A second chance to view sculptures on the campus of the Open University

The Open University outdoor art collection is set around the grounds of the university (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I was back on the campus of the Open University in Milton Keynes for the second time last week. I thought I was about to receive my fifth Covid-19 vaccination in the Michael Young Building, but there was a misunderstanding and I must go back on a later date.

But once again I had time to wander around the campus, this time in late spring or early summer sunshine, with another opportunity to appreciate some of the modern architecture and sculptures on the campus, including the Wolfson Buildings, and to visit Saint Michael’s Church – this time I managed to get inside the church, which was closed when I first visited last November.

The Open University outdoor art collection consists of 16 permanent pieces set around the grounds. The one that probably stands out for most visitors is ‘Contemplation’ by Tom Harvey is on the Cedar Lawn. The sculptor created this piece in 2010 from a dying 250-year-old cedar tree, enabling it to live on to be enjoyed by students and staff at the Open University. The tree died due to an infestation by the Small Cedar Aphid.

The university decided to make good use of what remained of the tree, and in 2010 Tom Harvey designed and carved his sculpture, depicting learning in its simplest form by observing the world around us.

‘Star’ by Anthony Hayes, outside Wolfson Building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘Star’ (2007) by Anthony Hayes is in a shaded corner outside the Wolfson Building). It is in a simple shape of a six-pointed star, an awkward form which never seems to stand up but always seems to have been cast aside or fallen at random, incongruous and surprising in the natural environment.

Anthony Hayes is attracted to exploring the mass of large, abstract forms that seem to exert a powerful presence, particularly as they approach human scale. He is interested in showing different ways of showing form and his work has been deliberately rusted to enhance texture and shape.

This star appears to have fallen from the sky. It was bought by the Artwork Group in 2008.

‘e = mc²’ by Scott Forrest outside the Christodoulou Meeting Room (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘e = mc²’ by Scott Forrest is outside the Christodoulou Meeting Room. Scott Forrest is fascinated with contrasts, between finished surface texture and raw quarried stone.

This sculpture represents Einstein’s theory, first articulated in 1905, carved into Jurassic limestone from 150,000 to 200,000,000 BC. It encapsulates an intellectual energy releasing from the unrefined mass.

On the back it reads: ‘The mass of an object warps the geometry of space time surrounding it.’

Roland Lawar is among local sculptors display their work on the campus for a short time period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Local sculptors often ask to display their work on the campus for a short time period. The current display includes work by Roland Lawar, who says his sculptures are conceived as ‘seen’ by himself, as shapes, textures and colours, and the arrangements of these elements in a three-dimensional form.

He says they are inspired by his personal journeys, observations of daily life, and the colours and textures of nature. He is also inspired by his African origins and ideas that have blended into the way he creates his works.

Roland Lawar tries to make his sculptures highly viewer-interactive. His concepts are usually stirred by the shape of some found object and the dialogue that follows his contact with the object, or from some memento that he has held on to since childhood.

‘Contemplation’ by Tom Harvey on the Cedar Lawn of the Open University (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (3) 31 May 2023

The Visitation (Luke 1: 39-45) … a panel from the 19th century Oberammergau altarpiece in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Fifty days of Easter season came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost (28 May 2023), or Whit Sunday, and Ordinary Time resumed on Monday (29 May 2023).

Today is the Feast of the Visitation (31 May 2023). Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. In this first week in Ordinary Time, between the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday (4 June 2023), I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at an image or stained glass window in a church or cathedral I know depicting Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, or the Feast of the Day;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Saint John’s Church, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The church today recalls the visit of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Saint Elizabeth, as Saint Luke’s gospel records.

The celebration of the feast first occurred at a Franciscan Order General Chapter in 1263 but quickly spread throughout Europe. Since it is a celebration clearly described in the Gospel, the churches of the Reformation were less inclined to proscribe it than they were other Marian feasts, particularly as it was the occasion for the Virgin Mary to sing her great hymn of praise in honour of her Lord and God.

Just as Saint Luke sees Saint John the Baptist as the last of the prophets of the old covenant, he uses Saint John’s leaping in Saint Elizabeth’s womb as the first time Saint John bears witness to Christ as the promised Messiah. In this way, he links the old covenant with the new. He seems to be saying that just as the old covenant clearly points to Jesus, so does its last prophet, yet to be born.

