Bl. Agnellus of Pisa and the Oxford Franciscans 1224-2024

Today is the feast of Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, who was sent eight centuries ago to establish the Franciscans in Oxford. This octocentenary of the arrival of the Greyfriars in England is being marked by a series of celebratory events which began at Dover and Canterbury last Sunday. They conclude with a High Mass in the Dominican church in Oxford at 4pm on September 21st.

Bl. Agnellus dies in 1236 and his remains were preserved in the friary church until its destruction in the sixteenth century. It is possible they are still there. One suggestion is that they are in a garden adjacent to the site. Another, made by the late Fr Jerome Bertram, Cong. Orat.,who helped excavate the friary in the 1970s, is that they are under the fish counter in the Sainsbury's which now occupies part of the site…

I have posted about Bl. Agnellus in 2010 at Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, in 2011 at Bl Agnellus of Pisa, and in 2015 at Bl Agnellus of Pisa

I have posted more about the medieval Greyfriars house in Oxford in 2012 in Medieval Franciscans in Oxford and, slightly more generally along with the other friaries of the town and University, in a 2015 post Out and about Oxford with Friars

The Franciscan Capuchins established a new community at the church of St Edmund and St Frideswide together with an academic Hall of the University - now sadly closed - in 1928. The Capuchins are one of the later reformed Franciscan communities established in 1525. The return of the Conventual Franciscans, the successors of the medieval friars, to Oxford occurred in 2014 and that is is covered in Greyfriars return to Oxford

May St Francis, Bl.Agnellus, and all the Franciscan saints and beati pray for the Franciscan community and for us all.

Bl. John Duns Scotus

November 8th is the commemoration of Bl. John Duns Scotus OFM, who died in 1308. John Dillon posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group one of his selections of early images of him, and given the Oxford link and the recent excavations of more of the site of the medieval Greyfriars here it seems very apposite to share, and also adapt slightly, his post:


Born at Duns in Scotland andordained priest at Northampton in 1291 and trained at Oxford, he lectured at Paris ( " who fired Paris for Mary without spot" - Hopkins ) and, from 1307, at Köln. His cult was confirmed in 1993 at the level of Beatus. The Subtle Doctor now reposes in a modern sarcophagus in Köln's thirteenth-century Minoritenkirche Mariae Empfängnis (Franciscan Church of the Immaculate Conception), formerly a church for foreign teachers and students. His entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy can be seen here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/

Some period-pertinent images of Bl. John Duns Scotus:

a) as depicted on the opening pages of text of each volume of a two-volume thirteenth- or fourteenth-century copy, from Genoa, of his commentaries on the Sententiae of Peter Lombard (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, mss. 882, 883):
1) ms. 882, fol. 5r: http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht17/IRHT_11877-p.jpg
2) ms. 883, fol. 1r: http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht17/IRHT_11881-p.jpg

b) as depicted at the outset of an early fourteenth-century copy, of East Anglian origin, of his commentaries on the Sententiae (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 3061, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b525038815/f9.item.zoom

c) as depicted at the outset of of an earlier fourteenth-century copy (c. 1320) of his Quodlibet (Munich, BSB, Clm 8717, fols. 61r-100r, at fol. 61r):
http://faculty.cua.edu/hoffmann/scotus-bibliography.htm

d) as depicted by Benozzo Gozzoli in his mid-fifteenth-century frescoes (between 1450 and 1452) in the chiesa di San Francesco in Montefalco (PG) in Umbria:
http://tinyurl.com/ofe2g99

e) as depicted at the outset of a later fifteenth-century copy (1470s?) of a commentary of his on Book One of the Sententiae (Rovigo, Biblioteca dell'Accademia dei Concordi, Biblioteca Silvestriana cod. 215, fol. 1r):
http://tinyurl.com/pewxzww

f) as depicted by Carlo Crivelli in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (1471?; from his now dismembered Montefiore altarpiece) in the Polo Museale di San Francesco at Montefiore dell'Aso (AP) in the Marche:

 

http://tinyurl.com/nopeqsd

g) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1476) variously attributed to Joos van Gent (Justus of Ghent, etc., etc.) or to Pedro Berruguete in the Galleria nazionale delle Marche in the ducal palace at Urbino:

