A National Repository of Saints: The Relic Collection of Westminster Cathedral - Dr John Jenkins Cardinal Vaughan's vision for his new cathedral at Westminster was for a building which would represent …More
A National Repository of Saints: The Relic Collection of Westminster Cathedral - Dr John Jenkins
Cardinal Vaughan's vision for his new cathedral at Westminster was for a building which would represent the centrality of the Catholic faith to English history, and this is exemplified in the choice of saints and relics he collected for the church. This talk looks at Westminster's relic collections in the first fifty years, how and why they were acquired, how they were used, and how they were distributed, and tells a forgotten story of how the cathedral's relics inspired and promoted a very English Catholic identity up to the end of the Second World War. Dr John Jenkins is a Teaching Fellow and Research Associate at the Department of History at York University.
Cardinal Vaughan's vision for his new cathedral at Westminster was for a building which would represent the centrality of the Catholic faith to English history, and this is exemplified in the choice of saints and relics he collected for the church. This talk looks at Westminster's relic collections in the first fifty years, how and why they were acquired, how they were used, and how they were distributed, and tells a forgotten story of how the cathedral's relics inspired and promoted a very English Catholic identity up to the end of the Second World War. Dr John Jenkins is a Teaching Fellow and Research Associate at the Department of History at York University.