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Great Saint Mary’s Church in Saffron Walden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 39-56 (NRSVA):

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

46 And Mary said,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

56 And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Pentecost.’ USPG’s Chaplain, the Revd Jessie Anand, introduced this theme on Sunday, reflecting on Pentecost and languages.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Wednesday 31 May 2023):

Let us pray for those who are unable to communicate through speech. May we be attentive to their ways of communicating and find paths to inclusion and community building.

Collect:

Mighty God,
by whose grace Elizabeth rejoiced with Mary
and greeted her as the mother of the Lord:
look with favour on your lowly servants
that, with Mary, we may magnify your holy name
and rejoice to acclaim her Son our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Gracious God,
who gave joy to Elizabeth and Mary
as they recognized the signs of redemption
at work within them:
help us, who have shared in the joy of this Eucharist,
to know the Lord deep within us
and his love shining out in our lives,
that the world may rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The Visitation depicted in a window in Saint Ailbe’s Church, Emly, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A Sunday afternoon at Passenham Manor and the two tithe barns

Passenham Manor was built ca 1626 and was altered in the 20th century by Sir Edwin Lutyens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

During the bank holiday weekend, Charlotte and I enjoyed an afternoon in Passenham, visiting Saint Guthlac’s Church, which had an open day with cream teas. We also visited Passenham Manor and its two tithe barns, before walking back through the fields in the late afternoon sunshine and across the River Great Ouse to Stony Stratford.

Passenham is a small village in south-west Northamptonshire, a short distance south of Old Stratford. It is separated from Stony Stratford by open countryside and the river, which forms the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

The Manor House to the immediate north of the church dates from the 17th century, when Sir Robert Banastre held the manor in 1623 and repaired or rebuilt the house. We also visited the two large tithe barns in the grounds, one of mediaeval origin and the other dating from 1626.

The nearby Manor Farm was built in the 18th century, perhaps after the Manor House ceased to be a working farm.

A nearby mill and early houses developed with the first settlement in Passenham in the post-Roman era. An indication of the Manor during the Middle Ages is shown in the remains of a moat at the east end of the village street. Pottery found there in 1967 dated from the 12th and 13th centuries.

After the Norman Conquest, most of Passenham formed a large royal manor in 1086, and included some land at Puxley, on the edge of Whittlewood, where a second estate was held by the Bishop of Bayeux. The two Puxley manors have separate histories until they were acquired by the Crown at the end of the Middle Ages and annexed to the honour of Grafton in 1542. Passenham remained a manor in the Duchy of Lancaster manor until it too was disposed of in 1623.

Two religious houses had small estates in the parish, as did several lay owners whose main estates were centred elsewhere in the district.

Saint Guthlac’s Church … between the Old Rectory and Passenham Manor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The king held a large tract of land in Passenham as a royal demesne in 1086, and some more land of his was held by Rainald, his almsman. Some land at Puxley also belonged to the royal manor of Passenham. Passenham was later incorporated into the honour of Tutbury in Staffordshire, possibly after the foundation of Cirencester Abbey in 1131, which held the advowson of Passenham or the right to nominate the parish clergy.

William Earl Ferrers held land in Passenham in 1242. After Robert de Ferrers was defeated at the Battle of Chesterfield in 1266, his lands were confiscated by the Crown and granted to the king’s son, Edmund, who became Earl of Lancaster in 1267.

Edmund was succeeded at his death in 1296 by his son Thomas, who took Passenham into his hands in 1299 as lord of Tutbury. He later granted the manor to Robert de Holland, who was Lord of Passenham in 1316. But Thomas was executed after his defeat at Boroughbridge in 1322. His lands were given to his brother Henry, who became Earl of Lancaster. His estates included Passenham, which was still linked with Tutbury in 1332.

Henry died in 1345 and was succeeded by his son Henry, who became Duke of Lancaster in 1351. His daughter Blanche married John of Gaunt, and her inheritance included Passenham. John of Gaunt, who became Duke of Lancaster in 1362, passed on the Manor of Passenham to his son who became King Henry IV in 1399. His honours merged in the Crown, but the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster continued to be administered separately from other Crown lands.

Henry V put trustees in charge of much of his Lancastrian inheritance, including Passenham, in 1415 before his expedition to France.