 

http://tinyurl.com/q3bfljq

On display (lower right) on the east wall of Federico da Montefeltro's studiolo:
http://www.gutenberg-e.org/kirkbride/detail/us_2_east_wall_men.html

h) as depicted by Nardo Rapicano at the outset of a later fifteenth-century copy (c. 1480), of Neapolitan origin, of a commentary of his on Book Two of the Sententiae (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 3063, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8446954p/f11.item.zoom

i) as depicted (left margin at top) in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle; 1493) at fol. CCXXIr):
http://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/right_page/124%20%28Folio%20CCXXIr%29.pdf

j) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Albertus Magnus) by Amico Aspertini in an earlier sixteenth-century panel painting (1521) in the Pinacoteca civica of Como:

 

http://tinyurl.com/pjkvvvs

Bl Agnellus of Pisa

 Bl.Agnellus of Pisa

1195-1236

 Image: Franciscan Province of Great Britain website/Supremacy and Survival blogspot 

Today is the feast in the Birmingham archdiocese of Bl. Angnellus of Pisa, who led the Franciscan mission to England in 1224 and who was buried - and venerated - in the medieval Oxford Greyfriars.

In 1224 Francis decided to send some friars to England and appointed Agnellus of Pisa to lead a small expedition. On Tuesday, 10 September of the same year, a small boat landed near Dover and nine roughly-dressed figures disembarked, and so the Franciscan Order was implanted in England. The nine friars were led by an Italian, Agnellus of Pisa, who had previously been Custos in Paris. It included three Englishmen who had joined the Order, probably in Paris where many Englishmen of the time went to study, five Italians and one Frenchman. Within seven weeks of arrival they had established friaries in Canterbury, London and Oxford, the ecclesiastical, political and intellectual capitals of England.

From the Franciscan Province website

My previous posts about him and the medieval Greyfriars of Oxford can be read at Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, from 2010, Bl Agnellus of Pisa from 2011, Medieval Franciscans in Oxford
and  Commemorating Bl. Agnellus of Pisa  from 2012, and, from earlier this year, Out and about Oxford with Friars


Fr Cuthbert, the founder of the Capuchin house in Oxford, produced a translation of Thomas of Eccleston's  De adventu F.F.minorum in Angliam in 1903 which can be read online at
The friars and how they came to England 

• Cached

Now we have both the Capuchins and the Conventuals in Oxford, reviving and continuing a venerable spiritual and academic tradition.

The Funeral Mass for Fr Mark Elvins

This morning I attended the Funeral Mass for Fr Mark Elvins, O.F.M. (Cap) which was held at Oxford Greyfriars. I wrote about him the other week in my post Fr Mark Elvins R.I.P.

Not surprisngly there was a large congregation drawn from his family, friends, from other religious communities including the Conventual Franciscans who have found a new home nearby in East Oxford, academic friends from his time as the last Warden of Greyfriars PPH in the University, members of the Order of Malta and of the Constantinian Order of St George - of both of which Fr Mark was a member - and parishioners from the surrounding area.  Alongside the Capuchin community the concelebrants included diocesan clergy from the dioceses of Birmingham and Arundel and Brighton, from the Dominicans and the Oratorians in Oxford and from the Ordinariate. The principal celebrant Fr Paul Coleman O.F.M.(Cap) drew attention to this range of contacts in his homily which pointed to the range of Fr Mark's interests and he spoke particularly of his concern for the poor, and especially for the homeless, and for Palestinian Christians.

After the Mass and commendation Fr Mark's body was taken from the church and will be buried tomorrow at the Capuchin house at Pantasaph in Flintshire.

The generous reception afterwards in the very attractive garden at Greyfriars - part of the priory I had not visited before - was an opportunity to meet up with old friends and meet new people. Although a funeral is bound to be an occasion of mourning - and many of us will indeed miss Fr Mark very much - it had a proper sense of thanksgiving for a life well lived, a true pilgrimage in Faith. To that extent it was enjoyable to be there, and one of those funerals at which one sensed the person for whose soul we were praying would have enjoyed seeing his old friends gathered together.

May he rest in peace.

