Heroes of the Bible, heroes of the faith: introducing Saint John the Evangelist

Saint John with the poisoned chalice, above the main gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

In our tutorial group, we have been look at “Heroes” – Heroes of the Bible and Heroes of the Faith. Earlier this semester I introduced Dean Gonville ffrench-Beytagh. Now we have turned to Biblical figures, and this morning I want to introduce Saint John the Evangelist, or Saint John the Divine.

Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Fourth Gospel, is also known as Saint John the Divine and Saint John of Patmos, and as the Beloved Disciple. Yet, while the Fourth Gospel refers to an unnamed “Beloved Disciple,” the author of the Gospel seems interested in maintaining his internal anonymity.

He is celebrated in the Calendar of the Church two days after Christmas Day, on 27 December, and the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of our parishioners will be familiar with his writings at this time of the year, although not familiar with his life story.

Saint John the Evangelist (Hebrew, Yoḥanan, ‘God is gracious,’ Greek, Ἰωάννης) is identified with the ‘Beloved Disciple’ who is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. He is also identified traditionally as the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Johannine Letters (I John, II John and II John) and the Book of Revelation, , which we are reading in the lectionary in chapel these weeks.

Christian tradition says that Saint John the Evangelist was one of the original Twelve apostles and the only one to live into old age and not be killed for his faith. If this identification and tradition is correct, then, as well as being a Biblical author, this Saint John has a prominent place throughout the Gospels, for he is:

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

So, Saint John the Evangelist is identified with John who was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels the two brothers are often called “the sons of Zebedee” after their father, and Christ calls them the “sons of thunder” (ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς ὀνόμα[τα] Βοανηργές, ὅ ἐστιν Υἱοὶ Βροντῆς, “he gave to them the names Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder”, see Mark 3: 17).

Originally they were fishermen who fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. However, for a time they became time disciples of Saint John the Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers, together with along with Saint Andrew and Saint Peter (see John 1: 35-42).

In the Gospel lists of the Twelve, Saint John is listed second (Acts 1: 13), third (Mark 3: 17) or fourth (Matthew 10: 3; Luke 6: 14), yet always after Saint James, apart from a few passages (Luke 8: 51; 9: 28; Acts 1: 13).

Peter, James and John are the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5: 37), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1), and Christ’s Agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 37). John and Peter alone are sent into the city to prepare for the Last Supper (Luke 22: 8).

At the Last Supper, John sits beside Christ, reclining next to him (John 13: 23, 25). According to the general interpretation, John is “another disciple” who, with Peter, follows Christ after the arrest into the courtyard of the high priest (John 18: 15).

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the “other disciple” are the first to go to the grave, and the “other disciple” is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, “that disciple whom Jesus loved” is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

After the Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, John and Peter take prominent roles in guiding the new Church. He is with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple (Acts 3: 1-11), and is thrown into prison with Peter (Acts 4: 3). Again, we find him with Peter visiting the newly converted people of Samaria (Acts 8: 14).

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

After the Ascension, Saint John travels to Samaria and is thrown into prison with Saint Peter (Acts 4: 3).

Saint Paul names John, alongside James and Peter (Cephas), as pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). When Paul returns to Jerusalem after his second and third journeys (Acts 18: 22; 21:17 ff), he does not seem to meet John there. Perhaps John remained there for 12 years until the persecution of Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles throughout the Roman Empire (cf. Acts 12: 1-17).

A Christian community is already living in Ephesus before Saint Paul’s first labours there (see Acts 18: 24-27, where the leading Christians included Priscilla and Aquila), and tradition associates Saint John the Evangelist with Ephesus, where he is said to have lived and been buried.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was apprehended by the Proconsul of Asia and sent to Rome, where he was miraculously preserved from death when he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil. The Church of Saint John Lateran (San Giovanni a Porta Latina), which is dedicated to him, was built near the Latin Gate (Porta Latina), the traditional scene of this event. Because of this trial, the Early Fathers of the Church give him the title of martyr.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

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

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

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

Domitian banished Saint John into the isle of Patmos. It was during this period that John experienced those heavenly visions which he recorded in the Book of Revelation in the year 96. The Book of Revelation tells us that its author was on the island of Patmos “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus” when he was received this revelation in a cave (see Revelation 1: 9, one of the appointed readings in the Church of Ireland lectionary for yesterday [8 December 2015]).

After the death of Domitian, it is said, Saint John returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine Epistles in the New Testament. By the late second century, the tradition of the Church was saying that Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town.

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

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

Looking at the Johannine Literature

The Epistles and the Book of Revelation presuppose that their one author John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of Christ (see especially I John 1: 1-5; 4: 14), that he lived for a long time in Asia Minor, that he was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions in a variety Christian communities there, and that he was recognised by all Christian communities as leader of this part of the Church.

