servant Dominic grew in the knowledge of your truth
and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of Christ:
by your grace give to all your people a love for your word
and a longing to share the gospel,
so that the whole world may come to know you
and your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Dominic
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Saint Dominic (1170-1221) is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 8 August … a statue outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Fair Havens and Saint Dominic in Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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 ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen clocks as the clocks go back later tonight

‘The Irish Times Clock’, Dublin … the clocks go back an hour tonight (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Irish Times once ran an advertising campaign with the slogan: ‘If you miss The Irish Times, you miss part of the day.’

If I miss putting the clock back an hour tonight, I may find myself missing things at the right time throughout the day tomorrow.

When I worked there from the mid-1970s until 2002, for almost 30 years, The Irish Times clock was a landmark on D’Olier Street. It was moved there from Westmoreland Street, and it has been moved again.

But, as the clocks fall back an hour tonight, I thought I would invite you to join me in a ‘virtual tour’ of landmark clocks in other towns and cities, found on churches, synagogues and public buildings.

1, The Astronomical Clock, Prague:

The Astronomical Clock was installed on the Old Town Hall in Prague in 1410 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The astronomical clock or Prague Orloj is a mediaeval astronomical clock on the south wall of the Old Town Hall in Prague. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still in operation.

The mechanism of the clock in the Old Town Square has three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon and with various astronomical details, and with statues of saints on either side of the clock; ‘the Walk of the Apostles,’ an hourly show of moving Apostles and other figures, including a skeleton representing Death, striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

According to legend, the city will suffer if the clock is neglected and its good operation is placed in jeopardy. A ghost mounted on the clock was supposed to nod its head in agreement. According to the legend, the only hope is represented by a boy born on New Year's night.

The oldest part of the Orloj, the mechanical clock and astronomical dial, dates back to 1410, when it was created by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and the professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Charles University Jan Šindel. A legend says the maker was blinded on the order of the city councillors so that he could not repeat his work. He in turn then disabled the clock, and no one was able to repair it for the next 100 years.

The Orloj was damaged on 7-8 May 1945, during the Prague uprising against the Nazis. The most recent renovation of the clock in 2018 became controversial when it was alleged the work had ‘radically changed the appearance, ages, skin tone, dress and even genders of the figures.’

The four figures flanking the clock are set in motion on the hour, and they represent: Vanity, represented by a man admiring himself in a mirror; Greed or Usury, depicted as a miser holding a bag of gold; Death, seen as a skeleton that strike the hour; and Lust or Earthly Pleasures in the form of a Turkish figure.

2, The Jewish Town Hall, Prague:

The Jewish Town Hall in Prague has two clocks, in Roman and Hebrew numerals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Jewish Town Hall in Josefov, Prague, was built beside the Old New Synagogue in 1586 in Renaissance style by the Jewish community leader and philanthropist Mordechai Maisel (1528-1601), who also built the nearby Maisel Synagogue in 1590-1592.

The building was the main meeting house of the local Jewish community, but is now closed to the public. The Rococo façade dates from the 18th century.

The Jewish Town Hall is best known for its two clocks. One clock on a tower has Roman numerals. The second, lower clock has Hebrew numerals that are letters in the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with aleph and continue counterclockwise around the clock dial.

3, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge:

The grasshopper on the Chronophage or ‘Time Eater’ at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge … the clock is accurate only once every five minutes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Chronophage or ‘Time Eater’ at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a large sculptural clock unveiled by the Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking 15 years ago on 19 September 2008.

The clock is on the corner of Bene’t Street and Trumpington Street in Cambridge, looking out onto King’s Parade. I am familiar with this clock, as Saint Bene’t’s Church nearby was effectively my parish church whenever I was staying at Sidney Sussex College. The clock was conceived and funded by John C Taylor, an old member of Corpus Christi College.

The clock’s face is a rippling 24-carat gold-plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 metres in diameter. It has no hands or numerals, but displays the time by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs. These slits are arranged in three concentric rings displaying hours, minutes, and seconds.

The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of a creature that looks like a grasshopper or locust. John Taylor called this grasshopper the Chronophage or ‘time eater,’ from the Greek χρόνος (chronos, time) and εφάγον (ephagon, I ate). It moves its mouth, appearing to eat up the seconds as they pass, and occasionally it blinks in satisfaction.

The constant motion of the Chronophage produces an eerie, grinding sound, and the hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock. Below the clock is an quotation in Latin from I John 2: 17: mundus transit et concupiscentia eius (‘the world and its desire are passing away’). The full verse says: ‘And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever’ (I John 2: 17).

The clock is accurate only once in every five minutes. For the rest of the time, the pendulum may seem to catch or stop, and the lights may lag or, then, race to get ahead. According to John Taylor, this erratic motion reflects the ‘irregularity’ of life.

The Chronophage was conceived as a work of public art, and it reminds viewers in a dramatic way of the inevitable passing of time. Taylor deliberately designed it to be terrifying: ‘Basically I view time as not on your side. He’ll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he’s salivating for the next.’

4, Saint Mark’s Clock, Venice:

The Torre dell’Orologio or Clock Tower on the north side of Saint Mark’s Square, Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Torre dell’Orologio or Clock Tower on the north side of Saint Mark’s Square, Venice, is an early Renaissance tower dating from the end of the 15th century. Its location was chosen so the clock could be seen from the waters of the lagoon to let everyone who arrived know the wealth and glory of Venice.

