ITS aim was to bring peace to war-torn Lebanon.

But the Archbishop of York's prayer vigil in a tent at the Minster also brought a little peace into the life of a badly troubled local man.

Dr John Sentamu has revealed how, at the start of the week-long stint in St John's Chapel, he was approached by a man looking "filthy."

He said the man told him he had never been in a church before, but needed to talk, and then related how his marriage had broken up and he had turned to drink.

"I told him to look at this beautiful Minster, and imagine how he would respond if people began to fill it with rubbish," said the Archbishop.

"I said you are more beautiful than the Minster and you are feeling like your life is trash. He gave me a hug and one of the staff here spent time with him."

He said that later in the week, the man had come back, smartly dressed and all cleaned up. "He told me he was going back to work."

However, not everyone who came to see the vigil was as impressed, with one sceptic reportedly saying: "He can't change anything. What we need is George Bush in the tent here; he's the one who needs to hear from above."

A spokesman for the Archbishop said he was now spending two weeks recuperating from the vigil, during which he ate no food, and will not resume his usual packed diary of activities until September.

He said the tent, which belongs to a member of staff at Bishopthorpe Palace, will remain pitched in the chapel - but empty - until a full peacekeeping force is installed in Lebanon.