20 million olive trees in Crete, 20 million in classical Greece, a $20 million pay-out to Trump, and 20 million blog readers

The Parthenon on the Acropolis … Ancient Greece had 20 million people by 400 BCE (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Once again, this blog continues to reach more and more readers, reaching yet another overwhelming landmark, with 20 million hits at about 7 am this morning (18 December 2025), and more than 800,000 readers this week alone. There have been almost 1.5 million visitors to this blog so far this month, an average of about 80,000 hits each day so far in December.

Earlier this week, this blog had reached 19.5 million readers by early Sunday afternoon (14 December 2025), having passed the 19 million mark last week (9 December).

I began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It more than another year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. This blog reached the 10 million mark earlier this year (12 January), almost 15 years later.

So far this year, the daily figures have been overwhelming on many occasions. Eight of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were this month alone and four were in January:

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 166,155 (15 December 2025)
• 146,944 (14 December 2025)
• 140,417 (16 December 2025)

• 122,398 (17 December 2025)
• 112,221 (13 December 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 94,824 (12 December 2025)
• 93,575 (11 December 2025)
• 88,333 (10 December 2025)

The latest figure of 20 million is all the more staggering as half of those hits (10 million) have been within this year, since 12 January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 20 million readers, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 20 million people look like?

• Where do we find 20 million people?

• What does £20 million, €20 million or $20 million mean?

• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

When countries have passed the 20 million mark (vividmaps.com)

The world’s population hovered is now well over 8 billion, and projections say there could be 10.3 billion of us by the 2080s. Alex Egoshin of vividmaps is a GIS specialist and ecologist working as a researcher in a national park. He has created a series of maps based on Wikipedia’s List of Population Milestones by Country database and he concludes that ‘crossing the 20 million mark was like lighting a great bonfire – a signal that a civilisation had grown too large to ignore.’

He suggests only a few ancient societies reached that mark at an early stage: China may have passed 20 million by 1000 BCE, Persia by 480 BCE, classical Greece by 400 BCE, and Rome by 60 BCE. France joined around 1100 CE, ancient Mexico ca 1250, and the Mali Empire by 1400.

In the modern era, Russia crossed the 20 million line in 1765, Germany by 1770, and Japan by 1815 or earlier. Britain reached 20 million during the early Victorian surge in 1837, the US soon followed in 1844, Poland in 1882, Ukraine in 1883, and Spain in 1911. A wave of nations followed after World War II – including Egypt, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines by the 1950s, followed by countries like Romania in 1968 and Malaysia in 1995.

Today, cities such as Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing and Dhaka all have close to 20 million inhabitants.

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin … Germany had 20 million people by 1770 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Earlier this year, Donald Trump claimed that Paramount, the new owners of the US TV network CBS, are to provide him with $20 million worth of advertising and programming – just months before filing legal action seeking to squeeze $10 billion out of the BBC.

Winston Churchill’s published work is estimated to come to a total of 20 million words.

20 Million Miles to Earth (also known as The Beast from Space) was a 1957 science-fiction monster film directed by Nathan Juran, with stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen and starring William Hopper, Joan Taylor, and Frank Puglia. Set in Italy, the film involves an alien lifeform from Venus that arrives on a crashed rocket, and begins rapidly growing.

The US has a coastline of approximately 20 million metres (20,000 km or 12,400 miles), which is also close to half the circumference of the Earth.

Last month (November) was the olive picking season in Crete, where over 20 million olive trees are cultivated the length and breadth of the island. Olives and olive oil account for one of the main sources of income throughout Crete, so that olive oil is often called ‘Crete’s liquid gold’.

The olive groves on the hillsides between Piskopianó and Koutouloufári above Hersonissos … Crete has more than 20 million olive trees (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

And 20 million minutes is approximately 38 years 4 months. If this blog was getting one hit a minute, it would have taken over 38 years to reach this 20 million mark.

So, yet again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 90-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings at noon. It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches totalled 600 to 700 people twice a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 20 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris … France had around 20 million inhabitants by the year 1100 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

13 million blog readers: but what does 13 million mean for the disabled, for tourism or for deforestation?

Greece is more than 13 million hectares in size, with a total land area of 13.2 ha, and has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km) … the coastline below the Fortezza in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

This blog reached yet another new peak late last night (17 June 2025), totalling up 13 million hits since I first began blogging about 15 years ago, back in 2010.

Yet again, I find this is both a humbling statistic and a sobering figure that leaves me not with a sense of achievement but a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

After I began blogging, it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. It was over a year before this figure rose to 1 million by September 2013. It climbed steadily to 2 million, June 2015; 3 million, October 2016; 4 million, November 2019; 5 million, March 2021; 6 million, July 2022; 7 million, 13 August 2023; 8 million, April 2024; and 9 million, October 2024.

But the rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal over the past few months, reaching 9.5 million on 4 January 2025, 10 million over a week later (12 January 2025), 10.5 million two days after that (14 January 2025), 11 million a month later (12 February 2025), 11.5 million a month after that (10 March 2025), 12 million early last month (3 May 2025), 12.5 million a month later (6 June 2025) and 13 million shortly before midnight last night (17 June 2025).

