52 million civilian war dead, 52 million missing £50 notes, 52 million light years away, 52 million readers of this blog

The National Monument of Scotland on Calton Hill, Edinburgh … the first £52 million from the Scottish Local Growth Fund for Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland was released last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

These are exceptionally busy days on this blog, with an overwhelming rise in figures for viewing and reader hits. These figures climbed to a total of 52 million hits by late last night (7 September 2026), passing the million mark for the fourth time since the end of last month and only two days after reaching 51 million late on Saturday night (5 September 2026). These figures come soon after reaching 50 million four days ago (4 September 2026) and 49 million four days previously (31 August 2026).

I continue to find these viewing and readership figures overpowering at times, and this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 31 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been in little more than six months, with 26 million hits since 1 March 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures are overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, four were this month (1, 4, 5 and 7 September 2026), two were in May (1 and 14 May 2026), three were the previous month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), and one was in March.

• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 647,187 (5 September 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 513,725 (7 September 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)

• 407,835 (4 September 2026)
• 356,335 (1 September 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2026)
• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 322,038 (26 April 2026)

The daily average was about 118,700 hits a day throughout August, but it has been about 430,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

Estimates suggest 52 million old paper £50 banknotes are still unreturned across the UK

Some curious though random statistics help to put this new figure of 52 million into context:

Colombia has an area of 1.15 million sq km and a population of around 52 million, and South Korea has a population of almost 52 million.

Westminster City Council recently approved a £52 million package of investment focused on improving neighbourhoods, supporting local businesses and tackling inequalities as part of its 2026/2027 budget.

The UK Government last week released the first £52 million from the £140 million Scottish Local Growth Fund to Edinburgh and South East Scotland, Glasgow, Tay Cities, Ayrshire and Forth Valley. Local leaders across Scotland will decide how this £52 million is spent, backing jobs and growth where they are needed most.

Civilian deaths significantly exceeded military deaths in World War II. Aggregated national estimates indicate approximately 24.8 million military deaths, compared with about 52 million civilian deaths, including roughly 32.1 million from military activity and war crimes and 20 million from war-related famine and disease.

ARP 214 is a peculiar barred spiral galaxy around 52 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name, meaning greater or larger bear, refers to and contrasts it with nearby Ursa Minor, the lesser bear. In antiquity, it was one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE, drawing on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian astronomers. It is the third largest of the 88 modern constellations.

NGC 3079 is a starburst spiral galaxy located 52 million light-years from Earth. It has a horseshoe-shaped structure at its centre that indicates the presence of a supermassive black hole. The structure itself is formed by superwinds from the black hole.

The timing of the collision of continents of the Asian and Indian plates, marking the start of the formation of the Himalayan mountain range, has been subject to much discussion in geology. PhD research by Wentao Huang at Utrecht University has found that this began 52 million years ago.

The Indian and Asian plates started moving towards each other, and met about 52 million years ago. A block from the Indian plate collided with the continental block of the Asian plate, and formed the Himalayas.

It is estimated that 52 million old paper £50 banknotes are still unreturned, sitting in homes or circulating across the UK. The older paper £50 note features Matthew Boulton and James Watt. Paper £20 and £50 notes stopped being accepted as legal tender in October 2022 when they were replaced by polymer plastic versions.

52 million minutes is equal to approximately 98 years, 10 months and 13 days. This means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in mid-1927.

I retired from active parish ministry about 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week.

This evening, as this blog moves beyond 52 million hits, I am truly grateful to the real readers among that 52 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.


The Indian and Asian plates started moving towards each other, and met about 52 million years ago. A block from the Indian plate collided with the continental block of the Asian plate, and formed the Himalayas

51 million km for a future Tsar, 51 million Soviet war dead, 51 million radio listeners, and 51 million blog hits to date

The ‘Eastern journey of Nicholas II’ a journey of Nicholas II was a 51 million km the included a visit to the Acropolis in Athens

Patrick Comerford

Once more I am overwhelmed by the viewing and reading figures for this blog. These figures reached a total of 51 million shortly before midnight last night (5 September 2026), passing the million mark for the third time within a week. It comes soon after reaching the 50 million early the day before (4 September 2026) and 49 million four days previously (31 August 2026). These figures passed the million mark on three other days last month: 48 million (24 August), 47 million (17 August) and 46 million (9 August).

I continue to find these viewing and reading figures overpowering at times, and this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago. At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 30million hits or visitors in 2026 alone.

Half of all hits or reader figures have been in little more than six months, with 25.5 million hits since 28 February 2026. I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year and last, the daily figures are overwhelming on many occasions. Of the 10 days of busiest traffic on this blog, three were this month (1, 4 and 5 September 2026), three were in May (1, 6 and 14 May 2026), three were the previous month (26, 29 and 30 April 2026), and one in March.

• 1,124,925 (1 May 2026)
• 647,187 (5 September 2026)
• 525,719 (14 May 2026)
• 509,644 (29 April 2026)
• 407,835 (4 September 2026)

• 356,335 (1 September 2026)
• 344,003 (30 April 2026)
• 323,156 (27 March 2026)
• 322,038 (26 April 2026)
• 318,835 (6 May 2026)

The daily average was about 118,700 hits a day throughout August, and has been about 400,000 a day so far this month. Yet, I recall how 10 years ago, back in 2016, the daily average was around 1,000, or 30,000 a month.

Souvenir Santas at St James’ Park … Matias Fernandez-Pardo has joined Newcastle United for a reported fee of £51 million (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

To put this new figure of 51 million into context:

Matias Fernandez-Pardo joined Newcastle United this month on a long-term contract from Lille. The 21-year-old forward arrived at St James’ Park for a reported fee of £51 million.