Collectively, the Gospel, the three Epistles, and Revelation are known as Johannine literature. Christian tradition identified Saint John the Apostle as the author of the Gospel, the three Epistles and the Book of Revelation that bear his name. However, within Johannine literature, Revelation bears the least grammatical similarity to the Gospel, and modern scholarship is divided about the Johannine authorship of these texts.

The most widely accepted view is that – whether or not the same man wrote all the Johannine works – it all came out of the same community in Asia Minor, which had some connections with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter.

The author of Saint John’s Gospel of John never identifies himself by name, but the text identifies him as the “Beloved Disciple” repeatedly referred to in the Gospel.

Why am I so drawn to the Johannine literature, and why has this influenced my choice of Saint John to introduce this series of studies?

First, I find the Prologue to the Gospel (John 1: 1-14) one of the greatest pieces of literature and poetry in the New Testament.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: “In the beginning …” But traditionally, the prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional Gospel readings for Christmas Day.

1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,
καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν,
καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
2 οὗτος ἦνἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
3 πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.
ὃ γέγονεν 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν,
καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων:
5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇσκοτίᾳ φαίνει,
καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

6 Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωποςἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης: 7 οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵναμαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν δι' αὐτοῦ. 8 οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸφῶς, ἀλλ' ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός. 9 ην τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζειπάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.

10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι'αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω.
11 εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν,
καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸνοὐ παρέλαβον.

12 ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦγενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, 13 οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκθελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.

14 Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν,
καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ,
δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός,
πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him;
yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him.

12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh
and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.

A relief sculpture of Saint John ... one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

Secondly, I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters, whether or not you argue that the author of the Fourth Gospel is also the author of I John, or even of II John and II John.

That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days I told earlier, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 5: 1-5, 13-21):

1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 2 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν. 3 αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν: καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν, 4 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον: καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. 5 τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσμον εἰ μὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ;

13 Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

14 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ παρρησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτόν, ὅτι ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ἀκούει ἡμῶν. 15 καὶ ἐὰν οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀκούει ἡμῶν ὃ ἐὰν αἰτώμεθα, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἔχομεν τὰ αἰτήματα ἃ ᾐτήκαμεν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. 16 Ἐάν τις ἴδῃ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντα ἁμαρτίαν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον, αἰτήσει, καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ ζωήν, τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον. ἔστιν ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον: οὐ περὶ ἐκείνης λέγω ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ. 17 πᾶσα ἀδικία ἁμαρτία ἐστίν, καὶ ἔστιν ἁμαρτία οὐ πρὸς θάνατον.

18 Οἴδαμεν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει, ἀλλ' ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τηρεῖ αὐτόν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ. 19 οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται. 20 οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἥκει, καὶ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν διάνοιαν ἵνα γινώσκωμεν τὸν ἀληθινόν: καὶ ἐσμὲν ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς θεὸς καὶ ζωὴ αἰώνιος.

21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων.

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

18 We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. 19 We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

A street sign in Gowran, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collect:

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

Post Communion Prayer:

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

Saint John’s Close ... a street sign in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. These notes were prepared for a discussion in a tutorial group with MTh students on Wednesday 9 December 2015.

The links between a Dublin church and a dynasty of architects from Lichfield

Inside Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge … the church has a unique place in the history of Victorian church architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

I am back in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, at mid-day today, presiding at the mid-week Eucharist. Earlier this week, I was discussing Saint Bartholomew’s Church and its unique place in the traditions of liturgy, music, architecture and Victorian decoration in the Church of Ireland.

The architect Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880) probably received the commission because he enjoyed the patronage of the Herbert family who were the landlords of this part of Dublin, and who, as Earls of Pembroke, were to give their name to a new township based on Ballsbridge.

Wyatt was thoroughly versed in the principles of Gothic architecture and had a notable practice as the designer of more than 30 churches in England before he won the commission for Saint Bartholomew’s. In 1841, he designed a Romanesque church for the Herbert family at their Wiltshire estate at Wilton, outside Salisbury.

Wyatt also worked closely with Sidney Herbert, younger brother of the Earl of Pembroke, who administered the family estates and donated the site for the “Pembroke District Church.” Sidney Herbert was a brother-in-law of Thomas Vesey (1803-1875), the 3rd Viscount de Vesci, who married Lady Emma, daughter of George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke. Lord de Vesci had commissioned Wyatt to restore Abbeyleix House, Co Laois and design the nearby parish church of Saint Michael and All Angels.