Indeed, January 2025 was the first month this blog ever had 1 million hits in one single month – or even within a fortnight – with 1 million hits by mid-January, in the early hours of 14 January, and a total of 1,420,383 by the end of that month (31 January 2025).

In recent months, the daily figures have been overwhelming on occasions. Seven of the 12 days of busiest traffic on this blog were in January 2025 alone, and the other five of those 12 busiest days were in this month (June 2025):

• 289,076 (11 January 2025)
• 285,366 (12 January 2025)
• 261,422 (13 January 2025)
• 100,291 (10 January 2025)
• 64,077 (14 January 2025)
• 55,614 (17 June 2025)

• 55,344 (25 January 2025)
• 52,831 (27 January 2025)
• 48,819 (15 June 1015)
• 46,920 (7 June 2025)
• 46,420 (8 June 2025)
• 46,042 (14 June 2025)

This blog has already had about 3.6 million hits this year, almost 28 per cent of all hits ever, by 6 pm this evening (18 June 2025) it had almost 49,000 hits.

Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.’ But I have noticed that seven of these days were in the week before and after Trump’s inauguration, the others were in the days around his outrageous military prade in Washington DC on 14 June and that the overwhelming number of hits are not from Ireland, the UK and Greece, as I might expect, but from the US.

The bots at work in Washington must be trawling far and wide for anyone critical of the Trump regime, but I doubt my criticisms of Trump, Vance and Musk are going to make it easy to get a visa to visit the US over the next four years, should I ever want to under the present regime. I’d prefer to boos my ego and cnvince myself that my popularity is growing and that I have become a ‘must-read’ writer for so many people every day. But, sadly, I don’t think that’s so. And if a minor critic of the Trump regime outside the US such as me is being intimidated, imagine how many critics inside the US feel they are being intimidated and bullied into success.

About 13 million tourists visit Venice each year … gondolas waiting for tourists near Saint Mark’s Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

With this latest landmark figure of 13 million hits by today, over 1.4 million hits in January alone, and almost three quarters of a million hits during June so far, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 13 million people look like?
• Where do we find 13 million people?
• What does £13 million, €13 million or $13 million mean, or what would it buy?

13 million or more people in the UK are disabled, from dyspraxia to impaired vision to Tourette’s.

It is estimated that there are about 13 million undocumented migrants in the US.

Burundi has a population of over 13 million people, and cities with a population of about 13 million people include Rio de Janeiro, Tianjin and Kinshasa.

There are have been protests throughout southern Europe about the over-tourism. About 13 million tourists visit Venice each year, 13 million tourists visited Berlin and the island of Mallorca last year (2024), Cyprus is expecting 13 million tourists this year, and already 13 million tourists have visited Hanoi and Thailand this year. Twice that number of tourists, 26 million, are said to have visited Barcelona, last year.

Greece is more than 13 million hectares in size, with a total land area of 13.2 ha, and has a coastline of 13.6 million metres (13,676 km), the ninth longest coastine in the world.

Greenland is melting at a rate of 13 million litres per second. That’s the equivalent volume of water in five Olympic pools discharged each second into the ocean.

Each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation.

The number of olive trees in Crete vary in estimates from 13 million up to 30 million. The export value of California olives and olive oil is $13 million.
Lichfield District Council spends £13 million a year on local services.

Jeff Bezsos and Lauren Sanchez plan to spend $13 million on their ‘scaled-back’ wedding in Venice, with ‘a nice small gathering of 200 people’.


Each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation (Patrick Comerford)

Saifullah Abdullah Paracha from Pakistan was held without charge by the US in Guantanamo Bay for over 18 years before being released in 2022. He had interesting perspectives on $13 million when he wrote for Reprieve back in January 2020:

‘I was surprised to hear President Donald Trump complaining about the $13 million that the US spends per detainee each year, to detain us without charge at Guantánamo Bay. It is difficult to think what they spend it on. Certainly, it is not spent on us. They do not need $13 million to close my cell door on me or to send me out into a shingle compound to walk in circles for an hour. I have diabetes, arthritis, and get chest pains that are clear warnings of my mortality, but they certainly do not spend $13 million on my healthcare. I have had two heart attacks and I fear it will not be third time lucky.

‘They don’t spend the money on the guards either. I have tried to befriend many soldiers over the years, as I feel sorry for them. They are little better off than we are. They are told we are the worst of the worst terrorists in the world, and that they are being sent here to do the job for which they enlisted – to make America safe. When they get here, they discover a bunch of nobodies – an old Pakistani businessman like me, a Karachi taxi driver like Ahmed, or Abdul Latif who was meant to have been on a plane home at the end of the Obama Administration. Trump has sworn he will not transfer anyone. We are “no value” forever-detainees, marooned here on a presidential whim.

‘Is it any surprise that soldiers here reportedly suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at a rate twice as high as those on the battlefield? At least the latter are doing the job they signed up for. Here, the guards find that they are not fighting, or even serving, the country they thought was America. Instead, they are riddled with doubt as to the meaning of their lives. I don’t get any therapy here for the abuses and the losses I have suffered, but I do find myself doling out advice to soldiers in their teens or early twenties who are psychologically lost. The S.O.G. is the Sergeant of the Guard in our camp. They call me O.G., which I am told stands for “Old Granddad”. One guard even ended up calling me “Father.”