The clock and tower stand above an archway into the main street of the city, the Merceria, which linked the political and religious centre of the city at Saint Mark’s with the commercial and financial centre at the Rialto.

Two great bronze figures known as the Moors strike the hours on a bell. One is old and the other is young, to illustrate the passing of time. Below is an image of the winged Lion of Saint Mark with the open book, before a blue background with gold stars. Below the lion, a semi-circular gallery has statues of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. On either side are two large blue panels showing the time: the hour on the left in Roman numerals and the minutes at five-minute intervals on the right in Arabic numerals.

Twice a year, on the feast of the Epiphany (6 January) and on Ascension Day, the three Magi, led by an angel with a trumpet, emerge from one of the doorways normally taken up by these numbers and pass in procession round the gallery, bowing to the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, before leaving through the other door.

Below again is the great clock face in blue and gold inside a circle of marble engraved with the 24 hours of the day in Roman numerals. A golden pointer with an image of the sun moves around this circle and indicates the hour of the day. Within the marble circle beneath the sun pointer are the signs of the zodiac in gold. These revolve slightly more slowly than the pointer to show the position of the sun in the zodiac. In the middle of the clockface, the earth and the moon are surrounded by stars against a background of blue enamel.

The clock was made by a father and son, Gian Paolo and Gian Carlo Ranieri. The tower was built in 1496-1497, the mechanism of the clock was then built into it, and the clock and tower were inaugurated on 1 February 1499. Legend says the clock’s craftsmen were later blinded to stop them from repeating the work. By 1500, the elder Raineri had died. But his son remained in Venice to look after the clock, and he continued to live in Venice until he died in 1531.

5, Ankeruhr, Vienna:

The ‘Ankeruhr’ or Anker Clock was commissioned by the Anker insurance company as part of the ‘Clock Bridge’ in Vienna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Hoher Markt Square is one of the oldest squares in Vienna, dating back to a time when Vienna was part of the Roman army camp Vindobona – one of the streets beside the square is named after the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died near Vienna.

Today, the square is often seen as an ugly car park in the heart of Vienna. But it has its attractions, including the Vermählungsbrunnen (‘Marriage Fountain’), erected to celebrate the marriage of Empress Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan of Lorraine but depicting the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph at their wedding.

However, you have to look up to see the most attractive feature in this square. The Ankeruhr or Anker Clock, was commissioned by the Anker insurance company to bridge two office buildings owned by the company, now known as Helvetia. The covered bridge is known as the Uhrbrücke or ‘Clock Bridge.’

The Anker Clock was designed in the Jugendstil style, similar to Art Nouveau, by the Austrian painter and sculptor Franz von Matsch (1861-1942), who worked closely with Gustav Klimt. Matsch made the clock in 1911-1917, at a creative but turbulent time in Austrian history. The Anker Insurance Company was expanding its headquarters in Vienna and saw the clock as an artistic contribution to the city’s culture and a subliminal reminder of the importance of life insurance, with figures representing life and death flanking the sun motif above the centre.

The clock is 10 metres wide, 7.5 metres high, with a diameter of 4 metres. The design includes 12 historic figures from Vienna’s past, each made of copper. On the hour, every hour, one figure or couple is visible and on the hour a tune is played matching this figure.

At noon, all the figures and their matching tunes can be seen and heard to the gasps and cheers of tourists on the street below. It is a spectacle that can be compared to the hourly sight at the Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall in Prague. The last figure is Joseph Haydn, who composed the Imperial Anthem, which also became the German national anthem.

A plaque next to the clock reveals the identities of these rotating figures, offering a journey through Austrian history. The figures or couples and the hours to see them are:

1-2: The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is said to have died in Vienna, then the city of Vindobona, in 180 CE

2-3: Charlemagne, who first incorporated Austria into the Holy Roman Empire ca 800

3-4: Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, who granted Vienna its city charter in 1221, and his wife Theodora

4-5: Walther von der Vogelweide, a mediaeval minstrel singer during Leopold’s reign

5-6: King Rudolf, the first Habsburg ruler of Austria, and his wife Anna von Hohenberg

6-7: Hans Puchsbaum, a 15th-century architect and master builder closely associated with the Stephansdom (Saint Stephen’s Cathedral)

7-8: Emperor Maximilian I, a major figure in the expansion of the Habsburg empire in the 16th century and a patron of the arts

8-9: Johann Andreas von Liebenberg, mayor of Vienna during the second Turkish siege in 1683

9-10: Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, who led the defence of the city in 1683

10-11: Prince Eugene of Savoy, who built the Belvedere and Hofburg Palace and the commander of the Imperial forces during the War of the Spanish Succession

11-12: Empress Maria Theresa, the 18th-century Habsburg monarch, and her husband Prince Franz Stephan of Lorraine

12-1: Joseph Haydn, the composer: when he appears, the clock plays his oratorio, The Creation

The tunes include works by Haydn, Mozart and Wagner. They were originally played by a mechanical organ with 800 tubes. However, the organ was so damaged during World War II that it was beyond repair and was replaced by recorded music.

6, The Friary Clock, Lichfield:

Lichfield Clock Tower or Friary Clock Tower … originally built on the corner of Bore Street and Bird Street in 1863 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Lichfield Clock Tower or Friary Clock Tower is a 19th-century Grade II listed clock tower on The Friary, south of Festival Gardens in Lichfield. It was first erected in 1863 at the corner of Bird Street and Bore Street on the site of the ancient Crucifix Conduit that supplied water to the Franciscan Friary since 1301.

