St Hilary and St Martin

Today is the feast of St Hilary of Poitiers, the fourth century Gaulish champion of orthodoxy in respect of the Divinity of Christ.

He also was the bishop who ordained St Martin of Tours as an acolyte. In this panel from the St Martin window in the church of St Martin in York St Martin is depicted as acolyte at a Mass celebrated by St Hilary. The window dates from circa 1442, and was the gift of the vicar Robert Semer. Originally the west window of the church it was removed in 1940 and so survived the bombing of the church in 1942. In the peculiar, and to my mind, highly dubious scheme of restoration of part of the church - once a fine moid-fifteenth century building - it is now situated in the new north wall.

Image: Gordon Plumb on Flickr