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.


Thursday 16 January 2014

Bl.Joseph Vaz C.O.


Today is the feast of Bl.Joseph Vaz, the Oratorian Apostle of Ceylon, who was born in Goa in 1651 and who died in Kandy on this day in 1711. There is a detailed online life of him here and another life of him from the Oxford Oratory website can be read here. He was beatified in 1995.


File:Joseph Vaz Ausschnitt.jpg

Bl. Joseph Vaz
A posthumous portrait from 1720

Image: Wikipedia

As is customary here in Oxford on feasts of Oratorian beati we shall mark the day with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament after the 6pm Mass at St Aloysius. The Oxford Oratory does not however run to anything like this:


photo

A processional statue of Bl. Joseph Vaz in Goa

Image:Steve Pereira on Flickr

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