‘My lawyer asked me what I would rather spend my $13 million on. I tell him, forget the $13 million, and just give me a boarding pass for the plane back to my family.

‘If I am not allowed that, first I ask why the American people would want to waste their tax dollars. So far they have spent $6 billion on this prison that has made nobody more safe and severely damaged the USA’s reputation as a country founded on the rule of law. My best estimate is that this could have saved the lives of 100,000 Americans – if it had been spent on health care, rather than torture.

‘Yet when pressed and told I must spend it all, I do not find that hard. It is what I used to do when I was a wealthy businessman, and had money myself. I do feel a duty to thank those who have helped me over many years, so I would donate $1 million to Reprieve to continue their good work. The rest I would invest in Pakistan, to help people to love life rather than cast it away on “jihad”. I have calculated that for each $1.5 million, I could create a hospital within a sustainable community – 200 families with jobs on the premises, a school, a fruit orchard and a hive of honey bees. It may sound impossible for that kind of sum, but it is Pakistan, where money goes much further. Indeed, I have written up an entire business plan which I call the “Milk and Honey Project.”

‘Imagine – or help America’s leaders to imagine – how much goodwill this would buy. Remember, also, that this is just the money being wasted on keeping one old man locked up. There are more than twenty “no value” detainees like me held in this dreadful prison, at an annual cost to the US taxpayer of over $250 million. I must agree with the President: it is a “crazy” waste of money. A man who so often boasts about getting a good deal should recognise that it is about time he stopped throwing the money away.’

Saifullah Abdullah Paracha is reortedly back Pakistan; Donald Trump is disgracefully back in the White House.

The world has a population of 8.2 billion people, and 13 million people represent only 0.16% of all those people, a modest number I suppose.

One of the most warming figures personally in the midst of all these statistics is the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach an average of 73-75 people each day in the past month. It is over three years now since I retired from active parish ministry. But I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 510 to to 530 people a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all 13 million readers and viewers of this blog to date, and for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Lichfield District Council spends £13 million a year on local services (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The fig tree tomb in Watford churchyard: a sign for an atheist or a vicar’s legacy?

The fig tree – and the inscription – have long disappeared from the Fig Tree Tomb at Saint Mary’s Church in Watford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

If I had the space and the soil, the patience and the time, the two trees I would like to try to grow are an olive tree and a fig tree.

They are signs of life and God’s blessings in creation, of life and of continuity in life. There is a very large fig tree off the High Street in Stony Stratford and small potted olive trees outside some of the restaurants in Milton Keynes. Fig trees and olive trees at any time of the year also bring back warm memories of Greece.

But during my visit to Watford earlier this week, I heard the story of what surely must have been one of the most unusual fig trees in an English churchyard.

Saint Mary’s Church is the oldest building in Watford, and the churchyard has 13 prominent tombs, of which nine are nationally listed chest tombs, one is locally listed, two have been reconstructed from piles of stone, and one is a nationally-listed headstone.

A headstone from 1809 is of George Edward Doney, a loyal servant to the Earl of Essex who lived at Cassiobury House in Watford. He was born in Gambia and sold into slavery in Virginia. He later earned his freedom and came to Watford as a free man. His headstone is of national significance and represents an important aspect of the social history of the town.

Saint Mary’s churchyard has 13 prominent tombs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

At the south-east corner of the churchyard, the Fig Tree Tomb was a popular tourist attraction in Victorian Watford. Local legend claims that the person buried there was an atheist, who had asked that something be buried in the tomb that could germinate if there was life after death. If there was a God, this would grow and burst the tomb to prove to his family that his soul was alive. If not, then nothing would happen and he would be proved correct.

The existence of God was said to have been proven when a fig tree sprouted up from the tomb and dislodged the lid.

The strange sight drew visitors to the graveyard in large numbers. They came to hear the story and they left taking a twig from the tree as a souvenir.

Whoever was buried in the tomb must have come from a wealthy family as the tomb is of Portland stone with an elaborate design, and the slate panel would have had crisp carving with the name and details of the dead person. It is unlikely though that an atheist would have been given such an impressive tomb so close to the church.

Over time, the slate panel was worn away and eroded and the inscription is no longer legible, so the details in any version of the legend are difficult if not impossible to verify.

One version of the legend says it was the grave of a naval officer named Ben Wangford. However, historians have not been able to identify anyone of the name Wangford in naval records.

Details about Ben Wangford grew as the story of the Fig Tree grew, attracting visitors to the church and the churchyard in ever-increasing numbers.

Henry Williams describes hundreds of people making long excursions to see the fig tree in the 1880s and taking home a leaf or small branch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Henry Williams, in his History of Watford, writing in 1884, described the fig tree growing through the tomb and he reported that each year it ‘exhibits considerable luxuriance and sometimes produces figs.’ He said the fig tree had ‘probably grown there for close upon 100 years’, which would date it to the 1790s, or even the 1780s.

He described hundreds of people visiting the churchyard, many making long excursions to see the fig tree and taking home a leaf or small branch.

