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.


Wednesday 13 July 2022

Fécamp Furta Sacra


A friend sent me the link to the BBC News report about the recovery of relics stolen from the sacristy of the abbey at Fécamp in Normandy. This is obviously good news and an opportunity to reflect on the mysterious art crime underworld as well as the history of the relics and of their shrine. The blood relics look to be analagous to the still extant and venerated Holy Blood in Bruges and the story of the inevitabily lost cruets said to have been brought to Glastonbury by St Joseph of Arimathea.




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