Thomas Henry Wyatt had a prolific and distinguished career as an architect. Although he was born in Ireland, he is often regarded as an English, and the Wyatt family included five or six generations of major English architects in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

I was reminded once again at the weekend of the Wyatt family’s roots in and strong links with Lichfield and their links with Pugin.

There are several interesting architectural dynasties in the 19th century, including those descended lines from Thomas Hardwick snr, Charles Barry, AWN Pugin and George Gilbert Scott. But the Wyatt family tree goes back much further and the family stands out for the extent and variety of its work.

An outline of the Wyatt family tree (Wikipedia)

There were Wyatts in Weeford at least as early as 1540, when William Wyatt was the father of Humphrey Wyatt. The village of Weeford is four miles south of Lichfield, close to Toll 4 on the M6. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and it was one of the five original “prebends” that paid “wax Scot” or “Plough Alms” to Lichfield Cathedral from the beginning of the 12th century. There was a church there for many centuries, and the old registers for Saint Mary’s date back to 1562, and the Wyatt architectural dynasty can be traced back to William Wyatt of Thickbroom, near Weeford, who died in 1572.

The Wyatt dynasty was consolidated by a great number of marriages between cousins – over 20 in all, eight in one generation alone. Wyatt family members often worked together, making them a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the architectural world of their time. The family also included artists, painters and sculptors too.

Edward Wyatt, who was buried in Weeford in 1572, was the great-great-grandfather of Edward Wyatt (1632-1705), whose son, John Wyatt (1675-1742) from Thickbroom in Weeford, was the immediate ancestor of this outstanding architectural dynasty.

This John Wyatt was the father of eight sons, the eldest of whom was John Wyatt (1700-1766), an inventor, who was born near Lichfield and was related to Sarah Ford, mother of Dr Samuel Johnson. A carpenter by trade he worked in Birmingham, where he developed a spinning machine that predated Richard Arkwright’s Spinning Jenny.

Another of John Wyatt’s eight sons was Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772), who was the first member of the family to become involved in building work. He was a “farmer, timber merchant, building contractor and sometime architect.” In 1757, he built Swinfen Hall, between Weeford and Lichfield, for Samuel Swinfen and his wife.

Benjamin Wyatt had a large family. His son Joseph Wyatt (1739-1785), who married his cousin Myrtilla Wyatt, was the father of Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1766-1840). He changed his surname from Wyatt to Wyatville (frequently misspelled Wyattville, as in south Dublin housing estates), and I am aware at first-hand of his alterations to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1832, including the gatehouse.

Under his supervision, the exterior brick of Sidney Sussex College was covered with a layer of cement, the existing buildings were heightened slightly, and the architectural effect was also heightened.

The gate lodge of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge ... part of the alterations by Jeffry Wyatville in 1832 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Benjamin Wyatt was also the father of James Wyatt (1746-1813), who was born at Blackbrook Farmhouse near Weeford, and became the most acclaimed and influential architects of his age. His first major building was the Pantheon in Oxford Street, London, which was described by Horace Walpole as “the most beautiful edifice in England.”

In 1792, he was appointed Surveyor General, which effectively made him England’s most prominent architect. He was also involved in works at Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, the restoration of the House of Lords and the building of Saint Mary’s Church, Weeford.

Saint Mary’s, a Grade 2 listed building, was built in 1802 and James Wyatt donated the altar, the pulpit, the screens, the font and the ornamental furnishings.

Lichfield Cathedral … Pugin called James Wyatt a ‘wretch,’ a ‘pest’ and a ‘monster of architectural depravity’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

This James Wyatt was also architect involved in the restoration of Lichfield Cathedral in the 1780s. He oversaw work to remove 500 tons of stone from the nave roof, replacing it with lath and plaster, and effectively saving the cathedral from collapse.

When AWN Pugin first visited Lichfield in 1834, over 20 years after James Wyatt had died, he was taken aback by the refurbishment of the cathedral 30 years earlier by James Wyatt and declared: “Yes – this monster of architectural depravity, this pest of Cathedral architecture, has been here. need I say more.”

Referring to the Lichfield architect, Joseph Potter, Pugin said: “The man I am sorry to say – who executes the repairs of the building was a pupil of the Wretch himself and has imbibed all the vicious propensities of his accursed tutor without one spark of even practical ability to atone for his misdeeds.”

Pugin found the fabric of the cathedral had been mutilated by “the Wretch” – and he also described Lichfield as “a dull place – without anything remarkable.”

James Wyatt’s major neoclassical country houses include Castle Coole, the Enniskillen home of the Earls of Belmore, and Packington Hall near Lichfield, the home of the Levett family for generations.

His eldest son and pupil, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775-1852), built the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane and was also the Surveyor at Westminster Abbey. Another son was the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1777-1862).