However, Williams said that when the tomb was opened it was found that the root of the tree was four or five feet above where the dead man’s head must have been. He said some tendrils had become attached to the bottom of the vault and this was said to explain the luxuriant growth of the fig tree.

For some, the fact the tree did not grow out of the coffin discredited the old legends. Others still believed it was strange that a fig tree should grow out of a tomb at all. The coffin inside the tomb was found to have a projection at the top. This led to speculation that the buried person had died with his or her knees up and that, after death, the knees could not be straightened.

Over a decade later, a writer in the parish magazine in 1898 said Ben Wangford had lived about the middle of the previous century, that he was a man of enormous size, and ‘his boots could contain a bushel of corn.’ But the writer admitted he knew nothing more – whether the dead man was from Watford, single or married.

In The Book of Watford, Bob Nunn offers another version or a similar story about a woman who was atheist. Her tomb was accidentally damaged when the churchyard was being lowered and graves were being levelled.

Yet another theory suggested the seed of the fig tree could have been accidentally thrown into the tomb by the Revd the Hon William Robert Capel (1775-1854), who was the Vicar of Saint Mary’s from 1799 to 1855. His father was William Anne Capell (1743-1799), 4th Earl of Essex; he grew fig trees and had a taste for eating figs as he walked to church, spitting out the pips along his way from the vicarage.

The churchyard was taken over by Watford Council in recent years ago and is now an open space. Sadly, the Fig Tree itself died in 1963 after a long and cold winter, though some writers suggest it was helped on its way by local officials who thought it was in the way.

The fig tree may be long gone, but the legend and the tomb remain with several versions of the story.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to seeing some more fig trees – and olive trees – when I am back in Crete during Easter next month.

A fig tree in full bloom close to the ruins of Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 11, Monday 11 November 2024

‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you’ (Luke 17: 6) … a mulberry tree in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent, and yesterday was both the Third Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday. Today, the Church Calendar remembers Saint Martin (ca 397), Bishop of Tours.

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘World’s Smallest Seed,’ 40”x30” oil/canvas, by James B Janknegt

Luke 17: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’

5 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ 6 The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.’

Olive groves on the slopes beneath Piskopianó in Crete … why did Jesus talk about mustard plants and mulberry trees and not about olive trees? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s reflection:

It is safe to say I do not have green fingers.

For most of my life, I have no interest in gardening. I like sitting in a garden, reading in the sunshine, listening to the sound of the birds or a small fountain, enjoying the shade of the trees, and in summertime, eating out in the open.

So, it is not that I do not enjoy the garden. It is just that I have always felt I am no good at it.

It is an attitude that may have been nurtured and cultured from heavy hay-fever in my early childhood, hay-fever that comes back to haunt me perennially at the beginning of each summer.

I once bought a willow tree, in the early 1980s, sat with it in the back of a small car all the way back across Dublin, holding on to the tree as it stuck out the side window. By the time I got home, I was covered in rashes, and my eyes, ears and nose were in a deep state of irritation. It must have been related to the willow trees in the Psalms, because afterwards I sat down and wept.

For that reason alone, you could not call me a ‘tree hugger.’ But do not get me wrong … I really do like trees.

I relish spending time in the vast, expansive olive groves that stretch for miles and miles along the mountainsides in Crete, or in vineyards where the olive groves protect the vines.

But I cannot be trusted with trees. I was once given a present of a miniature orange tree … and it died within weeks. I have been given presents of not one, but two olive trees. One, sadly, died, the other grew but remained a tiny little thing.

Perhaps if I had just a little faith in my ability to help trees to grow, they would survive and mature.

You may wonder why Christ decides to talk about a mustard seed and a mulberry tree, rather than, say, an olive tree. After all, as he was talking in the incident in this morning’s Gospel reading, he must have been surrounded by grove after grove of olive trees.

But, I can imagine, he is also watching to see if those who are listening have switched off their humour mode, if they have withdrawn their sense of humour. He is talking here with a great sense of humour, using hyperbole to underline his point.

We all know a tiny grain of mustard is incapable of growing to a big tree. So, what is Christ talking about here? Because, he not only caught the disciples off-guard with his hyperbole and sense of humour … he even wrong-footed some of the Reformers and many Bible translators who make mistakes about what sort of trees he is talking about this morning.

Why did Christ refer to a mustard seed and a mulberry or sycamine tree, and not, say, an olive tree or an oak tree?

Christ first uses the example of a tiny, miniscule kernel or seed (κόκκος, kokkos), from which the small mustard plant (σίναπι, sinapi) grows. But mustard is an herb, not a tree. Not much of a miracle, you might say: tiny seed, tiny plant.

But he then mixes his metaphors and refers to another plant. Martin Luther, in his translation of the Bible, turned the tree (verse 6) into a mulberry tree. The mulberry tree – both the black mulberry and the white mulberry – is from the same family as the fig tree.

As children, some of us sang or played to the nursery rhyme or song, Here we go round the mulberry bush. Another version is Here we go gathering nuts in May. The same tune is used for the American rhyme Pop goes the weasel and for the Epiphany carol, I saw three ships. TS Eliot used the nursery rhyme in his poem The Hollow Men, replacing the mulberry bush with a prickly pear and ‘on a cold and frosty morning’ with ‘at five o’clock in the morning.’

