The Numerology of the Rosary expounded

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto in 1571, and this month of October is traditionally presented as being dedicated to the Rosary.

To mark today’s liturgy and the theme for the month the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter have an article on their Minute Missive website by Fr William Rock FSSP about the various and varied interpretations that have been offered for the  number of beads and Aves that comprise a complete rosary. Some of these derive from Scripture, others from mathematics, and virtually none are exclusive of others. There are not a few interesting coincidences along the way. 

The article can be read at There's Something Fishy about that there Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Victories, Pray for us

The evolution of the Lincolnshire Coastline

The other evening I came upon a really excellent online video about the evolution over much of the last two millennia of the Lincolnshire coast. It is presented by Dr Caitlin Green whose work on this subject I have encountered before. The story she tells is fascinating, and more complex than being merely a story of gradual coastal erosion as in the case of the East Riding with its many villages swept away by the North Sea or of the eastern coast of Norfolk and Suffolk and the loss of towns such as Dunwich. Whether you know the area or not it is very interesting as a survey of change and human adaptation over time.

The video can be watched at The Changing Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Coastline of Lincolnshire, with Dr Caitlin Green

The new dating work on the Shroud of Turin

The Daily Telegraph has an article about the most recent work to try to establish a secure scientific date for the Shroud of Turin. I wrote about this recently in The science of the Shroud of Turin and in More on the Holy Shroud

This new article looks at the X-ray method involved and talks to the scientists who conducted the investigation. This assigns a clear first century date, compatible with other, archaeological, finds from the Holy Land. As the scientists involved say they have proved its age. That does not “prove” the Gospel accounts, but it goes a significant way, a very significant way, towards making them believable to a sceptical modern world. As I wrote in my recent posts on this matter absolute certainty can never be obtained, but the judicial burdens of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt” or of “with reasonable certainty” can be applied when we are seeking an answer. The article can be seen at We proved how old the Shroud of Turin really is – the rest is a matter of faith

I have posted previously about the Shroud in earlier years as in 2012 in The Shroud of Turin and in 2021 in The Shroud of Turin

Historic Woodland management by coppicing

Some months back I read Oliver Rackhams’s really splendid books Trees and Woodland in the British Countryside and The History of the Countryside. Anyone interested in history - national or local - or in conservation, or simply who enjoys being out and about in the country shoykd not only read them, but own copies as essential works alongside Hoskins’ The Making of the English Landscape. One of the things Rackham brings out is that woodland was a managed asset, tended and protected, and also harvested. One way of doing this was by coppicing trees to produce multiple stems which could be cut on a rota over the years.

Watching the videos to which I referred in my recent post Living the life of an Anglo-Saxon I found the site features coppicing in Tree Felling and Regenerating Ancient Hazel Coppice with an Axe | Early Medieval Woodland Management

 

I subsequently came acros other websites on coppicing and its place in the history of woodland management. They can be seen at The Art of Coppicing: Ancient Woodland Management Techniques Explained, at Coppicing Hazel, Why, When & How and at Pollarding vs Coppicing

St Thomas of Hereford

Today is the Feast of St Thomas of Hereford, who died in 1282, and whose canonisation in 1320 was the last of a non-martyr Englishman until that of St John Henry Newman.

I wrote about St Thomas and his well documented process of canonisation and his cult in St Thomas of Hereford in 2011, and I added to that in the following year in St Thomas of Hereford

St Thomas of Hereford

From a stained glass window commissioned by one of his successors, Thomas Spofford OSB, in 1430 for his episcopal chapel in his Manor House at Stratton Sugwas. Now in the church at Ross on Wye

Image:Flickr

Looking online I see that Wikipedia has a quite detailed account of his life and canonisation at Thomas de Cantilupe. As an article it is superior to many biographies of medieval ecclesiastical figures on that site in drawing out details of his life and career and his family connections.

This does not mention in his early preferments the church at Kirk Deighton in the central West Riding. Though he may well have had little to do with it directly it raised my awareness of him, as it is relatively close to my home area, and a handsome building in its own right. His leading role in the life of thirteenth century Oxford before his elevation to the episcopate caught my attention when studying the history of the University.

