Feast of St Giles

Today is the feast of St Giles, who has a wide number of patronages, as well as being one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as pilgrims visited his shrine in Provence he became very popular as a patron of churches, chapels and hospitals across much of Europe, and by no means least in England.

I was baptised at the church of St Giles in my home town of Pontefract and for many years the church was a very important part of my life. I have retained a devotion to St Giles, and he is a gentle, kindly, and wise saint to turn to.

The Mass of St Giles

National Gallery, London

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Looking online I found an article about him and his depiction in the now sadly incomplete and scattered altarpiece by the late medieval painter now known to us as The Master of St Giles, and which celebrated his life on the website of The New Liturgical Movement and first published in 2023.

The article can be found at The Life of St Giles

May St Giles pray for us

The face of an eleventh century man from Lincolnshire

I have shared articles in the past about facial reconstructions of human remains discovered in archaeological investigations.

The Standard recently reported on a facial reconstruction of a man who is thought to have died in 1079 or thereabouts, and who was buried in a place of honour in the middle of the Anglo-Saxon church of St Peter at Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire.

There is a detailed description of the church from Great English Churches here

The church is now maintained by English Heritage and their illustrated website description can be seen at History of St Peter’s Church, Barton upon Humber

St Peter, Barton-upon-Humber

Image: greatenglishchurches.co.uk

The report on the study of the remains of the man, who appears to have been aged between fifty and sixty at the time of his death, and was thus born in the 1020s, can be accessed at Researchers reconstruct face of man who lived through Norman Conquest

 

The Beheading of St John the Baptist

Yesterday was the feast, depending on your choice of nomenclature of the Beheading, or of the Decollation, or of the Passion of St John the Baptist.

Over the years I have written quite frequently on his two feast days, of his birth and of his death about St John, devotion to him, depictions of him, and churches dedicated to him.

This time I am returning to a topic I wrote about in 2015, that of carved alabaster devotional images, especially for domestic settings, in An English Alabaster of the Head of St John the Baptist

An article from Substack discusses and illustrates examples of these carvings in Art for the Liturgical Year at Saint John the Baptist and the Forgotten Alabaster of Medieval England

Many examples of these face images of St John are in the V&A, and their website gives access to more photographs.

Other good examples dated to about 1450 and now in Aberdeen and in the Burrell collection can be seen at Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk)

Some, though by no means all, still have the decorated wooden housing which set them off, and which could be closed in Lent.

The number which survive out of what must have been a huge number in late medieval England would suggest that this was an image as popular then as the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Lourdes or of Fatima or the Divine Mercy in modern Catholic homes.

This prompts me to comment, as I have before along with other historians and theologians, about the decline in devotion to St John the Baptist in modern times. In the Substack article linked to above is a citation of an article by Peter Kwasniewski from 2024 on the Liturgical Arts Journal on The Prominence of St John the Baptist in the Old Roman Rite which looks in part at this, although the decline in devotion to the Baptist is, I think, much earlier than the era of Vatican II. Is he perhaps to challenging and uncomfortable for the modern churchgoer?

The martyrdom itself is also depicted in alabaster panels, which were perhaps intended for a reredos.

A good example of this type survives in the V&A and the detailed catalogue entry with illustrations and discussion of the original paintwork can be seen at The Beheading of St John the Baptist | Unknown | V&A Explore The Collections

I have shared this relatively undamaged carving before and am doing so again. It is dated to the 1480s.

 

The martyrdom of St John the Baptist

Image:collections.vam.ac.uk

St John the Baptist pray for us

The Battle of Mohács 1526

 

Today is the 500th anniversary of the battle of Mohács in 1526 when the Ottoman forces overwhelmed the Hungarian army led by King Louis II and broke the ability of the realm to defend itself. In the folk memory of Hungarians it remains an unparalleled disaster.

This was to be followed by the Ottoman occupation of central Hungary in 1541, capturing Buda exactly fifteen years later on August 29th 1541, leaving the Habsburg King Ferdinand I with the west and north of the kingdom and his rival King John I from the Zápolya family holding Transylvania, and the Holy Crown of St Stephen. The Holy Crown was eventually returned to King Ferdinand and the eastern kingdom recognised as the principality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty. 161 years after the battle is 1526 a second battle, almost on the anniversary, saw the Habsburg forces smash the Ottoman army in the second battle of Mohács and free most of the historic Hungarian realm from Turkish rule.
 

 Wikipedia has a detailed account of not just the battle but the historical background, the events leading up to the battle itself and the events afterwards. This can be read at Battle of Mohács

 

There is another detailed and illustrated account of the battle from the website The Past at The end of everything: the Battle of Mohács, 29 August 1526

Recent research into the abnormally wet weather conditions in 1526 in Hungary is set out in an article from  Daily News Hungary.com at Was the weather completely different 500 years ago? This is what was recorded in the days before the Battle of Mohács

Wikipedia also has a biography of the unfortunate King Louis II who drowned in the flight from the battlefield aged only twenty. This can be seen at Louis II of Hungary

King Louis II

A portrait by Titian

Image: Wikipedia 

 His body was subsequently recovered and buried in the royal church at Székesfehévár. His widow was to act initially as Regent of Hungary for her brother King Ferdinand and then for many years as Regent of the Netherlands for her elder brother the Emperor Charles V. She retired with him to Spain and died in 1558, and is buried at El Escorial. There is an online biography of her at Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)

A jousting Sallet of King Louis II 

Decorated with the intertwined initials L and M for himself and his wife Mary of Austria.