The brothers of Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772) included William Wyatt (1701-1772), the grandfather of Matthew Wyatt (1773-1831), who studied law instead of architecture. He moved briefly to Ireland when he was appointed a barrister and police magistrate for Roscommon.

Thomas Henry Wyatt built Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, in 1864-1867 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880) was born at Loughlynn House, Co Roscommon, on 9 May 1807. The Wyatt family returned to England in 1818 when he was about 11, and another famous brother, Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, was born in Rowde, Wiltshire in 1820. By 1825, the family was living in Lambeth.

Thomas Henry Wyatt first began a career as a merchant sailing to the Mediterranean, particularly Malta. But he decided to return to the family’s tradition of architecture, and his early training was in the office of Philip Hardwick. There he worked until 1832, and was involved in work on Goldsmiths Hall, Euston Station and the warehouses at Saint Katharine Docks.

He began to practice on his own as an architect in 1832, and in the same year he was appointed District Surveyor for Hackney, a post he held until 1861.

He married his first cousin Arabella Montagu Wyatt (1807-1875). She was the second daughter of his uncle, Arthur Wyatt, who was the agent of the Duke of Beaufort.

By 1838, he had acquired substantial patronage from the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Denbigh and Sidney Herbert (1810-1861). David Brandon joined Wyatt as his partner, and this partnership lasted until 1851. Then in 1860, Wyatt’s son Matthew Wyatt (1840-1892) became his partner in 1860.

He lived at and practised from 77 Great Russell Street, London. This practice was extensive with a large amount of work in Wiltshire, thanks to the patronage of the Herbert family, and in Monmouthshire through the Beaufort connection. Wyatt worked in many styles ranging from the Italianate of Wilton through to the Gothic of many of his churches.

Sidney Herbert, who had sent Florence Nightingale out to Scutari, was the father-in-law of both the theologian Friedrich von Hügel and the composer Hubert Parry. He lived at Mount Merrion and was managing the Pembroke estates when the site for Saint Bartholomew’s Church was donated and Wyatt was commissioned to design the new church.

Apart from Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, his work in Ireland includes the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, the Church of Ireland parish church in Abbeyleix, Co Laois, and he enlarged and altered Saint Mary’s, the Church of Ireland parish church in Gowran, Co Kilkenny. He also reported on the completion of the restoration of Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny. He also worked on several country houses in Ireland, including Abbey Leix, Co Laois, for Lord de Vesci, Ramsfort, Co Wexford, for the Ram family, Lissadell, Co Sligo, for the Gore-Booth family, and Palmerstown House, Co Kildare for the de Burgh family.

The font in Saint Bartholomew’s Church was a personal gift to the church by Thomas Henry Wyatt.

He died on 5 August 1880 leaving an estate of £30,000, and is buried at Weston Patrick. His younger brother and former pupil, Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877), was an art historian and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge.

The font in Saint Bartholomew’s was a personal gift to the church by Thomas Henry Wyatt (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

More recent members of the Wyatt family who are remembered in Saint Mary’s Church, Weeford, include the former amateur cricketer and captain of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and England, Robert Elliott Storey (Bob) Wyatt (1901-1995), and the politician, journalist and chairman of the Tote, Woodrow Wyatt (1918-1997), who was Lord Wyatt of Weeford by Margaret Thatcher and who is also buried in the churchyard.

Heroes of the Bible, heroes of the faith: introducing Saint John the Evangelist

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

Patrick Comerford

In our tutorial group this year we have decided to look at “Heroes” – Heroes of the Bible and Heroes of the Faith. We have agreed to introduce a favourite personality in turn, and I agreed last week to begin the series by introducing Saint John the Evangelist, or Saint John the Divine.

Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Fourth Gospel, is also known as Saint John the Divine and Saint John of Patmos, and as the Beloved Disciple. Yet, while the Fourth Gospel refers to an unnamed “Beloved Disciple,” the author of the Gospel seems interested in maintaining his internal anonymity.

He is celebrated in the Calendar of the Church two days after Christmas Day, on 27 December, and the Prologue to his Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of our parishioners will be familiar with his writings, but not familiar with his life story.

Saint John the Evangelist (Hebrew, Yoḥanan, ‘God is gracious,’ Greek, Ἰωάννης) is identified with the ‘Beloved Disciple’ who is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. He is also identified traditionally as the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Johannine Letters (I John, II John and II John) and the Book of Revelation.

Christian tradition says that John the Evangelist was one of the original Twelve apostles and the only one to live into old age and not be killed for his faith. If this identification and tradition is correct, then, as well as being a Biblical author, this Saint John has a prominent place throughout the Gospels, for he is:

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

So, Saint John the Evangelist is identified with John who was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels the two brothers are often called “the sons of Zebedee” after their father, and Christ calls them the “sons of thunder” (ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς ὀνόμα[τα] Βοανηργές, ὅ ἐστιν Υἱοὶ Βροντῆς, “he gave to them the names Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder”, see Mark 3: 17).