Fr Mark Elvins R.I.P

I was very saddened, although not surprised, to hear this morning of the death of Fr Mark Elvins, OFM. He has been ill for the last year and more, but, even though one knows that a person's death ios fairly imminent there is always asense of surprise when one hears the news.  There is an online biography of him here.

Brought up in Canterbury and Lincoln he studied at St Stephen's House in Oxford and became an Anglican deacon, only to develop what he described as"Roman fever"; sent by his Bishop on a sabbatical to be talked out of it he read in the works of Newman arguments he found unaswerable and was received on Christmas Eve 1968 into the Catholic Church. 

After study at the Beda he was ordained for the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, serving at Arundel itself, including being Chantry Priest to the Duke of Norfolk. He was subsequently at St Mary Magdalene Brighton (Fr Blake's post about his death can be seen here )- where he establishe dthe parish's 365 days a year soup run to the homeless. After being priest at Henfield he entered the Capuchins, being professed in 1999. He served the Order in Preston before returning to Oxford as head of Greyfriars. His Franciscan habit topped by a matching brown beret was a distinctive feature on the Oxford Catholic scene.

I first met him at a Lent Quiet Day he conducted at the Oxford Oratory, and then when he initiated the revival of the Oxford University Heraldry Society. I also got to know him further in the attempt to establish St Bede's Hall as a successor to Greyfriras Hall - an institution he had sought to maintain against the plans of others - and through the Franciscan Studies Centre's lectures here in Oxford.

A man of great charm and good humour, erudite and entertaining, someone with whom I occasionally met up and spent an afternoon with in the Oxford pub the Bird and Baby (the Eagle and Child to give it its proper name). It was there that I saw him last, in the summer last year. He was philosophical and calm about his cancer, which at that time was in remission. It was a convivial occasion for what turns out was our farewell.

I said the Rosary for him this afternoon and invite others to pray for the repose of his soul. May he rest in peace.  

Forthcoming events

For any readers who are able to attend here are some events in Oxford, and in one case London. in October and early November which may be of interest:

Tuesday October 8th Night Walk to Littlemore to commemorate the reception of Bl.John Henry Newman into the Church ( "the one true fold of the Redeemer" ) in 1845. The walk begins at 7.45pm in the Oxford Oratory. 9.30pm Candlelit procession from  Rosehill,  10pm Holy Hour in Bl.Dominic Barberi church, conclusion at The College for devotions in the chapel and refeshments. Lifts are normally available afterwards for the return to Oxford. Always a good occasion to participate in.

Wednesday October 9th  6 pm Solemn Mass in honour of Bl. John Henry Newman at the Oxford Oratory.
  
Saturday October 12th  The Rosary Crusade of Reparation, London. Starting at 2.15pm from Westminster Cathedral, the procession will end at Brompton Oratory with Benediction. More details from: http://rosarycrusadeofreparation.blogspot.co.uk

Friday October 18th- Sunday October 20th Forty Hours Devotion at the Oxford Oratory. A highlight of the year - more details to follow. It is also a busy weekend for those keen on liturgical traditional or devotion:
  
Saturday October 19th Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Oxford.The annual pilgrimage in honour of the Oxford Martyrs. High Mass in the Dominican Rite at Blackfriars at 11.00am. This is followed by lunch, then procession, beginning at the end of Cornmarket by the church of St Michael at the North Gate, at 2.00pm. The Pilgrimage will then process through the streets to the site of the martyrdomsof 1589 at the end of Holywell Street, the site of the town gallows, and then returns to Blackfriars for Benediction at 3.00pm. Bring packed lunch or have a pub lunch locally.

Meanwhile there is also on the same day

Saturday October 19th "A Seminar on True Devotion to Jesus through Mary" at Greyfriars in Iffley Road, beginning with Mass at 9.30am and talks from 10 until 1. Refreshments will be provided.

Sunday October 20th 12 noon EF Sung High Mass at SS Gregory and Augustine Oxford.

Sunday October  27th  3pm Church of Bl. Dominic Barberi Littlemore will have the celebration of Vespers with Bishop William Kenney, himself a Passionist, presiding to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bl. Dominic's Beatification. 