The figure of 51 million people is associated with an extraordinary, incredible and unbelievable claim by Trump that Vladimir Putin actually fought in World War II. In a claim that seems typical of the man’s fantasism, Trump said: ‘I talked to Putin. He lost 51 million people [in World War II] and he did fight … He fought with us in World War II and everybody hates him.’

Putin was born on 7 October 1952. Nor could Trump have ever fought in World War II – he was born on 14 June 1946, and, in any case, he had ‘bone spurs’ when it came to conscription.

More people than ever are listening to UK radio, with the latest figures reporting a record weekly audience of 51 million people.

51 million sq metres is 51,000 sq km – the size of both Bosnia Herzegovina and Costa Rica – and 51 million km is 51,000 km. The ‘Eastern journey of Nicholas II’ in 1890-1891 was a journey made by Nicholas Alexandrovich – then Tsarevich of Russia – around the greater part of Europe and Asia between October 1890 and August 1891.

His journey by rail and sea took him to Vienna, Athens, Alexandria and Egypt, and on to present-day Sri Lanka, India, Java, Singapore, Siam (Thailand) and China. The 51,000 km journey included 15,000 km by rail and 22,000 km by sea. In Japan, the future tsar survived a failed assassination attempt before travelling on to Vladivostok and back to St Petersburg.

51 million minutes, taking account of leap years, is 96 years, 352 days and 16 hours. This means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in late 1929.

I retired from active parish ministry about 4½ years ago, on 31 March 2022. These days, though, about 150 people on average are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or more than 1,000 people each week.

This evening, as this blog passes 51 million hits, I am truly grateful to the real readers among those 51 million hits. In particular I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.

Tales of the Viennese Jews: 23, Gabriele Keenaghan, survivor of the Kindertransport

Gabriele Keenaghan escaped from Vienna on the eve of World War II and is returning there this week to mark her 100th birthday

Patrick Comerford

Gabriele Keenaghan is a Holocaust survivor and former Kindertransport child who escaped from Vienna on the eve of World War II. She has been decorated for her services to Holocaust education and regularly tells her story in the hope of bringing ‘kindness, tolerance and acceptance of diversity’ to others.

The retired head teacher now lives in North Shields and is one of the oldest survivors of the Shoah to have been evacuated from Nazi-occupied Europe by the Kindertransport. This week she is marking the approach of her 100th birthday by returning to Vienna where she was born in 1926.

I began this occasional blog series, ‘Tales of the Viennese Jews,’ in November 2019. I last returned to this theme earlier this year (16 January 2026) following the death of Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor, author, and step-sister of Anne Frank. A year earlier (7 February 2025), I told the stories of Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025), the archetypal ‘wild child’ of the 1960s, and of her mother, Eva Hermine von Sacher-Masoch (1912-1991), a self-styled baroness who resisted the Nazis in Austria.

This occasional series takes its title from the Tales from the Vienna Woods, a waltz by the composer Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), written more than a century and a half ago in 1868. Although Strauss was baptised a Roman Catholic, he was born into a prominent Jewish family. Because the Nazis had a particular penchant for his music, they tried to conceal and even deny the Strauss family’s Jewish identity.

However, the stories of Vienna’s Jews cannot be hidden, and many of these stories are told in the exhibits in the Jewish Museum in its two locations, at the Palais Eskeles on Dorotheergasse and in the Misrachi-Haus in Judenplatz. Rather than describe both museums in detail in one or two postings, I decided after visiting Vienna to re-tell some of these stories through this series, celebrating a culture and a community whose stories should never be forgotten.

A family photograph of the young Gabriele Weiss with her parents, Hildegard and Josef Weiss, in Berlin

The Guardian and the Jewish Chronicle reported earlier this week how Gabriele Keenaghan, a Kindertransport centenarian, is returning to Vienna. She was born Gabriele Franziska Maria Weiss in Vienna on 10 November 1926, an only child who did not even know she was Jewish until after the Nazis invaded Austria.

Her father Josef Weiss was Jewish and manufactured heating stoves. Her mother Hildegard was a Catholic. Family photographs show her as an only child with her parents, and include photographs with her parents in Berlin and visits to the Vienna Woods with her great-aunt Maria who was also her godmother.

After her mother died suddenly in 1935, Gabriele was brought up by her grandmother, also called Gabriele. She never knew her father was Jewish until after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in the Anschluss on 12 March 1938. She was a boarder at a Catholic convent school when the Nazis came and told the girls they would all be moving.

She was labelled a mischling, a pejorative term meaning ‘mixed’. ‘I was the only one left standing,’ she recalled in an interview with Mark Brown of the Guardian, and she wondered: ‘What’s happening to me?’ She was told she would have to go to a Jewish school and have a yellow star of David sewn on to her coat.

‘They called me “a dirty little Jew” … it was upsetting.’ But, she recalls, ‘I hadn’t realised that my father was a Jew. I didn’t know. I don’t think I even knew what being a Jew meant.’

From then, she was verbally and physically assaulted on her way to and from school, and she was now forbidden from entering the park to play with her friends by a sign declaring ‘Jude Verboten’.

The events of Kristallnacht on 9-10 November 1938 came on the eve of her 12th birthday. Gabriele never saw her father again: he was deported to Łódź in Poland and she believes he either died in the ghetto or was sent to be murdered in Auschwitz.

Her grandmother made arrangements for her to be taken out of Austria on a Kindertransport, the scheme that brought about 10,000 Jewish children to Britain as refugees.

She was still only 12 when she said goodbye to her grandmother and left on a train with 150 other children. They arrived the Netherlands, and from there they were sent by boat to Harwich and on to Liverpool Street station in London.