Image : metmuseum.org

It is thought to have been looted by the Ottomans from Buda and was found in what is now Istanbul. 

It is now in the Metropolitan Museum, and there is more about it at Attributed to Kolman Helmschmid - Jousting Sallet (Rennhut) Made for Louis II (1506–1526), King of Hungary and Bohemia - German, Augsburg - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

King Harald V

 

The announcement yesterday, although clearly not unexpected, of the death of King Harald V of Norway has led to widespread national mourning and a genuine sense of loss across the national community. The crowds outside the Royal Palace in Oslo, the carpet of flowers and the comments of Norwegians to interviewers all testify to this.

King Harald V

Image: European Royal History

This is not just respect for the late King as head of state but affection for a man seen as a national grandfather and as someone who cared for his people as a national family. 

King Harald V and Queen Sonja

Image: nine.com.au

His successor King Haakon VIII comes to the throne well prepared both in his age and by having served on several occasions as Regent when his father has been incapacitated. 

King Haakon VIII

Image: nine.com.au

  

  

King Haakon VIII and Queen Mette-Marit

Image: Instagram 

The website of  The Antiquary had in interesting, and very well prepared, video yesterday evening about the historic burial sites of the Kings of Norway before the Union of Kalmar and about the modern royal mausoleum in Oslo. It can be viewed at Allan Barton - The Antiquary

The Battle of Crécy 1346

Yesterday was the 680th anniversary of the battle of Crécy in 1346, the first of the great military victories of the English forces on land in the Hundred Years War. Not only was it a devastating defeat for King Philip VI and his army with a huge number of elite casualties but it was also the battle in which the heir to the English throne, Edward, Prince of Wales ‘won his spurs’. A decade later at Poitiers and eleven years later still at Nájera he was to achieve further great victories.

Edward Prince of Wales

Figure from St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster

Image: world4.eu

Wikipedia has a detailed account of the campaign and the battle at Battle of Crécy

 

King Edward III

Detail from the decoration of St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster commissioned by the King

Image:royal.uk

On Substack King Edward I has a translation of King Edward III’s letter about the events of the day and of the ensuing events, complete with a little humour at King Edward I (@edwardlongshanks1979) 

  

 A donor statue thought to be King Philip VI

and now in the Metropolitan Museum 

Image: metmuseum.org

Surveying early Christian Sculptures in southern Scotland

The BBC News website reported recently about a survey sponsored by the Sociery of Antiquaries of Scotland to record and catalogue surviving sculptural work in the churches of southern Scotland. As those involved in the study explain in the article this is the type of research done a century and more ago, but which has rather gone out of academic fashion.

 

There is a degree or urgency involved as the Church of Scotland pursues its crass policy of closing so many of its places of worship and selling them off irrespective of their age and history. Say what one may about the Church of England closing churches, but it is nothing in comparison to the cultural and spiritual disaster north of the border.

The illustrated article can be accessed at Sculpted stone study could shed new light on lost kingdoms

A fragment of a ninth century Anglian shrine or tomb found in the south aisle of Jedburgh Abbey 

Image: Reddit

One of the ideas behind the study this to look for any evidence for regional differences arising from political affiliation between those works produced in Anglian Northumbrian Bernicia in the east and those in the west from Strathclyde with its links to Ireland and artistic influences from there. 

   

My own hunch would be that the political divisions would not be such as to impede a recognised sculptor travelling across Lanarkshire or the Cheviots and finding commissions from ecclesiastical patrons. The sculptor’s own original base may well have shaped his style much more than the local allegiances of those he worked for. 

When looking at these sculptures in the report it is importantly to remember that originally these works, usually standing crosses or remains of tombs or shrines, 

would have been painted and the details highlighted. 

 

Remembering St Louis

Today is the feast of St Louis. He reigned as King Louis IX of France from his accession to the throne at the age to twelve in 1226 until his death in 1270. He was canonised in 1297.

St Louis

Image: Wikipedia 

As this year is the eight hundredth anniversary of his accession it seems appropriate to mark his feast day.

Over the years I have written several times about St Louis and to avoid repetition I will give the link to my article from three years ago. This has links to other articles about the saint-king from here on the blog and can be accessed at St Louis

There is a splendid collection of depictions and images of StLouis from across the centuries on the blog  Ad Imaginem Dei at Saint Louis of France – Saint, King and Patron of the Arts

   

Statue of St Louis dated to 1275-1325 from the Grand Reliquary of the Sainte Chapelle. It is suggested this may be the best near contemporary likeness

Image: Ad Imaginem Dei

The latest, well illustrated and detailed biography of him on Wikipedia is at Louis IX of France

One thing that is not mentioned in that, but which I gleaned from another website, and did not know, or had forgotten, is that St Louis was not the first born to his parents, but their fourth son. Medieval infant mortality was no respecter of royal blood. He is the ancestor not only of every reigning European monarch but of virtually all the other non-reigning dynasties on the continent.

Seal of King Louis IX, legend: lvdovicvs di gra(tia) francorvm rex

Image: Wikipedia 

May St Louis pray for France, his descendants 

and for us all