Building clock towers became a fashion in England in the mid 19th century after ‘Big Ben’ was built, and Lichfield Council first suggested a clock tower in 1858. A number of locations were proposed, including the roof of the Guildhall and in the Market Square, beside the statue of Samuel Johnson. Eventually it was decided to build the tower at the corner of Bore Street and Bird Street on the site the redundant Crucifix Conduit.

The tower was designed in a Norman style by the Lichfield architect Joseph Potter jnr (1756-1842), who also restored Lichfield Cathedral with James Wyatt and who designed Newtown’s College, the Causeway Bridge and Holy Cross Church, Lichfield, and Saint John the Baptist Church, Tamworth

The clock tower was financed by the Lichfield Conduit Lands Trust to a total of £1,200. Originally, the tower only had three clock faces – a west face was deemed unnecessary as it would only look onto one property, the Friary. However, a fourth face was added after complaints from the tenant at the Friary. The whole mechanism was overhauled by Joyce of Whitchurch in 1898.

The 11-acre Friary estate was sold to Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper in 1920. He gave the site to the city for developing the area and laying out a new road. By then, traffic was making Bird Street and Bore Street increasingly congested. They are narrow streets and the position of the clock tower made matters worse.

When the road named The Friary was built across the site of the former friary in 1928, the clock tower was taken down and re-erected at its present site south of Festival Gardens, 400 metres west of its original location along the new road. The tower was repaired and restored in 1991 with the assistance of the Conduit Lands Trust, and it is now in the care of Lichfield City Council.

7, Brick Lane Mosque, London:

The clock on one side of Brick Lane Mosque … the building has been a church, mission hall, chapel, synagogue and mosque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Brick Lane Mosque at the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street in the East End of London was once the Great Synagogue and been home to a succession of Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations since it was built in the mid-18th century, reflecting the waves of immigration in Spitalfields area.

It was first built in 1743 as La Neuve Eglise or the New Church by Huguenots who had fled religious persecution in France. It later became a Wesleyan and then a Methodist chapel. It became the Machzike Hadath or Spitalfields Great Synagogue in 1891. The synagogue eventually moved to new premises in Golders Green, and the building became a mosque in 1976.

The clock on the building complements a sundial with a Latin motto, Umbra sumus (‘We are shadow’), which in turn is derived from Horace’s Pulvis et umbra sumus (‘We are dust and shadow’).

8, Shandon Bells, Cork:

Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon, was built in 1722-1726 on the site of the earlier Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The claim by the Unitarian Church on Prince’s Street to be the oldest church in Cork City may be rivalled by Saint Anne’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in the Shandon district.

Saint Anne’s has been described as ‘the most important ecclesiastical structure of any period, within the city of Cork and its immediate environs, it is also one of the most important early 18th century churches in Ireland and one of a small number which still retains their original 18th century bells.’

The name Shandon is derived from the Irish Sean Dún (‘old fort’). Saint Mary’s, a mediaeval church, stood close to the site of the fort and is mentioned in the decretals of Pope Innocent III in 1199 as ‘Saint Mary on the Mountain.’ Saint Mary’s Church stood until the Williamite wars when it was destroyed during the Siege of Cork in 1690.

A new Saint Mary’s Church was built in 1693 at the bottom of Mallow Lane, modern-day Shandon Street. However, the population of Cork was growing quickly, and it was decided to build a new church on the site of the ancient church.

The present Saint Anne’s Church was built in 1722-1726 on a hill in Shandon overlooking the River Lee, as a chapel of ease to the former Saint Mary’s Church, meaning this has been a site of worship since before mediaeval times.

Saint Anne’s was designed in the Old English architectural style and extended for the ‘pepper pot’ adornment on the tower. The belfry, added in 1749 to accommodate the bells, is a noted landmark and symbol of the city, and the church bells were made popular in a 19th century song.

Some sources draw a connection between the red and white materials and the red and white colours that represent Cork. The distinct colours are recorded in a rhyme collected by 19th century antiquary Thomas Crofton Croker, which he attributes to the 18th century Catholic priest and writer Father Arthur O’Leary:

Party-coloured, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon Steeple

The church is noted for its eight bells, cast in 1750 and first rung on 7 December 1752, for the wedding of Henry Harding and Catherine Dornan.

The clock is known to people in Cork as ‘The Four-Faced Liar’ because the time seldom seems to correspond on each face. This was the first four-faced clock until Big Ben was built in London.

There are four clock faces, one on each side, each 14 ft in diameter. The clocks were erected by Cork Corporation in 1847 and were supplied by James Mangan, who had a clock shop on Saint Patrick's Street until the 1980s. One clock face is inscribed ‘Passenger measure your time, for time is the measure of being.’

The clock continues to be maintained by Cork City Council. It was stopped for maintenance in 2013, was repaired and restarted on 2 September 2014.

On top of the pepper pot, the weather vane is in the shape of a salmon. Some say it represents fishing of the River Lee, but the fish is an early Christian symbol. It is known locally as the ‘goldie fish.’

When Saint Anne’s Church became a full parish in 1772, the first rector was the Revd Arthur Hyde, great-great-grandfather of Dr Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland.

The graves in the churchyard include Francis Mahony (Father Prout), author of ‘The Bells of Shandon.’ He was a grandson of Timothy Mahony, founder of Blarney Woollen Mills. He eventually left the priesthood to concentrate on writing. His took his pen-name Father Prout from a learned but eccentric priest from Watergrasshill.