Gabriele quickly learned English and in January 1940 the Catholic Committee for Refugees moved her from Aldershot to Ashford, where she boarded at the Convent of Notre Dame. When she turned 16 In 1942, she was classified as an ‘enemy alien’ because of her Austrian nationality. She was moved again to a convent in Mill Hill, north London, and then trained in nursery nursing and Montessori education.

One of her first jobs was as a nanny to the Richardson family in Woldingham, Surrey. She has vivid memories of sheltering in air raid shelters during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941 and of VE Day, standing in front of Buckingham Palace.

After World War II, she studied at a teacher training college, and later became headmistress of a school in Newcastle. She met her husband, John ‘Ken’ Keenaghan, an RAF navigator with an Irish Catholic background and stationed in Bedford. They married in 1953 and raised their family in Wallsend. Later she became a middle-school head teacher and has fond memories of her career, the children and her teacher colleagues.

She returned to Austria each year to see relatives, especially her grandmother, who died in 1974.

She is now 99 and her actual 100th birthday is not until November. But she is marking her birthday a little early this year, returning this week with several generations of her family, including her daughters Pat and Christine to Westbahnhof, the train station she left Vienna from almost 90 years ago.

She continues to share her frightening and terrifying childhood experiences and has spoken many times to children about her experiences. ‘I hope they have learned something from it,’ she said this week. ‘But do we ever learn? Look at the world, look at the state it is in now.’

Gabriele Keenaghan told her story in a short book, My Story Gabriele Keenaghan BEM, published by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) in 2021 (here).

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Gabriele Keenaghan in her childhood visiting the Vienna Woods with her great aunt Maria

Tales of the Viennese Jews:

1, the chief rabbi and a French artist’s ‘pogrom’

2, a ‘positively rabbinic’ portrait of an Anglican dean

3, portraits of two imperial court financiers

4, portrait of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis

5, Lily Renée, from Holocaust Survivor to Escape Artist

6, Sir Moses Montefiore and a decorative Torah Mantle

7, Theodor Herzl and the cycle of contradictions

8, Simon Wiesenthal and the café in Mauthausen

9, Leonard Cohen and ‘The Spice-Box of Earth’

10, Ludwig Wittgenstein and his Jewish grandparents

11, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his Jewish librettist

12, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and the railways in Vienna

13, Gustav Mahler and the ‘thrice homeless’ Jew

14, Beethoven at 250 and his Jewish connections in Vienna

15, Martin Buber and the idea of the ‘I-Thou’ relationship

16, Three Holocaust survivors who lived in Northern Ireland.

17, Schubert’s setting of Psalm 92 for the synagogue.

18, Bert Linder and his campaign against the Swiss banks.

19, Adele Bloch-Bauer and Gustav Klimt’s ‘Lady in Gold’.

20, Max Perutz, Nobel laureate and ‘the godfather of molecular biology’.

21, Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025) and her mother Eva Hermine von Sacher-Masoch (1912-1991)

22, Eva Geiringer Schloss (1929-2026), step-sister of Anne Frank

23, Gabriele Keenaghan, survivor of the Kindertransport

Children of the Kindertransport … Frank Meisler’s bronze sculpture at Liverpool Street Station in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Greeks have a word for it: 67, Εἰρήνη (Eirene), Peace

A statue of Eirene, the Greek goddess of Peace, with a laurel wreath and a cornucopia, at Vergina restaurant in Platanias, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Stony Stratford Playreaders this week have been reading Peace (Εἰρήνη), the anti-war play with timeless value by Aristophanes. He is one of the greatest comedians in classical literature, with a special sense of humour, and he wrote many comedies and satires.

In Greek mythology, Eirene (Εἰρήνη) was the goddess of peace, and she was a symbol of spring, wealth and order. She is depicted in art her statues and in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre and a torch or rhyton. She is usually said to be the daughter of Zeus and Themis and the sister of Dike and Eunomia.

The Greek word εἰρήνη (eirēnē) means peace, quiet and rest. In ancient Greek, it meant a time without war but it also speaks of more than just a lack of war: it describes wholeness, harmony, quietness, and a state of general well-being or flourishing.

It comes from a word that means to join together. Peace brings things back into a whole. It comes from verb εἴρω (eiro), to join or bind together that which has been separated, binding or joining together again what had been separated or divided and thus setting at one again.

Older theories also link the word εἴρω (eírō), ‘to speak, say’. We might compare it with the word ῥήτρα (rhḗtra), a verbal agreement or treaty.

A poster for a Shadow Puppet Theatre production of ‘Eirene’ by Aristophenes in Thessaloniki

The idea of the Common Peace (Κοινὴ Εἰρήνη, Koinē Eirēnē) was one of the most influential concepts of 4th century BCE Greek political thought, along with the idea of Panhellenism. The term described both the concept of a desirable, permanent peace between the Greek city-states (πόλεις, poleis) and a sort of peace treaty that fulfilled the three fundamental criteria of this concept: it had to include all the Greek city-states, it had to recognise the autonomy and equality of all city states without regard for their military power, and it had to be intended to remain in force permanently.

The advocates of the Common Peace saw it as a way to end the endemic warfare which engulfed the Greek poleis after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. From the King’s Peace of 387-386 BCE down to the foundation of the League of Corinth in 338 BCE, the idea of the Common Peace influenced all peace treaties between Greek poleis. In the end, however, it turned out that only a strong hegemonic power could maintain a comprehensive peace for long.

The concept has been revived in modern times, and in the 20th century it was a foundation stone of international organisations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations.

