DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0054
6
st titus and st mark.
[chat.
The Lion which through fire
And blood she bore, o'er subject earth and sea.
The natives of Crete long considered their own
countryman, Titus8, as their patron Saint. Hence
the Venetians, when here, seem to have transferred to
him part of that respect which, elsewhere, would pro-
bably have been manifested for Mark alone. During
the celebration of several great festivals of the Church,
the response of the Latin Clergy of Crete, after the
prayer for the Doge of Venice, was " Sancte Marce,
tu nos adjuva;11 but, after that for the Duke of Candia,
" Sancte Tite, tu nos adjuva." The prayer for the
Metropolitan of the island was not inappropriately fol-
lowed by the same invocation of St Titus, his archi-
episcopal predecessor.
The bronze guns which had been allowed, ever
since the Turks acquired possession of the island, to
remain on the ramparts both of this city and of the
Kastron, have most of them been removed by Meh-
met-Ali-pasha, and taken to Alexandria; where doubt-
less they have already been melted and converted into
money.
The several Consulates look on the port, and are
distinguished by the flags of their respective coun-
tries, which each Consul hoists on Sundays, and when-
ever a vessel of his own nation arrives, or leaves the
harbour. The right of thus hoisting a flag was pos-
sessed only by the French Consul, in Crete, till a few
8 On the point of Titus's Cretan origin the Eastern and Western Churches
are not fully agreed. See Cornelius, Creta Sacra, i. pp. 189, 190. In a
Greek life of him, he is described as nephew of the Proconsul of Crete, and is
said to have been sent into Judea by his uncle, who had heard, even in Crete,
of the wonders which Christ was performing in that country, and wished to
know whether there was any truth in the current reports about them. The
author of another legend, not satisfied thus to connect Titus with the Roman
Proconsul, describes him as " the son of noble Cretan parents, of the race of
Minos." These legends are entitled to about as much credit as the better
known falsehood, respecting Pilate's letter to Tiberius, which is equally
rejected by the philosophical historian (Gtbbon, Decline and Fall, c. xvi.)
and the orthodox divine: (Bishop Kaye, on Tertullian, p. 110. 2d ed.)
st titus and st mark.
[chat.
The Lion which through fire
And blood she bore, o'er subject earth and sea.
The natives of Crete long considered their own
countryman, Titus8, as their patron Saint. Hence
the Venetians, when here, seem to have transferred to
him part of that respect which, elsewhere, would pro-
bably have been manifested for Mark alone. During
the celebration of several great festivals of the Church,
the response of the Latin Clergy of Crete, after the
prayer for the Doge of Venice, was " Sancte Marce,
tu nos adjuva;11 but, after that for the Duke of Candia,
" Sancte Tite, tu nos adjuva." The prayer for the
Metropolitan of the island was not inappropriately fol-
lowed by the same invocation of St Titus, his archi-
episcopal predecessor.
The bronze guns which had been allowed, ever
since the Turks acquired possession of the island, to
remain on the ramparts both of this city and of the
Kastron, have most of them been removed by Meh-
met-Ali-pasha, and taken to Alexandria; where doubt-
less they have already been melted and converted into
money.
The several Consulates look on the port, and are
distinguished by the flags of their respective coun-
tries, which each Consul hoists on Sundays, and when-
ever a vessel of his own nation arrives, or leaves the
harbour. The right of thus hoisting a flag was pos-
sessed only by the French Consul, in Crete, till a few
8 On the point of Titus's Cretan origin the Eastern and Western Churches
are not fully agreed. See Cornelius, Creta Sacra, i. pp. 189, 190. In a
Greek life of him, he is described as nephew of the Proconsul of Crete, and is
said to have been sent into Judea by his uncle, who had heard, even in Crete,
of the wonders which Christ was performing in that country, and wished to
know whether there was any truth in the current reports about them. The
author of another legend, not satisfied thus to connect Titus with the Roman
Proconsul, describes him as " the son of noble Cretan parents, of the race of
Minos." These legends are entitled to about as much credit as the better
known falsehood, respecting Pilate's letter to Tiberius, which is equally
rejected by the philosophical historian (Gtbbon, Decline and Fall, c. xvi.)
and the orthodox divine: (Bishop Kaye, on Tertullian, p. 110. 2d ed.)