Of course, mulberries do not grow on bushes, and they do not grow nuts that are gathered in May. Nor is the mulberry a very tall tree – it grows from tiny seeds but only reaches the height of an adult person. It is not a very big tree at all. It is more like a bush than a tree – and it is easy to uproot too.

However, the tree Christ names (Greek συκάμινος, sikámeenos) is the sycamine tree, which has the shape and leaves of a mulberry tree but fruit that tastes like the fig, or the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus). Others think the tree being referred to here is the sycamore fig (συκόμορος, Ficus Sycomorus), a tree we come across later in this Gospel as the big tree that little Zacchaeus climbs in Jericho to see Jesus (Luke 19: 1-10).

The sycamine tree is not naturally pollinated. The pollination process is initiated only when a wasp sticks its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. In other words, the tree and its fruit have to be stung in order to reproduce. There is a direct connection between suffering and growth, but also a lesson that everything in creation, including the wasp, has its place in the intricate balance of nature.

Whether it is a small seed like the mustard seed, a small, seemingly useless and annoying creature like the wasp, or a small and despised figure of fun like Zacchaeus, each has value in God’s eyes, and each has a role in the great harvest of gathering in for God’s Kingdom.

Put more simply, it is quality and not quantity that matters.

Here are six little vignettes about faith that I came across recently:

1, Once all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one little boy came with an umbrella. That is faith.

2, When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That is trust.

3, Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarm to wake up. That is hope.

4, We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence.

5, We see the world suffering, but still people get married and have children. That is love.

6, There is an old man who wears a T-shirt with the slogan: ‘I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.’ That is attitude.

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us to pay attention to our attitude to, to the quality of, our faith, trust, hope, confidence, love and positivity. And if we do so, we will be surprised by the results.

Perhaps I should have paid more attention to that small olive tree I once had on the patio back in Dublin.

Faith is powerful enough to face all our fears and all impossibilities. Even if our germ of faith is tiny, if it is genuine there can be real growth beyond what we can see in ourselves, beyond what others can see in us.

Mulberry Hall at 17-19 Stonegate, York, dates from 1434 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 11 November 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 ‘A Look at Education in the Church of the Province of Myanmar’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Programme Update by Nadia Sanchez, Regional Programme Coordinator, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 11 November 2024) invites us to pray:

Father God, We pray for teachers and educationists across the world. May they be able to reach all who are in need.

The Collect:

God all powerful,
who called Martin from the armies of this world
to be a faithful soldier of Christ:
give us grace to follow him
in his love and compassion for the needy,
and enable your Church to claim for all people
their inheritance as children of God;
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.

Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Martin revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Saint Martin’s Chapel at Nyiru Grait near Siburan, south of Kuching in Sarawak … Saint Martin of Tours is commemorated in the Church Calendar on 11 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 140, Saturday 28 September 2024

A mask for the Carnival in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVIII) and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. Today is one of the Ember Days in September.

I am back in Stony Stratford this morning, having caught a late-night flight from Dublin to Birmingham after yesterday’s reunion lunch for my school year, the Sixth Year in Gormanston College, Co Meath, in 1969.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and 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.

Souvenir masks from a stall in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 43b-45 (NRSVA):

43b While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 ‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’ 45 But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Masks made of olive wood in a shop in Rethymnon … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading Luke 9: 43b-45), after Saint Peter’s profound confession of faith following the Transfiguration, and the stern order and command to the disciples not to tell anyone what has been seen and said, we hear how the disciples hear Jesus but do understand what he is saying, nor can they perceive what he means, and they are afraid to ask him to explain what he is saying.

When the disciples find that the meaning of what Jesus says is concealed from them, the word that is used, παρακαλύπτω (parakalýptō) is a rare word in the Bible. It does not refer to some sacred or religious mystery but to something that is hidden, covered alongside or front of someone, something that has a veil pulled over it, to cover it up, to cover over, to hide or conceal it, perhaps even to disguise it. In its use in classical Greek literature it can mean to cover by hanging, to disguise, to set aside, to ignore, or it can be used when talking about covering one’s face.

A similar word παρακάλυμμα (parakálymma) is used for anything that is hung up beside or hung up before something to cover it, a covering or curtain.

The Carnival of Venice (Carnevale di Venezia), which takes place in the days before Lent, is known everywhere for its elaborate masks. It grew in prestige and developed in its revelry in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the point that it became a symbol of licence and pleasure.

Mask-makers (mascherari) had a special position in Venetian society, with their own laws and their own guild. But the masks allowed many people to spend a large part of the year in disguise, hiding their secret lifestyles. When the Emperor Francis II occupied Venice, he outlawed the festival in 1797 and masks were strictly forbidden.

It was not until 1979 that the Carnival was revived in Venice. With it came the revival of the tradition of making carnival masks, and one of the most important events at the Carnival is the contest for la maschera più bella (‘the most beautiful mask’).

So often, we all have our own masks. We are afraid that others might see us or get to know us as we really are. We hide behind a persona, which is the Latin word for a theatrical mask. We are worried, ‘What if someone saw me for who I truly am?’ ‘What if they came face-to-face with what I am really like?’