9, Bevis Marks Synagogue, London:

The clock above the doorway of Bevis Marks Synagogue displays the Hebrew and secular dates of its manufacture: 5618, 1858 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bevis Marks Synagogue is often seen as the Jewish ‘cathedral’ among synagogues in London, and it is also the oldest operating synagogue on these islands. Bevis Marks Synagogue is officially the Qahal Kadosh Sha’ar ha-Shamayim (קָהָל קָדוֹשׁ שַׁעַר הַשָׁמַיִם, or ‘Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven’). It stands in a courtyard off Bevis Marks, the street in the city of London that gives the synagogue its popular name.

The synagogue was built in 1701 and is at the heart of the story of London’s Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is the only synagogue in Europe that has held regular services continuously for more than 300 years.

Bevis Marks Synagogue was built in 1701 for the congregation of Sephardim or Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London, formed in 1698. It was built by Joseph Avis, a Quaker, to erect a building at a cost of £2,650. According to legend, Avis declined to collect his full fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. Another legend says the timber for the roof was donated by the then Princess Anne, later Queen Anne.

The plain exterior and its large, clear windows are both characteristics of the church architecture of Sir Christopher Wren. Above the central doorway are the Hebrew and secular dates of its opening: 5462, 1701. Above the doorway, in similar fashion, the clock bears the Hebrew and secular dates of its manufacture: 5618, 1858.

10, Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta:

The three clocks on the bell tower of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The bell tower of Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the capital of Malta, has three clocks to tell the time, the date and the day of the week. The bell tower is on the south side of the cathedral in Saint John’s Square.

Saint John’s Co-Cathedral, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was built by the Order of Saint John or Knights of Malta in 1572-1577. The church was commissioned by the Grand Master, Jean de la Cassière, as the Conventual Church of Saint John and was designed by the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, who designed several of the more prominent buildings in Valletta.

The Time-Date-Day-Clock has several unusual features. Below a balcony from which a newly selected Grand Master was announced to the knights and the people of the town is a large single-hand clock. Lower and to the left is a dial that indicates the date, and to the right is a dial that indicates the day of the week in Latin abbreviations.

10, Trinity College, Cambridge:

The clock tower in Trinity College, Cambridge … part of the Great Court Run (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The college clock in Trinity College, Cambridge, is housed in King Edward’s Gate, otherwise known as the clock tower. This gate originally formed a grand entrance to King’s Hall, which was dissolved in 1546 and joined with Michaelhouse to found the new College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

A clock, dial-plate, and bell seems first to have been added to the clock tower in 1610 by Thomas Tennant of London. The bell is still in place and in use. A new clock and dial-plate were put in place in 1726-1727.

The old clock was replaced yet again in 1910. It was built by Smith of Derby and designed by Lord Grimthorpe, who drew on ‘Big Ben. The Trinity clock is notable for striking the hour twice, first on a low note, the ‘Trinity’ chime, and then on a much higher one, the ‘Saint John’s’ chime. William Wordsworth refers to this phenomenon in his poem ‘The Prelude’ (1850):

Near me hung Trinity’s loquacious clock,
Who never let the quarters, night or day,
Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice.

The Great Court Run is an attempt to run around Great Court within the time it takes the clock to strike the hour of 12, including the preparatory chiming of the four quarters and the two sets of 12.

The course is about 370 metres long. Depending on the state of winding, the clock takes between about 43 and 44½ seconds. It is traditional for athletic members of Trinity to attempt the run every year at noon on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. The Great Court Run is a central scene in the film Chariots of Fire (1981) – although, in fact, it was not filmed at Trinity.

The race was recreated for charity in 1988 by Britain’s two foremost middle-distance runners at that time, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, with Daley Thompson as a reserve. Starting from under the clock-tower and running anti-clockwise, the runners restricted themselves to the customary course dictated by the flagstones between the cobbles, and so had to turn very sharply at each corner. Coe won, with a time of 46.0 seconds beating Cram’s 46.3 seconds. Neither runner, however, beat the clock, which took 44.4 seconds.

On 20 October 2007, Sam Dobin, a second year undergraduate reading Economics, made it round within the sound of the final chime, with a time of 42.7 seconds. The course taken by the runners that year was slightly different to that of 1988, as the competitors ran on the cobbles as well as the flagstones.

11, The Clock Tower, Youghal, Co Cork:

The Clock Gate Tower, the symbol of Youghal, was built in 1777 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Youghal, Co Cork, with a population of about 8,000, stands on the edge of a steep riverbank on the estuary of the Blackwater River. The town, with its long, narrow streets and narrow side lanes, dates back in time to a Viking settlement in the 11th century, and received its first charter of incorporation as a town in 1209.

Youghal is the first town in either Ireland or Britain to have a Jewish mayor when William Annyas or William Moses Annyas Eanes (Ben Yohanan) was elected Mayor of Youghal in 1555.

The Clock Gate Tower, the symbol of the town, was built in 1777 on the site of Trinity Castle, part of the town’s mediaeval fortifications. The Clock Gate was the town gaol until 1837, and later became a family home, until the McGrath family left in 1959.