Passenham was part of the estates of Elizabeth Woodville when she married Edward IV in 1467. She granted the manor to her brother Anthony, Earl Rivers, who was executed in 1483. Passenham then reverted to the Duchy of Lancaster as part of the estates recovered by the Crown.

The Manor of Passenham was granted to Sir George Marshall and Robert Cancefield in 1623 and they sold it the following year to Sir Robert Banastre.

The River Great Ouse and the open countryside between Passenham and Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The old rectory, immediately south of the church, is believed to stand on the site of the manor house where of Sir Robert Banastre lived after he acquired the manor in 1623. He built a new manor house and conveyed the old one to the rector and his successors.

When Sir Robert Banastre died in 1649, he left Passenham to his grandson Banastre Maynard, the son of Dorothy, his daughter by his third wife. Dorothy had married William Maynard of Easton, Essex, who in 1640 succeeded his father as the second Baron Maynard.

Even as late as 1664, the residents of Passenham, as tenants of a Duchy of Lancaster manor, were confirmed in their freedom from market and other tolls.

Meanwhile, Dorothy had died two months before her father. Her husband survived until 1699, when he was succeeded by his son Banastre Maynard, who died in 1718. His titles passed in turn to three of his sons. The youngest son, Charles Maynard, obtained a new barony and a viscountcy in 1766, enabling a distant cousin, also named Charles, to succeed to the titles in 1775.

The second Viscount Maynard died in 1824, and was succeeded by his nephew Henry Maynard. When he died without male heirs in 1865, all his titles died out with him. His elder daughter, Frances Evelyn, inherited most of the family estates, including Passenham. In 1881, Frances married Francis Greville, who in 1893 succeeded his father as Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle.

The earliest parts of the manor house as seen today date from the early 17th century. The oldest part is found in the front range. The house is of coursed squared limestone with plain tile roofs. The 18th century additions are in the five bays on the south-east side. Further alterations followed in the 19th century.

Wisteria at the tithe barns in the grounds of Passenham Manor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Lady Brooke tried to sell the Passenham Manor estate, with 840 acres of land, in 11 lots in 1911. Only the portion in Old Stratford was sold and there was a second sale in 1918 in six lots that included the Manor House, mill and three farms.

The Manor House, Manor Farm buildings and the mill were back on the market in 1922, along with parts of the Haversham Manor estate in Buckinghamshire.

George Ansley owned Passenham Manor and the lordship in the 1930s and 1940s. A nursery attic was added in 1935, and the house was re-roofed to designs by Sir Edwin Lutyens for George Ansley.

Commander Arnold Lawson and his wife the Hon Flora Lawson owned the house in the 1950s and invested in it heavily, developing the property. After they died, the 773 acre estate was sold in 1985. There is a plaque to them in Saint Guthlac’s Church.

The house remains a private residence today.

There are two large tithe barns in the grounds of Passenham Manor (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Beside the manor house are two large, stone-built tithe barns with plain tiled roofs, standing at right angles to each other. The larger barn is said to be mediaeval measures 110 ft x 25 ft, and has an elaborate tie beam roof. The smaller barn, which is 76 ft long, is dated 1626 and so was probably built by Banastre. Local lore says these tithe barns were used during the Civil War as a hospital by Cromwell’s troops after the Battle of Naseby.

A dovecote south of the house also dates from the 17th century but has 19th century alterations. It is built of coursed squared limestone with a plain tile roof.

In 1967, the Wolverton and District Archaeological Society found what is thought to be the site of the first Manor House. It predated the manor house on the site of the Old Rectory and was built at the time of Letitia de Ferrers in the early 12th century. Later, the de Passenham family lived there until the latter part of the 13th century.

The site appears to be indicated by the remains of a moat at the east end of the village street, in a field across the road from the church and mill. Pottery found there dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. Some of the stones may have been used in other buildings around the area before the end of the 16th century.

The Old Rectory may stand on the site of an earlier manor house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (2) 30 May 2023

The Church of the Holy Spirit in the grounds of Prague Castle and Prague Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Fifty days of Easter season came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost (28 May 2023), or Whit Sunday, and Ordinary Time resumed yesterday (29 May 2023).