Originally they were fishermen who fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. However, for a time they became time disciples of Saint John the Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers, together with along with Saint Andrew and Saint Peter (see John 1: 35-42).

In the Gospel lists of the Twelve, John is listed second (Acts 1: 13), third (Mark 3: 17) or fourth (Matthew 10: 3; Luke 6: 14), yet always after James, apart from a few passages (Luke 8: 51; 9: 28; Acts 1: 13).

Peter, James and John are the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5: 37), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1), and Christ’s Agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 37). John and Peter alone are sent into the city to prepare for the Last Supper (Luke 22: 8).

At the Last Supper, John sits beside Christ, reclining next to him (John 13: 23, 25). According to the general interpretation, John is “another disciple” who, with Peter, follows Christ after the arrest into the courtyard of the high priest (John 18: 15).

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the “other disciple” are the first to go to the grave, and the “other disciple” is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, “that disciple whom Jesus loved” is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

After the Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, John and Peter take prominent roles in guiding the new Church. He is with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple (Acts 3: 1-11), and is thrown into prison with Peter (Acts 4: 3). Again, we find him with Peter visiting the newly converted people of Samaria (Acts 8: 14).

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

After the Ascension, Saint John travels to Samaria and is thrown into prison with Saint Peter (Acts 4: 3).

Saint Paul names John, alongside James and Peter (Cephas), as pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). When Paul returns to Jerusalem after his second and third journeys (Acts 18: 22; 21:17 ff), he does not seem to meet John there. Perhaps John remained there for 12 years until the persecution of Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles throughout the Roman Empire (cf. Acts 12: 1-17).

A Christian community is already living in Ephesus before Saint Paul’s first labours there (see Acts 18: 24-27, where the leading Christians included Priscilla and Aquila), and tradition associates Saint John the Evangelist with Ephesus, where he is said to have lived and been buried.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was apprehended by the Proconsul of Asia and sent to Rome, where he was miraculously preserved from death when he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil. The Church of Saint John Lateran (San Giovanni a Porta Latina), which is dedicated to him, was built near the Latin Gate (Porta Latina), the traditional scene of this event. Because of this trial, the Early Fathers of the Church give him the title of martyr.

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

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

Domitian banished Saint John into the isle of Patmos. It was during this period that John experienced those heavenly visions which he recorded in the Book of Revelation in the year 96. The Book of Revelation tells us that its author was on the island of Patmos “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus” when he was received this revelation in a cave (see Revelation 1:9).

After the death of Domitian, it is said, Saint John returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine Epistles in the New Testament. By the late second century, the tradition of the Church was saying that Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town.

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

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

Looking at the Johannine Literature

The Epistles and the Book of Revelation presuppose that their one author John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of Christ (see especially I John 1: 1-5; 4: 14), that he lived for a long time in Asia Minor, that he was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions in a variety Christian communities there, and that he was recognised by all Christian communities as leader of this part of the Church.

Collectively, the Gospel, the three Epistles, and Revelation are known as Johannine literature. Christian tradition identified Saint John the Apostle as the author of the Gospel, the three Epistles and the Book of Revelation that bear his name. However, within Johannine literature, Revelation bears the least grammatical similarity to the Gospel, and modern scholarship is divided about the Johannine authorship of these texts.

The most widely accepted view is that – whether or not the same man wrote all the Johannine works – it all came out of the same community in Asia Minor, which had some connections with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter.

The author of Saint John’s Gospel of John never identifies himself by name, but the text identifies him as the “Beloved Disciple” repeatedly referred to in the Gospel.

Why am I so drawn to the Johannine literature, and why has this influenced my choice of Saint John to introduce this series of studies?

First, I find the Prologue to the Gospel (John 1: 1-14) one of the greatest pieces of literature and poetry in the New Testament.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: “In the beginning …” But traditionally, the prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional Gospel readings for Christmas Day.

1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,
καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν,
καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
2 οὗτος ἦνἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
3 πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.
ὃ γέγονεν 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν,
καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων:
5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇσκοτίᾳ φαίνει,
καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

6 Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωποςἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης: 7 οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵναμαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν δι' αὐτοῦ. 8 οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸφῶς, ἀλλ' ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός. 9 ην τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζειπάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.

10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι'αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω.
11 εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν,
καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸνοὐ παρέλαβον.

12 ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦγενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, 13 οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκθελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.