But the Transfiguration invites us to a mutual face-to-face encounter with the living God. The inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, have ascended the mountain with Christ, and in the clouds they saw who he truly is: he is the God of Moses and Elijah, and the vision is so dazzling that they are dazzled and overshadowed by the cloud.

When they come back down the mountain, like Moses, there is a great crowd waiting for the healing that restores them to their place in the covenant with God.

The original Greek word for Transfiguration in the Gospels is μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis), which means ‘to progress from one state of being to another.’ Consider the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into the butterfly. Saint Paul uses this same word (μεταμόρφωσις) when he describes how the Christian is to be transfigured, transformed, into the image of Christ (II Corinthians 3: 18), he uses the word ‘icon’ of Christ.

The Transfiguration reveals not just who Christ should truly be in our eyes, but who we should be truly in God’s eyes. It is a reminder of our ultimate destiny, the ultimate destiny of all people and all creation – to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendour of God himself. The Transfiguration points to the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, when all of creation shall be transfigured and filled with light.

The Transfiguration is not just an Epiphany or Theophany moment for Christ, with Peter, James and John as onlookers. The Transfiguration is a story too of a miracle that reminds us of how God sees us in God’s own image and likeness, and how God sees us for who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us, not matter how others fail to understand us.

Throughout life, there is a temptation to accept our human nature as it appears now. But the Transfiguration of Christ offers the opportunity to look at ourselves not only as we are now, but take stock of what happened in the past that made us so, and to grasp the promise of what we can be in the future.

In the present and in the future, can we take ownership of who we have been as a child. Do we remember always that we are made in the image and likeness of God? As Saint Paul reminds us, we are icons of Christ.

We need no masks, no personae, in God’s presence. God sees us as we are: made in his own image and likeness, sees us for who we were, who we are and who we are going to be, no matter how others see us, no matter how others dismiss us.

No matter what others say about you, how others judge you, how others gossip or talk about you, how others treat you, God sees your potential, God sees in you God’s own image and likeness. God sees through all our masks and sees an icon of Christ. God knows you are beautiful inside and loves you, loves you for ever, as though you are God’s only child.

We are his beloved children in whom he is well pleased.

The Transfiguration depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 28 September 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), has been ‘Our God is Able.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday in reflections by the Revd Thanduxolo Noketshe, priest in charge at Saint Mary and Christ Church, Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba, Province of the West Indies.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 28 September 2024) invites us to reflect on these words:

So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 9: 17).

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity XVIII:

Almighty and everlasting God,
increase in us your gift of faith
that, forsaking what lies behind
and reaching out to that which is before,
we may run the way of your commandments
and win the crown of everlasting joy;
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.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Michael and All Angels:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
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.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Masks in a shop window in Venice … do we hide our personae behind masks before other people … before God? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford 2018)

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 with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 6 July 2022 (Psalm 133)

‘It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard, Even on Aaron’s beard’ (Psalm 133: 2-3) … Moses and Aaron in a window in Saint Columba’s Church, Drumcliffe, Ennis Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time, and today (6 July 2022) in the calendar of Common Worship in the Church of England recalls Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535.

Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 133:

Psalm 133 is the fourteenth in a series of 15 short psalms (Psalm 120-134) known as the ‘Songs of Ascents.’ These psalms begin with the Hebrew words שיר המעלות‎ (Shir Hama’a lot). In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is counted as Psalm 132.

Many scholars say these psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended the road to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals. Others say they were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the 15 steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Mishnah notes the correspondence between the 15 songs and the 15 steps between the men’s court and the women’s courtyards in the Temple. A Talmudic legend says King David composed or sang the 15 songs to calm the rising waters at the foundation of the Temple.

One view says the Levites first sang the Songs of Ascent at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple during the night of 15 Tishri 959 BCE. Another study suggests they were composed for a celebration after Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in 445 BCE. Others suggest they may originally have been songs sung by the exiles returning from Babylon, ascending to Jerusalem or individual poems later collected together and given the title linking them to pilgrimage after the Babylonian captivity.

These psalms are cheerful and hopeful, and they place an emphasis on Zion. They were suited for being sung because of their poetic style and the sentiments they express. They are brief, almost like epigrams, and they are marked by the use of a keyword or repeated phrase that serves as a rung on which the poem ascends to its final theme.

Psalm 133 is one of the shortest chapters in the Book of Psalms, being one of three psalms with three verses, the others being Psalm 131 and Psalm 134. The shortest psalm is Psalm 117, with two verses.

This psalm is often known by its Latin title, Ecce Quam Bonum. It has many settings by composers from William Byrd to Leonard Bernstein, who uses verse 1 to conclude the text in Hebrew of the final movement of his Chichester Psalms, an extended work for choir and orchestra that begins with the complete text of Psalm 131.

Psalm 133 is a short poem on the blessing of harmony between brothers – possibly a reference to the divisions between the two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, with hope for their reunification.

We can imagine this psalm being sung by pilgrims as they came together on the journey up to Jerusalem or made their way up the steps of the Temple. It speaks of brotherly love among the people of God, exemplified in the brotherly love of Moses and Aaron.