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. In this first week in Ordinary Time, between the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday (4 June 2023), I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at an image or stained glass window in a church or cathedral I know depicting Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, or the Feast of the Day;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Josephine Butler … ‘God and one woman make a majority’

This morning, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship commemorates Josephine Butler (1906), Social Reformer; Joan of Arc (1431), Visionary; and Apolo Kivebulaya (1933), Priest, Evangelist in Central Africa, 1933.

Josephine Butler (1828-1906) was active campaigner against the way Victorian society and legislation treated prostitutes, most of whom were forced into their lifestyle activity through desperate poverty.

Josephine Butler was born on 13 April 1828 at Milfield House, Milfield, Northumberland, and was baptised on 30 May in Northumberland. She was the seventh child of John Grey (1785–1868) and Hannah Eliza Annett (1792-1860). Her father, John Grey, was an eminent agricultural expert, and the cousin of the reformist Prime Minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. John Grey campaigned for the abolition of slavery and played a significant role in Catholic Emancipation. He lost most of his savings in 1857 with the failure of the Newcastle Bank.

In 1852, Josephine married the Revd George Butler (1819-1890), who encouraged her in her public work. From her 20s on, Josephine was active in feminist movements, and the Butlers had strong radical sympathies, including support for the Union in the American Civil War.

Josephine and George Butler had four children. While they were living in Cheltenham, where George was the vice-principal of Cheltenham College, their only daughter, Evangeline, died in 1863 at the age of six.

The family moved to Liverpool in 1866 when George was appointed headmaster of Liverpool College. There Josephine decided to seek solace by ministering to people with greater pain than her own. She became involved in the campaign for higher education for women, and with Anne Jemima Clough, later principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, she helped to establish the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.

Against the advice of her friends and family, she began visiting Brownlow Hill workhouse in Liverpool, which led to her first involvement with prostitutes. She saw the women as being exploited victims of male oppression, and attacked the double standard of sexual morality.

Her campaign took on an international dimension when she travelled through Europe in 1874-1875 addressing meetings. Her campaign succeeded with the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1883. She became involved in a successful campaign against child prostitution in 1885.

She was a devout Anglican and a woman of prayer, and once said: ‘God and one woman make a majority.’ She modelled her spirituality on that of Saint Catherine of Siena, and wrote a biography of the Dominican saint.

When George Butler retired from Liverpool College, he became a Canon of Winchester Cathedral; he died on 14 March 1890. Josephine continued her campaigns until the early 1900s; she died on 30 December 1906.

Josephine Butler is celebrated in the Calendar of Common Worship in the Church of England both today (30 May), the anniversary of her baptism, and on 30 December, the anniversary of her death.

She is depicted in windows in the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool, and Saint Olave’s Church, London.

Many of her papers are in the Women’s Library in London Metropolitan University and in the Josephine Butler Museum, Southend-On-Sea. Durham University honoured her in 2005 by giving her name to Josephine Butler College. A building in the Faculty of Business and Law in Liverpool John Moores University is named Josephine Butler House. Her former home in Cheltenham was demolished in the 1970s.

Mark 10: 28-31 (NRSVA):

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

Today’s prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Pentecost.’ USPG’s Chaplain, the Revd Jessie Anand, introduced this theme on Sunday, reflecting on Pentecost and languages.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Tuesday 30 May 2023):

Let us pray for women in the Philippines. May their strong ties of kinship bring mutual support and may they find strength in solidarity.

Collect:

God of compassion and love,
by whose grace your servant Josephine Butler
followed in the way of your Son
in caring for those in need:
help us like her to work with strength
for the restoration of all to the dignity
and freedom of those created in your image;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

God our redeemer,
who inspired Josephine Butler to witness to your love
and to work for the coming of your kingdom:
may we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven,
be fired by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living
and never to rest content until your kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A Victorian manuscript gives details of families that lived in the Moat House, Tamworth

The Moat House, the former Comberford home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth … a Victorian manuscripts offers insights on the Ensor family and their links with the Moat House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Last week, I received a large manuscript family tree of the Endsore or Ensor family, trying to connect branches of the family, in all their spellings, with people who lived in Comberford village, in neighbouring Wigginton, in the Moat House in Tamworth, and later in Wilnecote.

The manuscript pedigree was recently found among some old family papers by a descendent of the Woody family who lived at the Moat House in Tamworth in the 19th century.