‘Eirene’ by Aristophenes continues to appeal to adults and children alike in Greece

The Septuagint or Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible regularly uses εἰρήνη to translate the Hebrew shalom (שלום), a word that embraces completeness, prosperity, and relational harmony with God, neighbour, and creation. Priestly benedictions, such as Numbers 6: 26, anticipated a day when the Lord would ‘give you peace’. First-century Jews greeted one another with ‘peace’, and Jesus’ disciples continued the practice (see Luke 10: 5-6).

In the Greek New Testament, the word εἰρήνη (eirēnē) or peace is much like the Hebrew word shalom (שלום). It occurs over 90 times, and means inner calm, well-being, and right relationships with others. Well-known and well-loved examples include:

• πορεύου εἰς εἰρήνην, Go in Peace (Luke 7: 50; 8: 48);
• ἰρήνη τῷ οἴκῳ τούτῳ, Peace to this house (Luke 10: 5);
• Εἰρήνη ἀφίημι ὑμῖν, εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν, My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you (John 14: 27);
• Εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, Peace be with you (Luke 24: 36; John 20: 19, 20-21, 26).

Every Pauline letter opens with the twin blessing ‘grace and peace’ (for example, see Romans 1: 7; Ephesians 1: 2) and most conclude with a similar wish (see Romans 15: 33). Peter, John and Jude follow the same pattern (see I Peter 1: 2; II John 1: 3; Jude 1: 2). These formulas are more than courteous salutations – they declare and confer the benefits of God’s favour and covenant well-being on those who receive the greeting.

Saint Irene (left), Saint Catherine and Saint Barbara … three women saints in a fresco in the Church of Panagia Dexia in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In the Greek Orthodox tradition and in popular Greek piety today, there are three popular saints with the name Irene.

Saint Irene, Saint Catherine and Saint Barbara are three saints who are often found together in icons and frescoes in Greek churches. They form a traditional grouping, such as the Apostles Peter and Paul, as an icon of Church Unity, Saint Paul and Sant Barnabas or Saint Paul and Saint Titus as missionary companions, the three Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus), and the Three Holy Hierarchs (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom).

Saint Irene is one of three saints and sisters – Irene, Agape and Chioni – who were born in Thessaloniki and who were martyred there for their faith in the year 304 CE. Their names mean Peace, Love and Purity, and their feast day is on 3 April.

The story of their martyrdom is the subject of Dulcitius, a 10th-century Latin drama by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the first-known female playwright.

Irene, Agape and Chione were brought before Dulcitius, governor of Macedonia, on the charge of refusing to eat food that had been offered in sacrifice to the gods. When Agape and Chionia again refused to eat this food, they were burned alive.

Dulcitius found that Irene was keeping prohibited Christian books that she had taken with her when she fled to the mountains. Dulcitius ordered Irene to be stripped and exposed in a brothel. When no one mistreated her in the brothel, the governor gave Irene a second chance. When she refused this, Dulcitius sentenced her to death and her books found were burned with her.

Saint Irene (752-803), a Byzantine empress who was instrumental in restoring the use of icons in the Orthodox Church … a fresco in a church in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A second significant Saint Irene in the Orthodox Calendar is Saint Irene (752-803), a Byzantine empress who was instrumental in restoring the use of icons in the Orthodox Church. She was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo IV, and when her husband died in 780, she became guardian of their 10-year-old son, Constantine VI, and co-emperor with him. Later that year she crushed a plot by the iconoclasts or opponents of the use of icons to put Leo’s half-brother, Nicephorus, on the throne.

The use of icons had been prohibited since 730. When one of the Empress Irene’s supporters, Tarasius, was elected patriarch of Constantinople, he summoned the Council of Constantinople in 786 and then the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 787 and restored the reverence of images.

Constantine VI banished his mother from court, but she later had her son arrested and blinded. From 797, she reigned alone as emperor for five years until she was deposed in 802 and exiled to the island of Lesbos. She is remembered for her zeal in restoring icons and her feast day is celebrated on 9 August.

Saint Irene of Lesbos with Saint Raphael and Saint Nicholas … an icon in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

There is a third Saint Irene in the Greek Orthodox tradition and popular piety: Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene of Lesbos (Ραφαήλ, Νικόλαος και Ειρήνη) are venerated as saints and martyrs.

According to legend, they lived on the island of Lesbos in the 15th century and were killed by Turkish raiders on 9 April 1463. Raphael was the abbot of the monastery of Karyes, near the village of Thermi, Nicholas was a deacon in the monastery, and Irene was the 12-year-old daughter of the village mayor: she was brutally executed and burned inside a clay cask in front of her parents.

The site of their martyrdom was excavated in 1959 and the relics of the saints are kept in a monastery that was rebuilt on Karyes, about 12 km from Mytilene, the island capital. The three saints were canonised in 1970. The monastery has become a prominent centre of pilgrimage.

A quiet corner in the monastery of Agia Irini, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

One of my favourite places in Rethymnon for peace and quiet, with time to be calm and to pray is the Monastery of Aghia Irini, about 5 km south of Rethymnon in the mountains above the town, and one of the oldest monasteries in Crete. Various accounts say it was founded sometime between 961 and 1204, and it was certainly built before 1362, when it is escribed in a Venetian document.

The monastery was destroyed several times during the many revolutions in Crete against Ottoman rule. During the last Cretan revolution of 1897-1898, the Turks burnt the monastery, the ruined monastery was formally closed in 1900, and the ruins remained deserted throughout most of the 20th century.

Sister Akaterina, who once brought me on a tour of the monastery some years ago, told of how the Metropolitan of Rethymnon, the late Bishop Theodoros Tzedakis, had a vision in 1989 for its restoration and invited a group of nuns to form a new community at Aghia Irini.

