Last Sunday was the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady and also the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Dominican Friary in Oxford. The establishment of the Blackfriars alongside the University had been one of the last things approved in the lifetime of St Dominic, who died on August 6th 1221. Just over a week later the first members of his Order to work in Oxford arrived and began their community life.
The medieval friary was on the southern edge of the city alongside the Thames and soon had as neighbours the Franciscans who arrived only a few years later. Both were suppressed as houses in 1538 and nothing survived above ground of the medieval Blackfriars. There are a few fragments - if you know where to look - of the old Greyfriars.
The tragedy of the sixteenth century notwithstanding both Orders have returned to Oxford. Exactly 700 years after they first arrived in the city, on August 15th 1921, the new foundation of the Oxford Blackfriars was established on St Giles. Today it is a friary with a public ministry, a house of studies and formation for the Order and one of the Permanent Private Halls of the University. It is a significant centre for Catholic education and learning at a range of levels.
As part of the celebrations of this double 800th and 100th anniversary four Dominicans have walked from Ramsgate via Canterbury to retrace the footsteps of their predecessors eight centuries ago. This is recounted in an article in the Oxford Mail which can be seen at Fit friars get into habit of walking with 230-mile pilgrimage to city
Ad Multos Annos!
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