14 Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν,
καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ,
δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός,
πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him;
yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him.

12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh
and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.

William Mitchell’s geometric relief sculpture of Saint John ... one of a series at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool with the symbols of the four evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

Secondly, I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters, whether or not you argue that the author of the Fourth Gospel is also the author of I John, or even of II John and II John.

That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days I told earlier, was brought through in our New Testament reading in the chapel at Evening Prayer last night (I John 5: 1-5, 13-21):

1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 2 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν. 3 αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν: καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν, 4 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον: καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. 5 τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσμον εἰ μὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ;

13 Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

14 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ παρρησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτόν, ὅτι ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ἀκούει ἡμῶν. 15 καὶ ἐὰν οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀκούει ἡμῶν ὃ ἐὰν αἰτώμεθα, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἔχομεν τὰ αἰτήματα ἃ ᾐτήκαμεν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. 16 Ἐάν τις ἴδῃ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντα ἁμαρτίαν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον, αἰτήσει, καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ ζωήν, τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον. ἔστιν ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον: οὐ περὶ ἐκείνης λέγω ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ. 17 πᾶσα ἀδικία ἁμαρτία ἐστίν, καὶ ἔστιν ἁμαρτία οὐ πρὸς θάνατον.

18 Οἴδαμεν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει, ἀλλ' ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τηρεῖ αὐτόν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ. 19 οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται. 20 οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἥκει, καὶ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν διάνοιαν ἵνα γινώσκωμεν τὸν ἀληθινόν: καὶ ἐσμὲν ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς θεὸς καὶ ζωὴ αἰώνιος.

21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων.

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

18 We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. 19 We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

A street sign in Gowran, Co Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Collect:

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

Post Communion Prayer:

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

Canon Patrick Comerford is lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. These notes were prepared for a discussion in a tutorial group with MTh students on Wednesday 9 October 2013.

A day in churches and castles in Kilkenny, and a night in a restored Tudor-era tavern

The arches of the bridge at Goresbridge reflected in the waters of the River Barrow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Patrick Comerford

The feeling of a lingering late summer continued yesterday [Saturday 5 October 2013]. Although I still have to get to grips with my new phone, it told me that the temperature in south-east Ireland was the same as Athens all day – somewhere between 17 and 21.

Four of us decided not to squander this blessing and gift, and spent the day in Co Kilkenny, visiting Goresbridge, Gowran and Kilkenny City – and ending the day with a visit to one of the most eccentric and unusual bars in Ireland.

Our first stop was at Goresbridge on the banks of the River Barrow, on the borders of Co Carlow and Co Kilkenny.

In Church History, Goresbirdge is known as Grange Sylvae, and, unlike many parishes in Co Kilkenny, it is part of the Diocese of Leighlin rather than the Diocese of Ossory. Indeed, the two most interesting architectural sights in Goresbridge are the bridge that gives the village its name, and Saint George’s Church of Ireland parish church, which retains the old name of Grange Sylvae.

The village takes its name from the new bridge built by Ralph Gore. The arable lands in the parish of Grange Silvae were granted to Arthur Gore by King Charles II. In the wake of the Williamite wars around 1700, the Gore family acquired land in the townland of Barrowmount, on which most of the village of Goresbridge stands today.

Some accounts identify Ralph Gore who built the bridge with General Ralph Gore (1725-1802) the first and last Earl of Ross, but I wonder whether it was built, instead, by Colonel Ralph Gore, who lived here at Barrowmount, and was MP for Co Kilkenny.

This elegant nine-arch rubble stone bridge was built over the River Barrow in 1756. This is an attractive landmark and it is an important example of mid-18th century engineering. The bridge is best known for the panoramic views from the river banks of the series of nine round arches with their granite ashlar voussoirs, and squared rubble stone soffits. The random rubble stone walls on granite ashlar piers have triangular cut-waters.

We climbed down a flight of 10 cut-stone steps on the north-east side of the bridge, leading down to the grassy banks to river, and walked along the east bank, where an arch forms a pedestrian underpass by an old abandoned mill.

The sleepy village of Goresbridge was a prosperous trading town in the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Goresbridge quickly became a market and postal town. Transport infrastructure was improved with the completion of the Barrow Navigation on 1794 and its incorporation into the Grand Canal system, providing opportunities for trade and encouraging the growth of industry. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the nine-arch bridge formed a vital link between Co Carlow and Co Kilkenny.