The nuns moved into the buildings and restoration work began in 1990. At the time, Aghia Irini was a jumble of dilapidated buildings. Today, it must be one of the most beautiful monasteries in Crete, and the restoration work has received architectural and cultural awards. The church was officially opened in 2003, and was consecrated in 2011 by Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria. The buildings include an older three-aisled church of Saint Irene, Saint Catherine and Saint Euphemia.

An icon of Aghia Irini (Αγία Ειρήνη) or Saint Irene by Alexandra Kaouki … a present from Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When I was in Rethymnon last year for a five-day ‘mini-retreat’ in Crete during Holy Week and Easter, my friend Alexandra Kaouki (Αλεξανδρα Καουκι), one of the foremost icon writers in Rethymnon today, gave me a gift of one of her early icons, depicting Aghia Irini (Αγία Ειρήνη) or Saint Irene, completed in 2012.

Saint Irene seemed such a special choice for me that weekend. Alexandra explained how she thought it was appropriate for me because of my campaigning past, as the saint’s name means ‘Peace’, and because I had written appreciatively in the past about Aghia Irini convent in the hills above Rethymnon.

A fresco depicting Saint Irene or Aghia Irini by Alexandra Kaouki in a church in Rethymnon

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible

54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality

55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church

56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church

57, Χριστούγεννα (Christougenna), Christmas

58, ἐπιφάνεια (epipháneia), θεοφάνεια, (theopháneia), Epiphany and Theophany

59, Ζέφυρος (Zéphuros), the West Wind

60, Αύριο (Avrio), Tomorrow

61, καλημέρα (κaliméra), ‘Good Morning’, and καλαμάρι, κalamári, ‘squid’

62, Ελευθερία ή θάνατος, ‘Freedom or Death’

63, Ποδόσφαιρο, ‘Football’

64, καφές (coffee), Φραπές (frappé)

65, Odyssey (η Οδύσσεια) and Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς)

66, Cosmopolitan, Κοσμοπολίτης

67, Εἰρήνη (Eirene), Peace

Series to be continued

‘Eirene’ by Aristophenes continues to appeal to adults and children alike in Greece

Reading ‘Peace’ by Aristophanes and a classical reminder of the traps of waging wars and the need for peace

The Theatre of Dionysus … the site of the great drama competitions in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

After a few weeks break, the Stony Stratford playreaders resume our readings and rehearsals this evening, and we have gathered in the Library in Stony Stratford, where the play we are reading is Peace (Εἰρήνη Eirḗnē), an Athenian ‘Old Comedy’ written and produced by the Greek playwright Aristophanes.

The play won second prize at the City Dionysia when it was staged just a few days before the validation of the Peace of Nicias, which promised to end the 10-year-old Peloponnesian War in the year 421 BCE.

With the current wars the US is waging in the Gulf against Iran, including Trump’s latest threats this week against Oman, the current war Russia is waging against Ukraine, the continuing and relentless Israeli military actions in Gaza, on the West Bank and in southern Lebanon, Peace seems deeply appropriate as a choice for our reading this evening.

The play is written in joyous anticipation of peace and it is a celebration of a return to an idyllic life in the countryside. However, it also sounds a note of caution, there is a bitter acknowledgment of lost opportunities, and the ending is not happy for everyone.

As in all plays by Aristophanes, the jokes are many, the action is wild and absurd and the satire is savage. Cleon, the pro-war populist leader of Athens, is once again a target of the author's wit, even though he had died in the Battle of Amphipolis just a few months earlier.

The playwright Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης) was known as ‘the Father of Comedy’ and ‘the Prince of Ancient Comedy’ and lived between ca 446 and ca 386 BCE. He wrote 40 plays, although only 11 survive virtually complete. His plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of his plays won the first prize in their respective competitions. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre known as ‘Old Comedy’ and are among its most valuable examples.

The porch of the Erechtheion … the last of the buildings dating from the time of Pericles … building work finished around 410 BCE (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his plays, Aristophanes wrote about real-life figures, including Pericles, Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He is said to have recreated life in ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.

His plays are characterised by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries. Plato singled out the play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates.

His now lost second, now lost play, The Babylonians, was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights.

In Peace, Trygaeus, whose part I have been asked to read, is a middle-aged Athenian who miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War. He earns the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities.

Trygaeus boldly summons Greeks everywhere to come and help him set Peace free while there is still time. A Chorus of excited Greeks from various city-states arrives as prompted but they are so excited they cannot stop dancing at first. Eventually they get to work, pulling boulders from the cave’s mouth under the supervision of Trygaeus.

Real progress is only made by the farmers and at last Peace and her companions, Festival and Harvest, are brought to light, appearing as visions of ineffable beauty. Hermes then tells the gathering why Peace had left them many years earlier – she had been driven away by politicians who were profiting from the war.

She had tried to come back several times, but each time the Athenians had voted against her in their Assembly. Trygaeus apologises to Peace on behalf of his fellow Athenians, then he leaves her to enjoy her freedom while he sets off again for Athens, taking Harvest and Festival back with him.

Trygaeus celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

All the early plays by Aristophanes were written and acted against a background of war. The war between Athens and Sparta began in 431 BCE. Under Archidamus II in Sparta and Pericles in Athens, it developed into a war of slow attrition in which Athens was unchallenged at sea and Sparta was undisputed master of the Greek mainland.

The Monument of the Unknown Soldier outside Parliament in Athens … the quotations are from the Funeral Oration by Pericles, recounted by Thucydides in ‘The History of the Peloponnesian War’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Every year, the Spartans and their allies invaded Attica and wreaked havoc on Athenian farms. As soon as they retreated, the Athenians marched out from their city walls to avenge themselves on the farms of their neighbours, the Megarians and Boeotians, allies of Sparta. Till then, most Athenians had lived in rural settlements but now they congregated within the safety of the city walls.