The Moat House on Lichfield Street in Tamworth is an elegant Elizabeth and Jacobean house that was home to the Comberford family in the 16th and 17th centuries. Dr Robert Woody (1770-1823) became a tenant of the Moat House in 1815.

At the Moat House, Woody was a tenant of George Townshend (1778-1855), the 3rd Marquess Townshend, who had also inherited Tamworth Castle. However, Lord Townshend was involved in a number of high-profile scandals and court cases, including his wife’s bigamous second marriage, claims to succession to the family name and title by a man who was not his son, and an accumulation of debts that eventually lost Tamworth Castle to the family.

Townshend mainly lived abroad, leaving Woody undisturbed at the Moat House, and Woody soon had the house licensed as an asylum.

Meanwhile, John Robins, a London auctioneer, claimed Tamworth Castle and the Moat House in lengthy legal proceedings over debts owed to him by the 2nd Marquis Townshend, who died in 1811. Robins moved into Tamworth Castle in 1821, and almost immediately sold the Moat House to Dr Woody.

After Woody died on 6 August 1823, his widow, Alice Woody and their son Dr John Francis Woody continued to live in the Moat House. Lord Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, brother of the 3rd Marquis Townshend, bought back Tamworth Castle for the Townshend family in 1833, but the Woody family remained at the Moat House, which by 1841 was known as ‘Mrs Woody’s Private Lunatic Asylum.’

After his mother’s death, Dr John Woody he took over running the asylum at the Moat House. But he was interested in being more than the resident surgeon at the old Jacobean manor house. Papers that were passed on to me some years ago show how Woody sought to determine whether he had any rights as the proprietor of the Moat House.

Woody commissioned the historian Markham John Thorpe (1817-1863) in 1852 to delve deeper into the history of the Moat House, and to see whether he had any rights and privileges that might have come from the previous owners, particularly the Comberford family.

John Francis Woody continued to live at the Moat House until about 1888, and died in 1894. His grandson, Edward Hollins, was the owner of the Moat House from about 1888, and was licensed to run the asylum. After his death, the Moat House and its furniture were sold in 1922.

The pedigree passed on to me last week by a descendant of the Woody family appears to be part of Thorpe’s work on behalf of the Woody family. It is in beautiful, Victorian copperplate script, although it is now worn and torn in many places. There are gaps in the family trees and pedigrees, but it seeks to trace these families back to the times of William the Conqueror and trails off at the end of the 17th century, with the last date in 1723.

These families intermarried with the Comberford family of Comberford and the Moat House, and this document was once part of the Moat House papers.

However, Thorpe seems to have been more intent on showing how the Ensor family of Wilnecote was descended from earlier branches of the Ensor and Endsore family in Derbyshire and were related to the Ferrers family of Tamworth Castle.

Tamworth Castle … the manuscript pedigree from the Woody family papers seeks to connect the Ensor family with the Ferrers family of Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Surprisingly, although Thorpe conducted extensive research on the Moat House families in local, parish and diocesan records, he does not seem to have been aware of the details in an earlier pedigree of the Endesore family of Comberford and Hopwas, compiled for the Visitation of Staffordshire in the year 1583.

Instead, this manuscript names the first definitive, continuous ancestor of the family as Thomas de Ednesouer or Ednesoure, ‘of a very ancient family’, living in the reign of Henry III.

There is a break once again during the reign of Edward I, and the family trees resume with Thomas Endsore of Comberford who, in the mid-16th century, married Anne, daughter and sole heir of John or William Hopwas of Comberford, ‘who represented the second line of the Comberfords.’

The pedigree then continues, generation by generation, through their eldest son, John Ensor of Comberford and Wilnecote, who bought land in Dosthill, and died in 1594.

Their son, Thomas Ensor of Comberford, was the first husband of Dorothy Comberford, daughter of Humphrey Comberford. She lived at the Moat House in Tamworth, and was twice married. According to this document, Thomas Ensore or Endsore was buried ‘as of Comberford’ on 25 September 1584, although most sources agree he died ca 1561, and that Dorothy married her second husband, Walter Harcourt of Tamworth, before 12 May 1563, when she was living in Tamworth.