The significance of the bridge as a strategic crossing point was central to the events on the morning of 23 June 1798, known since as the Battle of Goresbridge. As they planned to march through Goresbridge, the Wexford Insurgents were met by members of the Wexford Militia, who were billeted locally. While trying to defend the bridge and prevent the rebels crossing the river, the cavalry were defeated, 28 soldiers were captured and the survivors fled to Kilkenny

By the early part of the 19h century, Goresbridge had a thriving economy, with a weekly market and four fairs a year on the Fair Green. During this time, the roads were gravelled and new Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic churches were built, and they remain the two most prominent buildings in the town. In 1853, the Brigidine nuns built a convent at the end of Barrack Street.

But the population and economy began to decline. By 1884, the weekly market had ceased, the population fell from 634 in 1837 to a 365 by 1885.

Saint George’s Church stands on a grassy embankment north of Goresbridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

From the convent, we continued walking north along a winding country road to the Church of Ireland parish church of Grange Silvae or Saint George’s.

Although the church is a short distance north of the village, it has a certain prominence above the landscape, perched on an embankment or grassy elevated site, where the well-kept graveyard is bounded by a stone wall with an iron-gate and stile.

Saint George’s was built with a typical Gothic Revival design. A survey in 1814 refers to an impressive steeple designed by Sir Francis Johnson. However, it appears the steeple was never built. Instead, the church, like many of churches of the time, was built with a three-staged entrance tower, with decorative granite elements to the string courses, and surmounted by finely-carved pinnacles. The nave of the church is lit by Gothic-style lancet windows, some of which have been blocked up, sadly.

A mural burial slab commemorating Arthur Gore of Barrowmount, who died in 1721, was moved to the site when the church at Powerstown fell into disuse.

Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Gowran dates from the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

From Goresbridge, we drove on to nearby Gowran, which was once an important town and borough, but is now a sleepy village. Gowran, which was once the residence of the Kings of Ossory, retained its importance after the Norman invasion.

Robert the Bruce with his army of Scots and Ulster gallowglasses and mercenaries, captured and burned the town in 1316.

James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, built Gowran Castle in 1385 close to the site of the present castle and the town walls were built around 1415. King James I gave Gowran a charter in 1608, making it a borough that elected two MPs to the Irish House of Commons.

The most interesting building in Gowran is Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, which was built in the late 13th century on the site of an earlier monastery and continues to serve as the Church of Ireland parish church.

Saint Mary’s is both a parish church and national monument (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

The collegiate church, served by a college of priests, was a large and elaborate building, with an aisled nave, a long chancel and a tower at the crossing. The tower and chancel now form the parish church, while the rest of Saint Mary’s is now a National Monument.

The burials in the church include James Butler, who became 1st Earl of Ormonde in 1328, and his wife Lady Eleanor de Bohun, granddaughter of King Edward I. But the tower was locked, and were unable to see their monuments.

Butler House ... once the Dower House of Kilkenny Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

However, the Butler theme continued, for we drove from Gowran to Kilkenny, where our first stop was Butler House, once the Dower House of Kilkenny Castle.

Lady Eleanor Butler lived here after the death of her husband Walter Butler in 1783. She was the mother of John Butler, the 17th Earl of Ormonde, and her daughter, also Eleanor, was one of the famous “Ladies of Llangollen.” James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, lived in the house while Kilkenny Castle was under being rebuilt in 1831.

During the cholera epidemic of 1832, a soup kitchen was run from here, and the society that later became the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland held its meetings in Butler House in the 1870s.

Butler House was in restored 1972 by Kilkenny Design, the state design agency. In 1989, the Kilkenny Civic Trust acquired both Butler House and the Castle Stables. Sweeping staircases, magnificent plastered ceilings, marble fireplaces and a charming walled garden are among the features of this Georgian residence.

The house then opened to the public as a guesthouse and conference centre. In 2000, the Kilkenny Civic Trust had the gardens landscaped, returning them to their original splendour.

7164 Kilkenny Castle, home of the Ormonde Butlers for centuries, dominates the streetscape of Kilkenny (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

We strolled back through the walled gardens to the Kilkenny Design Centre, which is housed in the stables and coach houses between Butler House and Kilkenny Castle. There we had lunch, before crossing the Parade for a visit to Kilkenny Castle.

Two of my favourite architectural features in Ireland are the Picture Gallery in Kilkenny Castle and the ‘Moorish Staircase.’

The Picture Gallery Wing was built during the early 19th-century building programme carried out by the William Robertson, and was built on earlier foundations. Robertson’s Picture Gallery was in castellated baronial style, in keeping with his work on the rest of the castle. Initially the gallery was built with a flat roof, but this began to cause problems shortly after its completion.

The distinguished architects, Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1827-1899) and Benjamin Woodward (1816-1861), were called in during the 1860s to make changes to the overall design of the Picture Gallery block, and other corrections to Robertson’s work. Their changes included inserting four oriels in the west wall and blocking up eight existing windows, while adding another oriel was to the east wall. A pitched roof was put in place, with central glazing.