There is a really splendidly illustrated 2019 article from the website of Belmont Abbey, which lies just on the western outskirts of the city of Hereford. It is by the Dean of Hereford and  looks at the life and relics of the saint. It can be seen here

The British Medical Journal in 1990 had an interesting article which examined some of the stories of those who believed they had been saved by the intercession of St Thomas, and which looks into the medical conditions which may be being described.  Not only is that interesting but they also are revealing of incidental features of life at the time, both in Herefordshire and further afield. It can be read here

There is an excellent study of the representation of St Thomas in medieval art by Ian L. Blass in ‘Commemorating Cantilupe: England’s Other St Thomas: The Iconography of England’s Second St Thomas’ in The Antiquaries Journal, 2023, pp 1-23 © The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London.  Together with another article by the same author examining the recorded evidence for the miracles attributed to St Thomas and a recent Oxford D.Phil thesis on his cult by Andrew Fleming can all be accessed on Researchgate. net by entering that and St Thomas Cantilupe. 

May St Thomas of Hereford pray for us

The Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

In 2020 I posted the Breviary Mattins readings from St Bernard of Clairvaux, together with a picture of the thirteenth century vault painting in the chapel dedicated to the Guardian Angels in the retrochoir of the cathedral at Winchester. This can be seen at St Bernard on the Guardian Angels

 

I had previously posted about the vault paintings in 2012 in a piece which can be seen at Guardian Angels at Winchester

This draws attention to the similar scheme which can be seen extending over the vault of the choir and eastern transepts of Salisbury Cathedral and which must be from the same period. I am not sure how extensively that scheme has been restored. In the south transept of Lincoln Cathedral is a restored vault decoration of foliage which must be in origin also of that period and probably part of a much more extensive scheme. The idea a blue ground with stars, which is part of the Winchester arrangement, became very popular and was a feature of the fourteenth century Lady Chapel at Ely and the nave and choir vaults of York Minster from that same century. Remains of a similar starry vault can be seen in the chapel at Rycote in Oxfordshire. Such schemes survive on the continent.

The vault of the Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Winchester Cathedral

Image: Wikimedia

I have now found a more detailed online account of the paintings, and their relationship to the court painters of King Henry III, with his close connections with the cathedral and city, an article which can be seen here

There is a close-up view of part of the ceiling at Look up in the Guardian Angels Chapel and you will see some #NightofStars #FollowTheStar  and a picture of the complete vault at Photographs of Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England: Ceiling of the guardian angels chapel

A further insight into the later medieval appearance of the interior of the chapel - and of the ruthlessness of sixteenth century iconoclast “reformers” - can be obtained from an article in the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society from 1990 which discusses and identifies figures from the reredos of the chapel. It can be seen online here 

May the Guardian Angels ever defend us

The Rainbow Portrait

Artnet News has a very interesting article about the now completed restoration of the Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. It is part of the collection of the Marquesses of Salisbury at Hatfield House. One of the most famous images of the Queen it is as much icon as it is portrait, with the royal gown covered in eyes and ears as the monarch holds a rainbow in her right hand. It is one of the most cryptic depictions of the Queen, and the latest research suggests it may well have been painted as a memorial soon after her death. The enigmatic figure of her may be, it occurs to me, how Queen Elizabeth I indeed would have wished to be remembered - all knowing, majestic, perpetually young, virginal and beautiful, but very much an enigma herself. 

The cleaning and restoration work has revealed that over the centuries the colours of the gown have faded and changed significantly. Whilst restoring it to its original tones would be unthinkable in the disciplined world of modern conservation I hope, indeed am sure, that someone skilled in computer imaging has already, or will in the near future, generate a version of what the painting originally looked like for modern eyes to appreciate.

The article can be seen at Restoration of Famed 'Rainbow Portrait' of Queen Elizabeth I Uncovers New Discoveries | Artnet News

St Michael the Archangel

Today is the Feast of St Michael the Archangel.

The New Liturgical Movement has an article on their website from 2018 about the observance of the day, and which can be seen at Liturgical Notes on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels

For the May feast which commemorates the Archangel’s Apparition at Monte Gargano they had an article earlier this year which is to be found at The Apparition of St Michael

The blog of A Clerk of Oxford has a beautifully illustrated article from 2013 about medieval devotional texts for both clerical and lay audiences addressing St Michael which can be seen at Four Medieval Texts for Michaelmas

St Michael killing the Dragon

Josse Leiferinxe fl.1493-1503/8

Musée de Petit Palais Avignon

Image: meisterdrucke.uk/Wikimedia

Holy Michael Archangel

Defend us in the day of battle.

Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil,

And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,

By the power of God

Thrust down into Hell Satan and all who wander through the world to the ruin of souls