The pilgrims came together from many tribes, with many tribal differences. But when they come together to worship God, verse 2 reminds them, it is like the anointing of the first high priest, Aaron, by his brother Moses. At that consecration, the high priest’s hair and clothes were saturated with oil (see Exodus 29: 7), signifying his total consecration to God and the abundance and generosity of God’s blessings.

Mount Hermon in the north was the highest mountain in the northern kingdom, Israel. It is blessed with copious rain, ‘the dew of Hermon’ (verse 3). If Jerusalem or Mount Zion, the sacred mountain in the southern kingdom, Judah, received the same abundance of rain, it would be a true blessing. God’s blessings are the inexhaustible source of life, and are for ever.

‘It is like the precious oil on the head’ (Psalm 133: 2) … olive oil on shelves in a shop in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 133 (NRSVA):

A Song of Ascents.

1 How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life for evermore.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Tackling Poverty.’ It was introduced on Sunday by Niall Cooper, Director at Church Action on Poverty.

Wednesday 6 July 2022:

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

Lord, please help us to be bold and speak truth to those in power about the hardships of living in poverty.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 1 July 2022 (Psalm 128)

‘Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house’ (Psalm 128: 3) … a fruitful vine in the walled garden at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 128:

Psalm 128 is the ninth in a series of 15 short psalms (Psalm 120-134) known as the ‘Songs of Ascents.’ These psalms begin with the Hebrew words שיר המעלות‎ (Shir Hama’a lot). In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is counted as Psalm 127. It is sometimes known by its opening words in Latin, Beati omnes qui timent Dominum.

Many scholars say these psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended the road to Jerusalem to attend the three pilgrim festivals. Others say they were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the 15 steps to minister at the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Mishnah notes the correspondence between the 15 songs and the 15 steps between the men’s court and the women’s courtyards in the Temple. A Talmudic legend says King David composed or sang the 15 songs to calm the rising waters at the foundation of the Temple.

One view says the Levites first sang the Songs of Ascent at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple during the night of 15 Tishri 959 BCE. Another study suggests they were composed for a celebration after Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in 445 BCE. Others suggest they may originally have been songs sung by the exiles returning from Babylon, ascending to Jerusalem or individual poems later collected together and given the title linking them to pilgrimage after the Babylonian captivity.

These psalms are cheerful and hopeful, and they place an emphasis on Zion. They were suited for being sung because of their poetic style and the sentiments they express. They are brief, almost like epigrams, and they are marked by the use of a keyword or repeated phrase that serves as a rung on which the poem ascends to its final theme.

Psalm 128 may date from the post-exilic period, after the year 539 BCE. It was probably a pilgrimage song, sung as people walked to Jerusalem for a major festival.

This is a short psalm only six verses, and discusses the blessed state of those who follow God.

Those who hold God in awe will be joyful; they are those who follow God’s ways. If we do so, we will be prosperous, enjoying the results of our hard work and living in harmony with God.

The promises of large families and the guarantee of heirs was a blessing in an age of high infant mortality. Verses 5-6 form a blessing, perhaps pronounced by a priest. The prosperity of Jerusalem was fundamental to the happiness of the people, who prayed that God would bless the people in the community from Zion, his dwelling place in the Temple.

These concluding verses also include a well-known blessing at traditional weddings in rural Ireland: ‘May you live to see your children’s children.’ The Book of Proverbs celebrates the same idea: ‘Children’s children are the crown of old men’ (Proverbs 17: 6).

The concluding prayer for peace upon Israel also appears in Psalm 125 and is a ‘detached clause.’

‘Your children will be like olive shoots’ (Psalm 128: 3) … the olive tree is an essential part of life in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 128 (NRSVA):

A Song of Ascents.

1 Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways.
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands;
you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4 Thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.

5 The Lord bless you from Zion.
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
6 May you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Ethics and Leadership.’ It was introduced on Sunday by Andy Flannagan, Executive Director of Christians in Politics.

Friday 1 July 2022:

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

Let us pray for the work of Christians in Parliament as they support MPs, peers and the many parliamentary staff who work in the Houses of Parliament.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Lent: 1 April 2022 (Psalm 52)

‘Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery’ (Psalm 52: 2) … street art in Richmond Street, near Kelly’s Corner, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I retired yesterday (31 March 2022) after five years in parish ministry in the Diocese of Limerick, and as Canon Precentor in Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert. However, I intend to continue in a new though as yet unknown form of ministry. This morning I am still in the John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford, waiting for further consultations and recommendations for follow-up treatement before being sent back to Milton Keynes.

Meanwhile, before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning (1 April 2022) for prayer, reflection and reading.

During Lent this year, in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 52:

Psalm 52 is described as a Maskil, attributed to King David, and is said to have been written when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’ In this psalm, King David criticises those who use their talents for evil.

In the slightly different numbering found used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations, this psalm is numbered Psalm 51. This psalm opens the second section of the three traditional divisions of the Latin psalter. For this reason, the first words (Quid gloriatur in malitia qui potens est iniquitate ...), and above all the initial ‘Q’, were often greatly enlarged in illuminated manuscript psalters, following the pattern of the Beatus initials at the start of Psalm 1, and the ‘D’ of Psalm 102.

