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