12, Villierstown Church, Co Waterford:

The clock over the front door of the church in Villierstown, Co Waterford, was erected in 1910 by Mary Villiers-Stuart of Dromana (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Villierstown is on the banks of the River Blackwater in west Waterford, about 8 km south of Cappoquin. The village was founded by the Villiers-Stuart family, who give the place its name. The family and their direct ancestors have lived in Dromana House in its different forms for over 700 years, making it one of the oldest family estates in Ireland up to the 20th century.

John Villiers (1684-1766), 1st Earl Grandison, established the village in the 1740s to develop a linen industry. The original village consisted of a church, a rectory, a school, 24 houses, a court, a police barracks and a quay on the river. It was initially populated with linen-weavers, some of whom were from Lurgan, Co Armagh.

Grandison built a new church in the Queen Anne style 1748 for the new village and its new residents. The new chapel could accommodate about 400 people, and regular Sunday services were being held by 1757.

The church remained outside the parochial and diocesan structures of the Church of Ireland. It was a ‘chapel of ease’ and marriage services, for example, could not take place there without a special licence. Affane Parish, which included Villierstown, was united with Cappoquin in 1874. The position of chaplain at Villierstown came to an end in 1919, and from then on, the chapel was served by the clergy of Lismore Cathedral and the curate of Cappoquin. Lismore and Cappoquin were united in 1955.

Sunday attendance figures in Villierstown had dropped to about six by 1955, and the chapel closed in 1958. A church commission recommended removing the roof and capping the walls, retaining the porch as a mortuary chapel for the churchyard. But the Villiers-Stuart family was unhappy and James Henry Ion Villiers-Stuart (1928-2004) donated the church to the village in 1965 to prevent it from ‘falling into disrepair and ruin.’

After a meeting with the Roman Catholic bishop, Dr Daniel Cohalan, it was agreed that it would become a church for the Catholic villagers. It was the first time a Church of Ireland church was given to a Roman Catholic parish. The gift was welcomed by Bishop Cohalan and the parish priest, Father Hackett. A local committee raised £1,500 for its adaptation as a Catholic church.

However, Bishop Cohalan and Father Hackett died within weeks of each other. Their successors, Bishop Michael Russell and Father Quinlan, were less than enthusiastic, and decided the three existing churches were enough for the parish. The church is now an arts, entertainment, community and wedding venue.

The bellcote embellishes the pedimented roof. The clock over the front door was erected in 1910 by Mary Villiers-Stuart of Dromana, and a plaque reads: ‘This clock was the gift of Mary Villiers Stuart of Dromana to the people of Villierstown, to whom she was deeply attached. 1910. Restored by Mary’s grandson James, 1990.’

13, The Clock Tower, Valentia Island, Co Kerry:

The Clock Tower on the harbour front at Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Patrick Comerford)

There is an extra hour tonight as the clocks go back, so I thought I might add an extra clock to this ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen clocks and clock towers. The clock tower is the dominant landmark on the harbour at Knightstown, the main village on Valentia Island in Co Kerry.

Valentia Island, off the Iveragh Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry, is one of Ireland’s most westerly points. It is about 11 km (7 miles) long, 3 km (2 miles) wide, and has a population of 665.

Tourism began on Valentia Island in 1833, and the Royal Valentia Hotel, which began as an inn, has been in business for almost two centuries. The hotel faces onto the harbour at Knightstown, the island’s main village. It has been known as the Royal Valentia Hotel since Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Arthur (1850-1942), later Duke of Connaught, visited in 1869.

The clock tower, in front of the Royal Valentia Hotel, is a square-plan weigh house, built ca 1880, with a round window opening and a tapered pyramidal roof, a central clock in the apex, ogee-domed capping and a decorative urn finial. It is part of a composition on the quay that includes a cast-iron lever, a group of six iron weights arranged in a pyramidal fashion, and a cast-iron weigh bridge. The clock was decommissioned in 1922, but was restored in 1990.

A car ferry runs a shuttle service from Knightstown to Reenard Point, near Cahersiveen, on the Ring of Kerry, throughout the day in the summer months (April to October). The island is also linked to the mainland by a bridge at Portmagee.

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG: 10 February 2023

The Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck is one of the oldest churches in Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before today becomes a busy day, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

These weeks, between the end of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, are known as Ordinary Time. We are in a time of preparation for Lent, which in turn is a preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

In these days of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday later this month (22 February), I am reflecting in these ways each morning:

1, reflecting on a saint or interesting person in the life of the Church;

2, one of the lectionary readings of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck (left) in Valletta traces its origins to the 1570s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Throughout the Western Church, the Church Calendar today commemorates Saint Scholastica, sister of Saint Benedict and Abbess of Plombariola (ca 543).

However, in Malta, today (10 February) is the Feast of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck in Malta (‘Nawfraġju ta' San Pawl’). Saint Paul the Apostle is the patron saint of Malta, the country with the most holidays in the European Union. Since 2005, any holidays falling on Saturdays or Sundays do not add an extra day to the workers’ leave pool.

The Collegiate Parish Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, Valletta, also known as simply the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, is a parish church in Valletta and one of the oldest churches in the Maltese capital.

Saint Paul’s shipwreck on Malta is described in the Acts of the Apostles, where Saint Luke writes: ‘After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta’ (see Acts 28: 1).

The Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck traces its origins to 1570s. It was designed by the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, and completed in December 1582. The church was handed over to the Jesuits and a new church was started in 1639.

The church hosts fine artistic works, including a magnificent altarpiece by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio and paintings by Attilio Palombi, and Giuseppe Calì.