The hammer-beam roof structure is worth as much attention as many of the paintings hanging in the gallery. This roof is supported on carved stone corbels by the stone carver Charles William Harrison (1835-1903).

The ceiling was decorated by John Hungerford Pollen (1820-1902), then Professor of Fine Arts at Newman College, Dublin, using a combination of motifs ranging from the quasi-mediaeval to the pre-Raphaelite, with interlace, gilded animal and birds’ heads on the cross beams. This decorative scheme was criticised in The Irish Builder, where it was described as “a roof probably intended to be Byzantine but is merely bizarre.”

The staircase, based on “Moorish” design, was designed by the Deane and Woodward to provide access to the Picture Gallery and to provide another major staircase in the circulation of a castle with an awkward shape. It is a rising half-turn stairs around a square sky-lit well. The stone carver Harrison carved the naturalistic foliage and the small animal details that decorate the stairs.

Deane and Woodward worked in a Gothic style that was influenced by the principles of John Ruskin. Their works include the Museum Building in Trinity College, Dublin, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Kildare Street Club in Dublin. Deane also worked on the conservation of Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny.

From the castle, we walked back down The Parade, where a Gospel choir was performing for a gathering that included bishops and the mayor, and into Rose Inn Street to see the late 16th century Shee’s Alms House.

The state of the Shee monuments in Saint Mary’s churchyard is a public disgrace and should embarrass and shame the city authorities (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

We walked on trough to the churchyard behind Saint Mary’s Church, where the late mediaeval graves and renaissance sepulchral monuments of the Shee family are still in a disgraceful state. This churchyard is in the care of Kilkenny Corporation, yet despite years of strong complaints and protests, these monuments continue to be vandalised and to be daubed in wanton graffiti.

The graves and monuments are a unique collection in Ireland, and their neglect should be matter of shame and embarrassment for the city officials. The neglect itself is a form of vandalism I cannot understand why this has continued. Any other European city would be proud of this unique collection and its place in civic heritage, linking today’s Kilkenny with the ruling mercantile families of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Saint Canice’s Cathedral and Round Tower in the bright light of the late afternoon ... Saint Canice’s Day is 11 October (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

We strolled on down High Street, stopping to look at the Butter Slip and the Market Slip and the modern sculpture of Saint Cainneach (feast day 11 October), who gives his name to Saint Canice’s Cathedral. In Parliament Street, we looked at Rothe House, the site of the Parliamentary Assembly of the 1650s, and Saint Francis’s Abbey at Smithwick’s Brewery.

In Irishtown, we climbed the steps and looked at Saint Canice’s Cathedral and the round tower. By now it was late evening, and most of the major sites were closed. And so we made our way back into the heart of this mediaeval city to look for the Hole in the Wall on High Street, which should have been open all day.

The one last late mediaeval site I had planned to visit as part of our tour was closed, and we retired to Café Sol for dinner.

The Hole in the Wall ... an eccentric refurbishment of an Elizabethan townhouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We were about to head back to the car park, when we saw that the Hole in the Wall was open. This eccentric pub is housed in one of the oldest surviving townhouses in Ireland.

The Archer Inner House behind 17 High Street was built in 1582. This Elizabethan building, with its tavern, snug and Archer room has been fully restored over the last 10 years by Michael Conway, who has opened it to the public for the first time in hundreds of years.

The Hole in the Wall is the inner house of a Tudor mansion built in 1582 by Martin Archer, a future Mayor of Kilkenny. The family lost everything in 1654 with the Cromwellian confiscations, and the Archer complex became part of the Ormonde estate after 1660.

The High Street mansion was let independently from the inner house and an 18th century tenant of the inner house was Judith Madden, mother of Edmund Madden who married Jane Comerford in nearby Saint Mary’s Church in 1781. In the late 1700s, the Hole in the Wall was frequented by people such as the Earl of Ormonde, Henry Grattan, Sir Jonah Barrington, and the future Duke of Wellington.
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The Hole in Wall has been undergoing conservation and restoration since 1999. The building is typically Tudor in style, with a tall pitched roof, cut-stone hooded Elizabethan mullioned windows, original flagstones, hexagonal chimney and oak doors.

The ground floor is divided into a rustic tavern made from 1582 oak beams, floor boards and other original oaks. Outside, there is a moderate sized enclosed New Orleans-style courtyard.

Michael Conway regaled us for hours about his work and with his own interpretation of Kilkenny history and Irish history, and we left Kilkenny hours later than we had planned.

It was a dark night as we drove back to Dublin. But the night sky was filled with bright stars, and the view was so clear this could truly have been a summer’s night.

Outside the Hole in the Wall in the late evening darkness (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)