A plague in 430 BCE, decimated the over-crowded population of Athens and also claimed the life of Pericles, leaving Athens in the control of a more radical leadership, epitomised by Cleon.

Cleon was determined to gain absolute victory in the war with Sparta and his aggressive policies seemed to be vindicated in 425 at the Battle of Sphacteria, with the capture of Spartan hostages and the establishment of a permanent garrison at Pylos, from where the Athenians and their allies could harass Spartan territory.

The Spartans then made repeated appeals for peace but these were dismissed by the Athenian Assembly under guidance by Cleon, who wished instead to broaden the war with ambitious campaigns against Megara and Boeotia. The Athenians suffered a major defeat in Boeotia at the Battle of Delion and this was followed by an armistice in 423 BCE.

When the armistice ended, Cleon led a force of Athenians to Chalcidice to repress the revolts. But he and his men were surprised and defeated by a Spartan force. Both Cleon and Brasidas died in the battle and their removal opened the way for new peace talks in the winter of 422-421. The Peace of Nicias was ratified soon after in the City Dionysia, where Peace was performed, early in the spring of 421 BCE.

Cleon, the populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, is mentioned by name only once in this play, and he receives several indirect mentions. At one point, the Chorus describe Cleon as a disgusting gorgon-like phenomenon in language that matches sound and sense:

ἑκατὸν δὲ κύκλῳ κεφαλαὶ κολάκων οἰμωξομένων ἑλιχμῶντο :περὶ τὴν κεφαλήν

a hundred heads of doomed stooges circled and licked around his head

The sound of something revolting is captured in the original Greek by the repetition of the harsh k sound, including a repetition of the word for ‘head’.

Euripides is a tragic poet renowned for his innovative plays and pathetic heroes. He is ridiculed for his reliance on legalistic quibbling for dialogue and his plays are parodied and deliberately misquoted.

The tragic poet Sophocles is mentioned too because his verses are evocative of the good times that will come with peace.

Homer, the bard of all bards and the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is mentioned by name twice in this play, there are frequent references to his poetry, and he is fancifully misquoted by Trygaeus.

Places that are named in the play include Mount Etna, the island of Naxos, the Erechtheion, the iconic building on the Acropolis, where work began in 420 BCE during the Peace of Nicias, not long after the performance of Peace at the City Dionysia, and the Pnyx, the hill where the citizens of Athens convened as a democratic assembly.

Masks inspired by classical drama in a shop in Athens … Thalia was the Muse of comedy, the laughing face, while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy, the weeping face (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his plays, Aristophanes shows a tender love of rural life and a nostalgia for simpler times, and he develops a vision of peace involving a return to the countryside and its routines.

The association of peace with rural revival is expressed in this play in terms of religious imagery: Peace, imprisoned in a cave guarded by a Cerberus figure, resembles a chthonic fertility goddess in captivity in the underworld, a motif especially familiar to Athenians in the cult of Demeter and her daughter Kore in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

In spite of the play’s mythical and religious contexts, political action emerges as the decisive factor in human affairs. The gods are seen as distant figures, and so mortals must rely on their own initiative, as seen when the Chorus of Greeks work together to release Peace from captivity.

The god Hermes delivers a speech blaming the Peloponnesian War on Pericles and Cleon, an argument that Aristophanes had put forward in earlier plays.

The Chorus has a joyful celebration of peace but also shares bitter reflections on the mistakes of past leaders and Trygaeus expresses anxious fears for the future of the peace since events are remain subject to bad leadership. The bankrupted tradesmen at the end of the play are a reminder that there is still support for war.

The militaristic verses borrowed from Homer are a dramatic reminder that war is deeply rooted in culture and that it still commands the imagination of a new generation. Peace in such circumstances requires not only a miracle but also a combination of good luck and good will on the part of a significant group within the community.

Does any this find parallels with today’s cycle of war and how many world leaders have forgotten Peace, leaving Peace trapped in a dark cave?

Actors promoting a theatrical performance of classical drama in the square at Monastiraki in Athens (Photograph; Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 105, Thursday 20 August 2026

Waiting for guests at the Tai Tai restaurant in Kuching … we are all invited to the heavenly banquet, but are we ready to accept the invitation? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, 16 August 2026). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Bernard (1112-1153), Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher of the Faith; and William Booth (1829-1912) and Catherine Booth (1829-1890), founders of the Salvation Army.

I hope to be involved in a drama group meeting in the library in Stony Stratford this evening, when we are reading the appropriately topical Peace by Aristophanes. This play was first staged just a few days before the validation of Peace of Nicias, which promised to end the ten-year-old Peloponnesian War, in 421 BCE. Earlier in the day, I have a number of tests, including blood tests, heart monitoring and an ECG, as my Vitamin B12 deficiency and sarcoidosis continue to be monitored. But, 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.

‘Go therefore into the … streets, and invite everyone you find to the … banquet’ (Matthew 22: 9) … empty tables at restaurants in the side streets in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 22: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’

‘A Peasant Wedding’ (1620), Peter Brueghel the Younger, the National Gallery of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Sometimes, the ways I can behave as a snob can catch me off-guard and unexpectedly, and I shame myself.

When I was growing up, the snobberies and class distinctions of previous generations were challenged over 60 years ago in an old-fashioned way in the film My Fair Lady (1964), based on George Bernard Shaw’s earlier play, Pygmalion (1913).

But Pygmalion also inspired what I think is a much funnier film, Hoi Polloi (1935), with the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe.

Two professors are arguing about whether our social behaviour is caused by environment or heredity. It is a very funny take on the old Nature v Nurture argument.