Saturday November 9th  Stabat Mater  - a recital by Camerata of Curiosities at the Oxford Oratory in aid of the Oratory Appeal at 8pm. Music by Bach, Monteverrdi, Grandi and Sances. Tickets for donations fron £10 to £10,000...

Commemorating Bl. Agnellus of Pisa

Here is Oxford today is the feast day of Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, the founder of the original Oxford Franciscan priory in the city in the thirteenth century. My post from this day last year about him, with a link to other posts on him, can be read at Bl. Agnellus of Pisa.

Doing Extraordinary things

I have attended two Extraordinary Form Masses in the last couple of days.

Last night the Oxford Oratory celebrated the feast of the English Martyrs with a Solemn High Mass according to the Missal of Bl. John XXIII. This was, as one would expect of the Oratory, a beautiful liturgy and well attended - considerably more people were present than the usual, good, congregation we are used to seeing on a weekday evening. In recent years this feast has become one on which it is normal for the Mass to be offered in this form at the Oratory - I assume on the basis that this was the Mass the Martyrs and their fellow Catholics knew at the time. This serves as an example of how the two strands in the Roman liturgy can be offered in a parish and appreciated by the people of God.

This afternoon I was asked to help serve at the Latin Mass Society's Pilgrimage Mass at Greyfriars in Oxford. The Pilgrimage was one on foot to Littlemore where they were to end the afternoon with Vespers and Benediction in Newman's chapel at the College.

The feast in the EF calendar was, very fittingly, that of St Pius V, about whom the celebrant, Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP spoke in his homily, and in which he drew attention to the obligations laid on all the succcessors to St Peter to defend the Church, and of our need and obligation as Catholics to pray for the Pope.

I was thurifer and think I managed to produce a fairly decent serving of smoke at the right times. The Scola Abellis provided the music for the Mass. The church at Greyfriars is, as I have observed previously, a handsome building which provides a fine setting for the liturgy, and it is always a pleasure to serve there.

Bl Agnellus of Pisa

On this day last year I posted about Bl. Agnellus of Pisa, whose diocesan feast day it is, and thought I would link to that post which gives a biography of the founder of the medieval Franciscan house in Oxford.

He died there on May 7 1236, and some years afterwards his body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt, and yielding a supply of fragrant oil. The incorrupt body was preserved with great veneration until the dissolution of the house in the sixteenth century. Indeed it may well still be there on an as yet unexcavated part of the friary site.

His cultus was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1882, and his feast is kept by the Order on May 7.

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa

Modern glass in Greyfriars Church,

Oxford

Image: Lawrence Lew OP on Flickr

Greyfriars Mass

Thanks to Joe Shaw I can now provide a link to photographs of the usus antiquior Mass at Greyfriars last Monday. Here is one of his photographs:

The whole set of 29 can be viewed here.They convey something of the dignified setting as well as the dignified worship offered. The preacher was Fr Mark Elvins OFM Cap., the Guardian of Greyfriars.

I am sufficiently vainglorious to include this image of my censing of the Deacon, Br. Nicholas Edmonds-Smith, of the Oxford Oratory:

Usus Antiquior at Greyfriars

Last night I was at Greyfriars in Oxford for a High Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

The church from Iffley Road

Isisbridge photostream on Flickr

This was celebrated as part of the events to mark the centenary of the church, which was built in 1910-11 and blessed on July 15th 1911, with first Mass being celebrated there the following day. Built originally to replace the old mission church of St Ignatius by the Jesuits the church and parish was transferred to the Franciscans in 1928. This year also appears to be the four hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Jesuit mission at Waterperry House in the southern part of the parish in 1611, from which the Oxford Catholic parish developed.

The interior of the church

Image from the Greyfriars website

The church is a handsome building in a romanesque style and has had considerable redecoration to mark the centenary, and great efforts had been made to enhance the church with flowers for the occasion. Those of us who had gone to help were made very welcome by the friars and the parish community.

The parish priest, Fr Ambrose, had been anxious to have a Mass celebrated as it would have been in 1911, and so last night there was a votive in the usus antiquior of St Edmund of Abingdon, who, together with St Frideswide, is the patron of the church. The celebrant was Fr Aldo Tapparo, parish priest of St Anthony of Padua in Headington. Music was provided by members of the Schola Abelis - one of whom remarked on seeing those of us who were assisting that the 'Traddy rentamob' were very much in evidence.