Psalm 52 could be classified as an individual psalm of trust, one that demonstrates an expression of trust or confidence in God’s assistant to the petitioner.

The psalm’s sub-heading refers to an event in I Samuel 21 to 22 when Doeg, the chief herdsman of Saul, the first king of Israel, informed Saul that David had been received by Ahimelech at Nob, a priestly town in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and assisted him with the means for his flight.

We might expect Doeg to be condemned. He was a man of wealth and importance as the chief of Saul’s herdsmen or, according to the Septuagint, the keeper of his mules. His tongue was ‘a deceitful tongue,’ because, although the facts he reported were true, he helped to confirm Saul in a false and cruel suspicion.

However, there are no references to the cold-blooded and sacrilegious murder of the priests at Nob. Doeg acted as Saul’s agent, but all his other officers shrank from executing his brutal order. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to suppose that the Psalm was really written by David on that occasion, unless we assume that it was composed after Doeg’s information was given but before the massacre was carried out, although this is improbable.

‘God will … snatch and tear you from your tent’ (Psalm 52: 5) … an empty tent in a Moroccan restaurant in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 52 (NRSVA):

To the leader. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’

1 Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?
All day long 2 you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking the truth.
Selah
4 You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.

5 But God will break you down for ever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
Selah
6 The righteous will see, and fear,
and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 ‘See the one who would not take
refuge in God,
but trusted in abundant riches,
and sought refuge in wealth!’

8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
for ever and ever.
9 I will thank you for ever,
because of what you have done.
In the presence of the faithful
I will proclaim your name, for it is good.

Today’s Prayer:

The USPG Prayer Diary this week, under the heading ‘Let my people go,’ focuses on the approximately 230 million Dalits living in India. Considered outcasts, these communities suffer systematic exclusion and discrimination under the caste system, a system of social stratification. The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (1 April 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for those who are treated as outcasts and pariahs in society. May they be accepted by the wider community and know that they are accepted by God.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘I am like a green olive tree in the house of God’ (Psalm 52: 8) … an olive grove in the mountains above Rethymnon in Crere (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Saint George’s Monastery and its ruined olive mills find new life in Crete

The 12 arches of the old olive oil factory at Saint George’s Monastery, near Vamos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

On the last day of this year’s holiday in Crete, I took a trip in the countryside and the mountainous, olive-producing area west of Georgioupoli yesterday [20 June 2018], and visited the Monastery of Saint George in Karydi.

The monastery, about 2 km south-east of the village of Vamos, is best-known as an architectural monument because of its former olive oil factory with its 12 arches and the remains of four olive mills.

Before the foundation of the monastery, the area was a settlement and fiefdom controlled by a Venetian nobleman, whose house is still preserved.

Writing in 1577, the Venetian man of letters, Francesco Barozzi (1537-1694), who was born in Iraklion, mentions a church dedicated to Saint George at the current location of the monastery.

Given the heavy thunderstorms and rain in Crete throughout this week, I was amused to learn that Barozzi was charged in 1587 with apostasy, heresy, of engaging in the occult, and of causing a torrential rainstorm in Crete. He was found guilty, he was forced to donate silver crosses at the cost of 100 ducats and received a suspended prison sentence.

The Monastery of Aghios Georgios in Karydi was founded around 1600 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The Monastery of Aghios Georgios in Karydi was founded here around 1600, when there was a settlement in this place. The monastery took its name from this settlement in area abundant with walnut trees.

When the Turks captured Crete later in the 17th century, they realised the strategic location of the monastery on a road linking Sfakia and Vamos. There were about 10 Greek Orthodox families here, and the Turks forced them to either convert to Islam or to abandon their village. Four families changed their faith and asked the Turks to turn the Church of Saint George in the village into a mosque.

In the early 18th century, the taxes imposed on the priest were so oppressive that he felt he was being forced to leave the village. Eventually, with the help of the Monastery of Aghia Triada at Tzagarolon, near Chania, he found a way to pay his taxes, and in 1720 the monastery was given in thanks to Aghia Triada Monastery.

In the courtyard at the Monastery of Aghios Georgios (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Since then, Saint George and the lands attached to it have been a dependency of the Monastery of Aghia Triada. The Turks conceded more freedom to the Christians of Crete in 1821. They began olive cultivation in 1829, which helped the monastery to grow and provided work for many people.

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

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

The Monastery of Aghios Georgios is surrounded by olive groves (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

At one time, the monastery owned 3,600 olive trees, as well as numerous animals and vines. It produced up to 25,000 kg of olive oil, which was a unique example of oil production on a grand scale anywhere in Crete.

The old olive oil factory with its 12 arches has become a picture postcard image of the monastery. The 12 arches, said by some to represent the 12 apostles, once supported a roof that has collapsed. The remains of the four mills can still be seen inside the factory ruins, but only their bases survive, and the millstones have been removed.

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

A reliquary in the monastery church holds what is said to be a small part of a bone of Saint George (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

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

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

The monastery was left abandoned for many years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

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

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

● The monastery of Saint George in Karydi is open from 7:30 to 14:00 and 16:30 to 20:00 each day. Entrance charge €2.

Inside the church in the monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)