A wooden statue of Saint Paul was carved in 1659 by Melchiorre Cafà, a brother of Lorenzo Gafà, who designed the dome. The statue is paraded through the streets of Valletta on the feast day of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck, 10 February, sometimes during heavy rain.

The church also claims to hold the relic of the right wrist-bone of Saint Paul, and part of the column from San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, on which the saint was beheaded in Rome.

The façade of the church was rebuilt in 1885 to a design by Nicholas Zammit.

The church building is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.

The statue of Saint Paul above the door into the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 31-37 (NRSVA):

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

The façade of the church was rebuilt in 1885 to a design by Nicholas Zammit (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Christianity in Pakistan.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Nathan Olsen.

The USPG Prayer Diary today invites us to pray in these words:

Let us pray for a greater understanding between Muslims and Christians. May we be generous in our appreciation of the unfamiliar and strange.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The noticeboard outside the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck (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

Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral and USPG: Sunday 11 December 2022

Saint John the Baptist in a fresco by the Cretan iconographer, Alexandra Kaouki, in Rethymnon

Patrick Comerford

We are half-way through Advent, and today is the Third Sunday of Advent (11 December 2022), or Gaudete Sunday.

The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete (‘Rejoice’), the first word of the introit of this day’s Liturgy:

Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob (see Philippians 4: 4–6; Psalm 85: 1).

Throughout Advent, the spirit of the Liturgy is one of expectation and preparation for Christmas and for the coming of Christ. Gaudete Sunday in Advent is a counterpart to Laetare Sunday in Lent, and provides a similar break about mid-way through the season of preparation, and signifies the joy and gladness as the Lord’s coming comes nearer and nearer. On Gaudete Sunday, rose-coloured vestments may be worn instead of violet or Sarum blue, and this is noted as an option in the Church of England in Common Worship. On the Advent wreath, the rose-coloured or pink candle is lit in addition to the two violet or blue candles, which represent the first two Sundays of Advent. The readings emphasise the joyous anticipation of the Lord’s coming.

Later this morning, I plan to attend the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, The reading suggested in the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced by Lichfield Cathedral this year;

2, praying with the Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

Saint John the Baptist with his mother, Saint Elizabeth, in a stained glass window in Dingle, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 11: 2-11 (NRSVA):

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ 4 Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.”

11 ‘Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’

‘The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist’ (1608) by Caravaggio in Saint John’s Co-cathedral in Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Reflect on the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist. Think about how the Church is the herald of Jesus’s message, how it points to him, helps to bring the world to him. Ask for the grace and blessing to help people find Jesus Christ, the true light, and that all the Cathedral community may play a part in mission.

Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Walking Together.’ This theme is introduced today by the Right Revd Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori, who became Bishop of Hokkaido in Japan in April 2022. She shares her reflections on this year’s Lambeth Conference with Archbishop Justin Welby:

‘I was very nervous about coming to the Lambeth Conference; as the conference is conducted in English, I was very nervous about keeping up with the conversations that were happening all of the time.

‘Through the time I spent at the Lambeth Conference, I have really understood the diversity and breadth of the Anglican Communion. This diversity is one that at times involves pain and suffering. I have come to appreciate the value of this diversity and the way that bishops bring strength from their positions in their own dioceses and provinces to share the message of Christ. I hope that I can do this going forward.

‘All of the stories that I have heard and that we have shared over the course of the Lambeth Conference have had a great impact on me. When I return to Japan, I hope that I can take the following message: that even though we may have different stories and are part of different cultures, we can continue to work and walk together.’

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today (The Fourth Sunday of Advent, International Migrants Day) in these words:

Prepare our hearts to receive you, O Lord,
and open our hearts to receive one another.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow</b>

‘The Baptism of Christ’ by Paolo Veronese in the Church of Il Redentore in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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 ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen churches and cathedrals named after Saint Nicholas

An icon of Saint Nicholas in a church in Crete … in time, he became Santa Claus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

One of my favourite restaurants in Milton Keynes must be the Olive Tree, a Turkish Mediterranean Restaurant and Bar on Midsummer Boulevard.

As our Christmas shopping began, Charlotte and I had a late lunch there last week, and were amused to see the Olive Tree is offering a special Christmas menu. At top of the menu, it asks: ‘Did you know that Santa Clause (sic) also known as Saint Nicholas was born in Turkey, who was much admired for his kindness and generosity. So here is our freshly prepared dishes in honour of Santa Clause.’

Tomorrow is the Feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra, the ‘real Santa Claus’ (6 December 2022). But, instead of retelling the story of the bishop who risked his life when he defended Orthodox doctrine against the Arains at the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, I thought it would be interesting to follow in his footsteps, visiting or revisiting a number of cathedrals, churches or former church sites to which he has given his name.

During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, I offered a number of ‘virtual tours’ of churches and other sites. My offering this evening, on the eve of the Feast of Saint Nicholas, is a ‘virtual tour’ with Saint Nicholas of a half-dozen churches in Greece, and a half-dozen more spread across the Czech Republic, Malta, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and Turkey.

1, Saint Nicholas, Rethymnon Harbour:

The Church of Saint Nicholas, near the bus station in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Church of Saint Nicholas is in a small square formed at the corner of Priskosoridi street and Emmanouil Kefalogianni avenue, the street that runs around the shore of the rocky bay beneath the western slopes of the Venetian Fortezza.