I was thurifer, as I was on the previous occasion this year in May when the usus antiquior was celebrated at the church, which I posted about in Pious exercises. Well, as I have been known to say, once a boy has a little black dress he can serve anywhere. One of the community was taking photographs of the Mass and I hope that, if I can find them, I can post some online.

Following the Mass there was a reception in the parish hall and a chance to meet up with old freinds both from Greyfriars and from the 'Traddy rentamob.'

Pious exercises

This past weekend gave me several opportunities for acts of liturgical supererogation.

On Saturday afternoon I was thurifer at the Juventutem Oxford Mass celebrated at SS Edmund and Frideswide, better known as Oxford Greyfriars, and sitruated in Iffley Road. The celebrant was Fr Anthony Conlan.

The Mass in the Church of SS Edmund and Frideswide, the parish church which is also the chapel of the Fransiscan Priory, Greyfriars, was celebrated for us by Fr Anthony Conlon, Chaplain of the Oratory School outside Oxford. Fr Mark Elvins OFM Cap, the Guardian of Greyfriars, was present (see below, sitting on the left of the picture). 

Photographs from Joseph Shaw's Flickr account

This was only the second time I had been into the church, which is a handsome building in a neo-romanesque style.

This was the first time the Mass had been celebrated in the usus antiquior there for very many years and the occasion received enthusiastic support from Juventutem members and others. There is now a blog site for the group which can be read at Juventutem Oxford.

In the early evening I went to the Ordinariate Mass at Pusey House. Here the celebrant was Mgr Burnham and the preacher Fr Richard Conrad OP. Once agian we saw the possibilities the Ordinariate offers for dignified liturgy and the integration of an Anglican patrimony - the wording of prayers, the choice and style of hymns and motets and a general cultural ambiance that in no way impedes the fullness of catholic unity. As last week I had the vital liturgical functions of handing out service sheets and taking the collection. The local group now has a blog of its own which can be viewed at Oxford Ordinariate group.

Afterwards over supper with a friend who is a longer term convert than myself we discussed not only these liturgical aspects of the Ordinariate - the most obvious signs so far - but alsq how the integration of the Anglican spiritual heritage of devotional writing can be shared and of the need to demonstrate that the Ordinariate is, and should be much more than just another parish group. We agreed that it is early days yet, and that as ordinations and, hopefully, more receptions follow, the pace will pick up. Nonetheless encouraging people to think about these aspects and helping them along is something we can do as individuals now.

On Sunday, following the Solemn Mass at the Oratory, I went up to north Oxford to SS Gregory and Augustine to help with the celebration of their May Devotion and procession in honour of Our Lady. Once again I was thurifer and we started with a reading of Bl. John Henry Newman's exposition of the practice of the May Devotion in the church grounds, followed by the procession into the church, the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Lady Chapel and the recitation of the litany of Our Lady. The children brought their flowers to place before the statue and we concluded with Benediction at the High Altar.

The weather being kind it was possible to conclude the afternoon with the promised tea and cakes in the Presbytery garden before getting a lift back into the city centre for the regular Vespers and Benediction at the Oratory.

Liturgical highlights this week in Oxford

In addition to the usual pattern of Masses in Oxford there are several additional celebrations this week which may be of interest to readers near enough to attend.

Oxford Oratory

Monday - Transferred Solemnity of St George - Benediction following the 6 pm Mass. My post from last year Hymn to St George relates to this.
Tuesday - May Devotions to Our Lady after the 6 pm Mass; this will occur each Tuesday in May.
Wednesday - Feast of the English Martyrs - Sung Extraordinary Form Mass at 6pm.

SS Gregory and Augustine

Tuesday to Friday - Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 6pm
Sunday May 8th - 3pm May Procession and Benediction, followed by tea.

Greyfriars
Saturday May 7th 2.30 Mass in the Extraordinary Form organised by Juventutum Oxford and the Latin Mass Society, followed by walking Pilgrimage to Littlemore concluding with Vespers there.