Although the Moat House had been Comberford family property in the previous century, in 1549 it was granted to Thomas Endsore by Richard Jekes. Under an agreement made in 1554, the ultimate right to the ‘capital messuage’ of the Moat House should rest with the heirs of Mary’s father, Humphrey Comberford. Thomas Endsore died soon after, ‘seised of the manor or capital messuage called the Mote in Tamworth, and of land in Tamworth, Wigginton and Coton in County Stafford.’

Walter Harcourt was involved in a lengthy legal battle with the Jekes family in 1571, seeking to prove that the Moat House and about 600 acres was rightly his. The courts upheld that the Moat House was transferred from Jekes to Endsore in 1549 and was legally the estate of Ensor’s widow. When Mary died ca 1591, the title to the Moat House reverted to the Comberford family, although Walter Harcourt continued to live there until his death in 1598. Walter Harcourt was buried in Saint Editha’s, Tamworth, on 8 January 1598.

Mary Comberford and her first husband Thomas Ensor were the parents of four or five sons and three daughters:

1, Christopher Endsore (1562-1600) of Comberford. He married Jane (or Siscell or Cicelye) Breton, daughter of John Breton of Tamworth, on 23 January 1591/1592. She died in 1597, and that year he bought lands in Hints from the Comberford family.
2, Walter Endsore, of Wilnecote. He married and was the father of four daughters: Ann (baptised 1593), Dorothy (baptised 1595), Elizabeth (baptised 1599) and Catherine (buried 1605).
3, John Endsore, baptised in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, 26 June 1572, and died in 1594. He married Anne … (died 1598). However, the pedigree from the Moat House Papers suggests he moved to London and may have been a widower who was buried in Wilnecote on 6 December 1625. The pedigree from the Moat House does not name their five children:
●1a, Thomas Ensor of Wilnecote, his son and heir, buried 18 February 1629. He is the ancestors of the Ensor family who held Wilnecote until it passed through a female line into the hands of the Paul family some 200 years later.
●2a, Barnaby Ensor of Wylnecote, yeoman. He married ca 1579 Agnes, daughter and co-heir of John Alport of Hatherton, Staffordshire. His will was proved in Lichfield on 23 February 1599, and he was buried in Tamworth. She was buried on 14 November 1625. However, the Moat House pedigree says he was a brother of Thomas Ensor who married Dorothy Comberford.
●3a, Ann, married William Nicklyn in 1588.
●4a, Walter Ensor, married and had several children, including Ann, Dorothy, Jane, Elizabeth and Katherine.
4, William Endsore, buried in Wilnecote, 7 February 1603.
5, George Endsore, with whom the Moat House pedigree continues.
6, Elizabeth.
7, Susan.
8, Isabel. Lee wonders whether she married James Stuart, created Lord Doune in 1581, ‘whose family brought about the Doone dynasty which featured Charles Stuart (Carver Doone), whose son was named Ensor Stuart Doone, and whose family featured in the legendary story Lorna Doone?’

Mary Comberford and her second husband Walter Harcourt were the parents of six children, none of whom married and all of whom may have died in infancy, apart from one son:

9, Edward Harcourt, still living in 1596, and who was buried in Tamworth on 4 September 1609.

The pedigree from the Woody family papers in the Moat House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The pedigree from the Woody family papers does not mention Mary (Comberford ) Endsore’s second marriage to Walter Harcourt, and says she died not in 1591 but in 1601, and was buried on 1 May 1601.

The family tree continues with Dorothy (Comberford) Ensor’s fifth son, George Ensor, and his children.

George Ensor, who appears to be the fifth son of Dorothy (Comberford) and Thomas Ensor, is said in the Moat House pedigree to have been born ca 1574. He married a member of the Coleman family, and they were the parents of two sons and five daughters:

1, Christopher Ensor, baptised 17 August 1592, buried 1596.
2, John Ensor, ancestor of the remaining generations in the Moat House pedigree.
3-4, two daughters buried on 14 November 1594.
5, Lettice, buried 1596.
6, Dorothy, baptised 1597.
7, Grace, baptised 1601.

The surviving son, John Ensor, was born ca1593, and appears to be still living in 1642; he may have died in 1655. The pedigree continues for three more generations, and is mainly concerned with asking questions about the Ensor family’s property in Wilnecote up to 1723 – 300 years ago.

This manuscript pedigree from the Moat House is concerned mainly about the descent of property in Wilnecote through this branch of the Endsore or Ensor family. But the details, dates and the chronology in this document also challenge many of my interpretations of evidence for the descendants of Dorothy (Comberford) and Thomas Ensor of Comerford and the Moat House.