This small chapel or church, close to the bus station, is surrounded by good fish restaurants and tavernas. This is now a suburban part of western Rethymnon, and is slowly becoming a part of the tourist area. But, only a few decades ago and within living memory, this was an area closely associated with fishers and their fishing boats.

Saint Nicholas, as well as being the patron saint of children and the inspiration for Santa Claus, is also the patron saint of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing, which explains the presence of this modern church dedicated to his name in this part of Rethymnon.

2, Saint Nicholas, Fortezza, Rethymnon:

The former Venetian Cathedral of Saint Nicholas on the Fortezza in Rethymnon … the stump of the former minaret is to the right (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Fortezza towers above the city of Rethymnon. It was built by the Venetians during their rule in Crete (1204-1669) to protect the city and people from Ottoman invasions, on the hill of Paleokastro and the site the acropolis of ancient Rithymna.

The cathedral of Rethymnon was destroyed during a Turkish attack on the city by the Pasha of Algeria, Ulu Ali Reis, in 1571. A new Episcopal Palace was also built on the Fortezza in 1575, and the foundation stone for a new cathedral was laid in 1583 by the Latin Bishop of Rethymnon, Bartolomeo Chiapponi.

The new Venetian cathedral on the Fortezza was dedicated to Saint Nicholas and stands next to the former Episcopal Palace. When the cathedral was completed in 1585, Bishop Chiapponi’s successor, Bishop Giulio Carrara, refused to celebrated the Mass there, claiming conditions in the cathedral were too cramped and there were no sacred vessels there.

During the Ottoman period, Saint Nicholas Cathedral was converted into the Sultan Ibrahim Khan, named in honour of the reigning sultan, adding an over-sized dome, with a base diameter of 11 metres, was added. The former mosque is now used for exhibitions and as a venue for music events and recordings.

3, Saint Nicholas Church (Nerantze Mosque), Rethymnon:

The former Santa Maria Church and Nerantze Mosque glimpsed through the streets of the old town of Rethymnon … it became Saint Nicholas Church in 1925 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Nerantze Mosque or Gazi Hussein Mosque is on the corner of Ethnikis Antistaseos and Vernardou streets, and faces onto what was once the grand Venetian piazza of the old city of Rethymnon.

In Venetian times, this was the Church of Santa Maria. It was built in the style of Saint Mark’s in Venice and faced a large open piazza that included a clock tower, fountains and public buildings. It was originally the church of an Augustinian Priory, but only the east and north side of the original building survive.

After the Turks left Crete, the mosque was reconsecrated as a church in 1925 with a dedication to Saint Nicholas. However, it was seldom if ever used as a church, and for many years housed a Music School. Now known as the Municipal Odeon, it is a venue for lectures, concerts and theatre performances, and is sometimes open to the public. The minaret has been restored in recent years.

4, Saint Nicholas, Aghios Nikolaos:

The mediaeval church of Saint Nicholas in Aghios Nikolaos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Aghios Nikoloas in Crete takes its name from Saint Nicholas. The town is built around an inner lagoon, Voulismeni, and local people try to convince visiting tourists that the lake is fathomless.

The town takes its name from the tiny 11th century church of Aghios Nikólaos (Saint Nicholas). Many years ago, a visit to this Church of Aghios Nikólaos, with its icons of the saint, was enough to end the doubts about Santa Claus that were beginning to emerge in hearts of two small children.

5, Aghios Nikolaos, Georgioupoli, Crete:

The picturesque modern Church of Saint Nicholas on a tiny islet off Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The tiny white-washed chapel of Aghios Nikolaos (Άγιος Νικόλαος, Saint Nicholas) is on a small rocky islet off Georgioupoli in Crete. Rather than reaching the chapel by boat many tourists take the challenge each day of walking out to the chapel along a narrow rocky causeway.

It is said the chapel was built about 100 years ago by an anonymous sailor to give thanks for his rescue. Today, it is a much-photographed landmark that has become a symbol of Crete in the way that the Vlacherna Monastery close to the southern tip of the Kanoni peninsula has become an image of Corfu.

The rocky outcrop of Aghios Nikolaos is officially listed as a Greek island, and the chapel is a popular choice for weddings.

6, Aghios Nikolas, Élos, Crete :

The modern parish church of Aghios Nikolas in Élos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The small village of Élos is 60 km south-west of Chania in west Crete, on the road to the Monastery of Chrissoskalitissa and the sandy beach of Elafonissi. Élos is one of the nine villages that are known collectively as the Enneachora, and is known for its chestnut forests.

Behind a taverna in the village, an old arch is said to have been part of an ancient Roman aqueduct. But the real hidden treasure in Elos is the Byzantine Church of Saint John the Theologian. This is a single-room, vaulted church, measuring 11.20 x 4.46 meters, and probably dates from the first half of the 14th century. he frescoes of Christ and the saints are attributed to Ioannis Pagomenos, a well-known icon writer and painter from Kissamos.

This tiny church, hidden in a shaded corner among trees behind a taverna, is almost dwarfed by the neighbouring modern parish church of Aghios Nikolas of Élos.

7, Saint Nicholas, Prague:

The Church of Saint Nicholas at night in the Old Town Square in Prague, with the statue of John Hus in the centre of the square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Church of Saint Nicholas stands on the corner of the Old Town Square, Pařížská Street and Franz Kafka Square in Prague. Its beautiful green baroque towers and dome can be seen throughout the old town centre.

