Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 13 May 2017

Fatima Centenary


Today is the centenary of the first of the Marian apparitions and locutions at Fátima in Portugal in 1917.

The story of Fátima is well enough known, but for those who do not there is an introduction to the events of the months from May to October 1917 and their aftermath at Our Lady of Fátima

It is intensely moving and one which casts, if one may mix ones images, both light and along shadow across the intervening century and into the future. It is a message both of comfort and of hope and also of danger and warning. In no way has it lost its relevance.




The Fátima Visionaries
Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta in 1917
 
There is something very arresting about the faces of these three children that goes far beyond any matter of unfamiliarity with the camera. It is one of the great photographs of the twentieth century.

Image: Wikipedia


Our Lady of Fátima pray for us!
Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta pray for us!

 

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