To settle a bet, the two professors take three binmen – Larry, Curly and Moe – train and coach them for three months, dress them up, and send them off to a posh society dinner.

Their behaviour descends into farce, and it looks as if one professor has won his bet: our social behaviour is dictated by inherited class.

But then the tables are turned – literally. Everyone else at the party descends to the same riotous behaviour. At a base level, we are all the same, even if some refuse to accept it.

Nature or nurture? It was an important statement that we all share the same humanity, coming as racism and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1930s.

The title of the film, Hoi Polloi, is a way of expressing class-based social prejudice. It is a Greek phrase, meaning ‘the many’ and it was used in Victorian England by people who had the benefit of a classical education in English public schools and the universities, to describe the masses, who they presumed did not understand the phrase.

Gilbert and Sullivan use the phrase to mock those who used it in their comic opera Iolanthe. Later, it was used by English public schoolboys in the 1950s and the 1960s, when they referred to ‘oips’ and ‘oiks’.

The term hoi polloi also appears in a scene in the film Dead Poets Society (1989). Professor John Keating, played by Robin Williams, speaks negatively about the use of the definite article ‘the’ in front of the phrase.

Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) raises his hands and speaks: ‘The hoi polloi. Doesn’t it mean the herd?’

Keating replies: ‘Precisely, Meeks. Greek for the herd. However, be warned that, when you say “the hoi polloi” you are actually saying “the the herd.” Indicating that you too are “hoi polloi”.’

This morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 1-14) begins with a very joyful occasion – a posh nosh, a planned wedding, and generous invitations to a lavish banquet. But, instead of the farce in that film with the Three Stooges, it quickly descends into very difficult images: slaves who are kidnapped, mistreated and killed; cities that are burned down; a man who is bound hand and feet and thrown into outer darkness.

The images of the wedding banquet and the wedding covenant are important ways of describing our relationship with God.

But the parable in this morning’s Gospel reading is particularly difficult.

The king has invited a long list of guests, but even after being repeatedly sought out, none of these guests comes to the banquet.

To refuse to come, to refuse a king’s command, is treason; to kill his slaves amounts to insurrection. So the king sends out troops to put down the rebellion.

The king then sends his slaves into the streets to find enough people to sit at the tables at the wedding banquet. The phrase translated as ‘the main streets’ (διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν, verse 9), means not the main fashionable, shopping streets in a chic part of a city centre. It refers to dirty, gritty, street corners and junctions, perhaps the main junctions outside the city gates.

This is the place where those who want to be hired as labour gather, where those who are refused entry wait without hope, this is where those who are on margins are found. Other translations catch these images when they talk about the highways and the byways.

And the king’s invitation, in verse 10, goes out to all people, ‘both good and bad.’

Yet, when the king sees that a man is not dressed appropriately for the event, the king throws him into the outer darkness. In this case, the robe probably symbolises the white robe worn for baptism.

Do we wear that robe all the time? In other words, do we live up to our promises of discipleship made at Baptism – summarised in the call to love God and to love others?

If you were to imagine yourself as one of the characters in this parable, who would you be?

And would you behave that way?

Are you the king, throwing a lavish wedding banquet?

Are you a wedding guest who has denied the generosity of the king?

Are you the bride or groom, sidelined and marginalised at our own wedding, incidental to all the power playing and role playing?

Are you one of the people brought in from the streets, but not prepared for the celebration about to take place?

Where do you find Good News in this parable?

What is meant by the many and the few here?

In our western way of thinking, the word many is a quantity much more than the majority, while few is many less than the majority. But in eastern thought, one less than 100% would be considered few.

We could put the Greek use of ‘few’ and ‘many’ by Christ in this parable in its cultural context. Pericles, in his ‘Funeral Oration’ in Athens, according to Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War, uses ‘the many,’ οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), in a positive way when he extols democracy in Athens.

He contrasts ‘the many’ with ‘the few’ (οἱ ὀλίγοι, hoi oligoi), the few who abuse power and create an oligarchy, rule by the few. Pericles demands equal justice for ‘the many’, ‘the all’, before the law, against the selfish interests of the few.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember that Christ is the victim, and that he said his blood is shed ‘for you and for many.’ The word ‘you’ here means us, the Church, the few in this parable. But the phrase ‘the many’ here, οἱ πολλοί (hoi polloi), refers to the masses, the multitude, the great unwashed, who are called to the banquet too.

Christ’s invitation is not just to you and me, who know we are invited to the banquet. It is also for the many, the lumpen masses, all people, the ones who are not usually invited to the posh nosh, the Larry, Curly and Moe in our midst.

The invitation to come in, to celebrate at the banquet, symbolised in the Eucharist this morning, is not just for the few, the oligarchs. The many are invited to this banquet this morning.

Who are we to behave like a tyrannical despot and exclude them? For if we exclude them, we are in danger of excluding Christ himself.

‘Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready’ (Matthew 22: 3) … waiting for diners at the Black Horse in Great Linford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 20 August 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 16 to 22 August 2026 (pp 30-31), is ‘Hope in the Making’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Grace Murray, a USPG volunteer. The prayers this week come courtesy of passersby at Greenbelt Festival 2025.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 20 August 2026) invites us to pray:

Dear God, please forgive us for we have been selfish and misused your creation. We are sorry that nature has been hurt by humans. Help us to do better, Lord!