This monumental church was built in 1732-1735 to designs by Kilián Ignaz Dientzenhofer, on the site of an earlier 13th century Gothic church, also dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

The church was the parish church of the Old Town and the meeting place until the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn the opposite side of the square was completed in the 14th century.

The church became part of a Benedictine monastery in 1620. The early mediaeval church was destroyed by fire, and the present church was completed in 1735, and its white façade decorated with statues by Antonin Braun. When the Emperor Joseph II closed all monasteries not engaged in socially useful activities in 1781, the church was stripped bare and the interior decorations were sold off.

The empty building was used as a granary and then as a registry archive. The church returned to its original purpose in 1871 when it was used by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Czechoslovak Hussite Church was founded here in 1920, reviving the legacy of the reformer Jan Hus. Since then, this has been the main church of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church and its Prague Diocese, and so it is often known as Saint Nicholas Cathedral.

During World War II, the church was used by Czech partisans as a hidden site for Radio Prague.

8, Saint Nicholas, Valletta, Malta:

The Church of Saint Nicholas in Valletta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Church of Saint Nicholas also known as the Church of All Souls, in Valletta, the capital of Malta, is used by both the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Catholic Church.

The church was originally built as a Greek Orthodox church in 1569. It was handed over to the Confraternity of the Souls in Purgatory in 1639, which rebuilt the church in the Baroque style in 1652. Since 2014, the church has been used by both a parish of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and a Greek Catholic parish.

9, Cattedrale di San Nicolò di Mira, Noto, Sicily

The Duomo or Cattedrale di San Nicolò di Mira in Noto, Sicily (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The old city of Noto was destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, and a new city was then built on the bank of River Asinaro, nearer the Ionian Sea. The new city was the vision of Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of Camastra, and was laid out on a grid system by Giovanni Battista Landolina. The architects Rosario Gagliardi, Vincenzo Sinatra, Paolo Labisi, Francesco Sortino and others, made the new Noto a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque.

Most of the buildings are built with a soft tufa stone, and in the summer sunlight they reflect a warm, bright honey tone. They include cathedrals, churches, convents, bell towers, religious buildings, and several palaces. Halfway along the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, in the Piazza del Municipio, Noto’s imposing cathedral or Duomo, the Cattedrale di San Nicolò di Mira, in the Piazza, was finished in 1776. Dozens of steps climb up to the towering cathedral its twin towers and an imposing dome that was restored after it collapsed dramatically in 1996.

Noto and its churches were declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2002.

10, The Church of San Nicolás de Bari and San Pedro Mártir, Valencia

The Church of San Nicolás de Bari and San Pedro Mártir has been called the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Valencia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Church of San Nicolás de Bari and San Pedro Mártir has been called the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Valencia and a ‘Baroque jewel’. It is one of the finest examples of a Gothic church with baroque decorations. Frescoes and plasterwork cover the entire interior, from small pilasters in chapels, to the walls, apse and vaulted ceiling, creating a visual and colour spectacle.

The Church of Saint Nicholas was built ca 1242, and is tucked in the streets of the old town in Valencia. It almost hidden from view in a laneway off Calle Caballeros, adding to the surprise awaiting visitors. The church stands on the site of a Roman-Hispanic temple that later became a mosque with the Muslim conquest of the area. It was founded in the 13th century as one of the first 12 parish churches in the city following the reconquest of Valencia by King James I in 1238, and from an early stage was associated with the Dominicans.

The church was remodelled on the initiative of the Borja family in the Gothic style between 1419 and 1455, with the Gothic rib vault contracting in the central nave. The refurbishments include a rose window alluding to a miracle of Saint Nicholas. The interior was completed between 1690 and 1693, and was decorated in the baroque style by Juan Pérez Castiel, who filled it with frescoes depicting the lives and miracles of the two patrons, Saint Nicholas of Bari and Saint Peter of Verona or San Pedro Mártir (Saint Peter Martyr).

11, Saint Nicholas, Bratislava, Slovakia:

Saint Nicholas Church (left) seen from the ramparts of Bratislava Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

On my way down the hill from Bratislava Castle during a visit three years ago, I stopped to look at the locked Saint Nicholas Church, an Orthodox church built in 1661 by Countess Frances Khuen, the widow of Paul Pálffy (1589-1655), before she died 1672.

This early baroque church is simple, single nave church with a small wooden bell tower. It was built on the site of an earlier Gothic church dating back to the 11th century. After the castle area was incorporated into Bratislava, the church was administrated by a Catholic funeral society in Saint Martin's parish.

The church was no longer in use by 1936 when it was given to the Greek Catholic Church of Bratislava, an Orthodox-style church in communion with Rome. At the end of World War II in 1945, the church roof caught fire and the church was rebuilt by the Greek Catholic Church in 1945-1950. A violent persecution of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia began in 1950 and the church was given to the Orthodox Church.

12, Saint Nicholas Church, Gemiler Island, Turkey:

Saint Nicholas Church on Gemiler Island … was this is true burial place of Saint Nicholas? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Gemiler Island is off the coast of Turkey, between near the city of Fethiye and the Greek island of Rhodes. The Turkish name Gemile from the Greek καμήλα (kamila, ‘camel’). The island has several church ruins on Gemiler, dating from the fourth and sixth centuries.

Archaeologists believe Saint Nicholas was buried there after his death in 326. His relics remained there until the 650s, when the island was abandoned as it was threatened by an Arab fleet. They were then moved to Myra, 40 km to the east.

Lighting candles at the chapel of Aghios Nikolaos on an islet off Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)