The following Saturday, May 14th, Juventutum Oxford are holding another Pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady, walking from Abingdon. They plan to leave there at 11, break for lunch at Iffley Lock and will have an Extraordinary Form Mass at the Oxford Oratory at 3.30.

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa

Today is the feast appointed for Bl. Agnellus of Pisa OFM. in the Oxfordshire part of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

I have based the following account on that in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.

The founder of the English Franciscan Province Bl. Agnellus was born at Pisa c. 1195, of the noble family of the Agnelli, and died at Oxford, 7 May, 1236. In early youth he was received into the Franciscan Order by St Francis himself, during the latter's sojourn in Pisa, and soon became an accomplished model of religious perfection. Sent by St Francis to Paris he erected a convent there and became custos.

Having returned to Italy, he was present at the so-called Chapter of Mats, and was sent thence by St Francis to establish the Order in England. Agnellus, then in deacon's orders, landed at Dover with nine other friars on 12 September, 1224, having been charitably conveyed from France by the monks of Fecamp. A few weeks afterwards they obtained a house at Oxford and there laid the foundations of the English Province, which became the exemplar for all the provinces of the order. Though not himself a learned man, he established a school for the friars at Oxford, which was destined to play no small part in the development of the University.However his solicitude extended beyond the immediate welfare of his brethren. He sent his friars about to preach the word of God to the faithful, and perform the other offices of the sacred ministry. Agnellus wielded considerable influence in affairs of state and in his efforts to avert civil war between King Henry III and the Earl Marshal, who had leagued with the Welsh, he contracted a fatal illness.

Thomas de Eccleston, the chronicler of the early Franciscans in England in his De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam , and a student at the Oxford house in the 1230s, has a brief account of his death. Agnellus's body, incorrupt, was preserved with great veneration at Oxford up to the dissolution of the religious houses in the time of Henry VIII.

The cultus of Blessed Agnellus was formally confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1882, and his feast is[or was?] kept in the Order on 7 May.


There is a detailed history of the Oxford Greyfriars from the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire vol ii (1907) here which is well worth reading through, and gives details of the building work in the time of Bl. Agnellus.

Excavations before the building of the Westgate Centre in the early 1970s revealed much of the plan of the house, including the remarkable layout of the church, which added to the usual friary plan of unaisled choir and aisled nave an enormous north transept, elongated northwards in plan, with a series of chapels, presumably to provide for the number of Masses being offered by the friars. There are plans in Oxoniensia and in the medieval volumes of the History of the University of Oxford.

Today there is very little to see of what was once a leading house of prayer and study. A patch of grass in the angle of the road below the Westgate Centre indicates the site of the choir. On an adjacent wall is a plaque commemorating Roger Bacon OFM. Apart from an archway built into another building that is really all there is to see. In terms of quiz trivia however this is a site with the body of a Beatus (Agnellus himself), the heart of a King (Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, and King of the Romans 1257-72. His body was buried at Hailes Abbey), the body of a Queen (Richard's third wife Beatrix of Falkenburg, who died in 1277) and the site of the residence of a future Pope (Peter of Candia OFM, later Pope Alexander V 1409-10).

The website of the restored foundation of Franciscans in Oxford can be found at Oxford Greyfriars.

St Bede's reception

Last night I was at St Bede's Hall here in Oxford for a reception to welcome back to Oxford, at least temporarily, and to his new position at St Bede's as chairman of the Board of Directors, Fr Tom Weinandy O.F.M.

The event was an occasion for old and new friends and associates of St Bede's to meet, or to renew acquaintance. Fr Tom spoke about the vision for the Hall and welcomed overseas contacts from the North American College in Rome and from Belmont College in the USA.

I also spoke to Fr Mark Elvins, the Guardian, about the Centre for Franciscan Studies the Oxford Greyfriars are seeking to develop, including some excellent lectures this last academic year.

I was delighted to meet again Prof. James Carley from Toronto, whose work on the Arthurian legend, and particularly in relation to Glastonbury, I have used in connection with my research on Richard Fleming. Prof. Carley is in Oxford as a visiting scholar for the coming year.

There was a positive spirit to the occasion which should auger well for the students planning on coming to study at St Bede's in the future.