The Collect of the Day:

Merciful redeemer,
who, by the life and preaching of your servant Bernard,
rekindled the radiant light of your Church:
grant us, in our generation,
to be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love
and ever to walk before you as children of light;
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 of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Bernard to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘Those who had been invited to the wedding banquet … would not come’ (Matthew 22: 3) … empty tables at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth (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

A grave in Kerameikós, Athens, where Pericles delivered his funeral oration (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, a lost church near Victoria station and a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright

A tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright at 129 Wilton Road, Victoria, the site of Saint John’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

It would be easy to walk past 129 Wilton Road in Victoria, thinking it is just one more commercial office building in the City of Westminster. The building is close to Victoria Station and home to corporate tenants like Trident Energy and the events company IQPC.

But as they rush to and from Victoria Station, commuters may not notice the terrace above on the first floor of 129 Wilton Road or realise that the commercial and office building has been inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and designed to provide a mixture of open plan or collaborative and quiet workspace with break-out zones and meeting rooms.

Were we alone in noticing the large, tall sculpted stonework by the entrance? It is engraved with the words ‘Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children – Frank Lloyd Wright’.

Perhaps the building was designed as a tribute to the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1957). But I was interested in it first because it is site of the former he Church of Saint John the Evangelist, destroyed during the Blitz in World War II.

Saint John’s Church was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and built in 1874 (Photograph: A Corbett / Saint Peter’s)

I was in Pimlico and Belgravia last week, visiting a number of churches in the area, including Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, Saint Saviour’s Church, Saint George’s Square, and Saint Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square.

Wilton Road is on land between Pimlico and Victoria that was once part of the larger Grosvenor Estate. The street was named after Lady Eleanor Egerton, daughter of Thomas Egerton (1749-1814), 1st Earl of Wilton, who married Robert Grosvenor (1767-1845), 1st Marquess of Westminster.

Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, was consecrated in 1874 as a chapel of ease to Saint Peter’s, Eaton Square, in order to reach out to the poor in the heavily populated area around Victoria Station.

The Revd George Howard Wilkinson (1833-1907), who was the Vicar of Saint Peter’s, Eaton Square, in 1870-1883, wished the church to be open to all. It was built with some difficulty on soft ground where barges used to unload their goods from the Grosvenor Basin, and this needed a foundation built on piles.

Fundraising for building the new church attracted a donation of £2,000 from Hugh Grosvenor (1825-1899), 1st Duke of Westminster, while he attending Saint Peter’s Church one Sunday morning, and Queen Victoria donated £150, on the grounds that she was a parishioner.

The church was built on the west side of Wilton Road, between Hudson’s Place and Gillingham Street. The building stood on the site that is now No 129 Wilton Road, Pimlico. It was designed in the Early Gothic style by the architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899), who at the time was working on Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, when he enlarged and reordered in 1875, adding a chancel at the east end and north and south transepts, and ‘fiercely normanised’ the interior.

Blomfield’s other works include Saint Luke’s Chapel at the former Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford (1864), Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (1869), Selwyn College, Cambridge (1882-1889), rebuilding the nave of Saint Saviour’s Church, now Southwark Cathedral (1890-1897), and Saint Saviour’s Church, Arklow, Co Wicklow (1899).

Inside Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, once known for its quiet reverence and absence of fussiness (Photograph: A Corbett / Saint Peter’s)

Saint John’s Church on Wilton Road was built in brick with stone dressings, with a broad nave, a short chancel, and a thin square tower topped by a squat slate spire. Embellishments were added in succeeding years, including mosaics, a marble high altar and triptych, seven sanctuary lamps in the Anglo-Catholic style, and textiles designed by the architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907).

Saint John’s had a ring of eight bells, supplied by John Warner and Sons. They were dedicated on 2 October 1878 by the Archdeacon of London, Piers Claughton (1814-1884), former Bishop of Saint Helena and of Colombo. The bells were later removed when they proved to be too heavy, although some sources they were lost with the church during the Blitz in 1940.

Wilkinson later became Bishop of Truro (1883-1891), Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane (1893-1907), and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (1904-1907).

Meanwhile, Saint John’s became a popular and thriving church in the late 19th century and into the 20th century, with a strong preaching and teaching tradition and a congregation drawn from across London.

It is said the church was known for its work, quiet reverence and absence of fussiness. The Eucharist was the main Sunday service, and Eucharistic vestments were adopted in 1908 – by then, they were in use at Saint Peter’s for over a decade.

Many men from Saint John’s were killed during World War I, and during those years there was a shortage of clergy and little money.

After the war, incense was introduced into the liturgy in 1924, and the sacrament was reserved. A large bronze crucifix was set up facing Wilton Street as a War Memorial, which is now on the south wall of Saint Peter’s Church, near the side entrance to the church office and the Knightsbridge Kindergarten.

When World War II broke out in 1939, the church was first closed, as it was too far from an air raid shelter. It then reopened for weekday masses, with Sunday services taking place in Saint Peter’s.

Saint John’s Church received a direct hit on Friday 11 October 1940 and was mostly destroyed. The remains were pulled down a few years later. The valuable vestments were restored and other items from the interior that survived were given to Saint Peter’s and other churches.

The engraved inscription at the entrance to 129 Wilton Road is ascribed to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most influential figures in the architectural movements of the 20th century. He believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture.

But the quotation is a well-known saying about stewardship of the environment for future generations sustainability. It is variously attributed to Crazy Horse, or as an ancient proverb, or a Native American or Kenyan saying. Written records trace variations of it to mid-20th century environmental campaigns and indigenous advocacy, but in Jewish tradition there is also a similar saying in the Midrash: ‘Take care not to spoil or destroy My world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you’ (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13).

The revolving door at the entrance to 129 Wilton Road obscures the engraved words and makes them difficult to read. Perhaps the building could do with an explanatory panel, and a plaque recalling Saint John’s Church, which stood on the site for 66 years from 1874 to 1940.

No 129 Wilton Road may have been designed as a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright (Photograph: www.129wiltonroad.com)