Surprisingly, it makes no mention of the Moat House itself.

So, I must now return to the family tree I had proposed for the descendants of Dorothy (Comberford) and Thomas Ensor, and see whether I need to correct my own interpretations of my research.

The Moat House, the former Comberford home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth … the Victorian manuscript challenges some of my interpretations of the Ensor family tree (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (1) 29 May 2023

The Day of Pentecost … a modern image in a stained-glass window (Photograph courtesy Crossroads Initiative)

Patrick Comerford

The Fifty days of Easter season came to an end yesterday with the Day of Pentecost (28 May 2023), or Whit Sunday, and Ordinary Time resumes today (29 May 2023).

Today is a bank holiday in England. Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. In this first week in Ordinary Time, between the Day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday (4 June 2023), I am reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at an image or stained glass window in a church or cathedral I know depicting Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, or the Feast of the Day;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘Come Holy Spirit’ … the holy water stoup in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning, on the day after Pentecost, my principal image is a modern depiction of the Day of Pentecost from the site Crossroads Initiative, to which Heather Kiernan first drew my attention last week.

But this morning I am sharing three other images of the Holy Spirit from the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield, which has been at the heart of my spiritual life since I was in my late teens.

On entering the chapel, the holy water stoup calls on us to join in the invitation, ‘Come Holy Spirit.’

Inside the chapel, on the east wall of the north aisle the Holy Spirit shapes and forms the top panel of the Triptych (1999) of the Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist.

In the courtyard outside the chapel, there is yet another reminder of the work of the Holy Spirit in figures of ‘Noah and the Dove,’ a sculpture by Simon Manby, commissioned in 2006.

Mark 10: 17-27 (NRSVA):

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.”’ 20 He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

The Holy Spirit shapes the top panel in the Triptych (1999) of the Baptism of Christ in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Pentecost.’ USPG’s Chaplain, the Revd Jessie Anand, introduced this theme yesterday, reflecting on Pentecost and languages.

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Monday 29 May 2023):

Let us pray for the island peoples of the Philippines. May they rejoice in their different languages and identities and find unity in their national identity.

Collect:

O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Gracious God, lover of all,
in this sacrament
we are one family in Christ your Son,
one in the sharing of his body and blood
and one in the communion of his Spirit:
help us to grow in love for one another
and come to the full maturity of the Body of Christ.
We make our prayer through your Son our Saviour.

‘Noah and the Dove’ in Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield … a sculpture by Simon Manby commissioned in 2006 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

How the identity of the Stanley effigy in Lichfield Cathedral has long confused many historians

The Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral has been identified in recent decades as George Stanley of West Bromwich and Wednesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

The Stanley effigy is in a niche in the south choir aisle of Lichfield Cathedral, close to the entrance to Saint Chad’s Chapel and the vestry, and opposite the monument to Bishop John Hackett.

The Stanley effigy has been described as ‘the most curious monument in the cathedral.’ Historians have acknowledged that identifying this tomb presents ‘many difficulties,’ and several historians believed they had managed to clear up any questions about its identity.

When I was in Lichfield Cathedral a few weeks ago, visiting the ‘Library and Legacy’ exhibition in the Chapter House, I also photographed the stained glass windows in the Chapter House.

The image of the Stanley family arms in one of those windows reminded me to return to the Stanley effigy and to explore the conflicting claims to identifying the person represented on this 16th century, pre-Reformation tomb.

My search also reminded me of some interesting genealogical connections between the Stanley family and the Comberford family.

The Latin inscription in a plaque in the niche identified the effigy as John Stanley, son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle depicts a knight naked to the waist. The lower part of the figure was clothed with a deep skirt painted with the arms of the Stanley family, the legs were in armour, while under the head was a buck’s horn, with a similar horn beneath the feet.

However, the effigy was severely mutilated by Cromwell’s Puritan Parliamentarians during the sieges of Lichfield in the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, making it difficult for historians in later generations to identify this member of the Stanley family with certainty.

A brass plate in the niche above the effigy identifies this as the tomb of John Stanley, son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe. But this appears to be a Victorian addition, and so is not conclusive evidence of the effigy’s subject.

More recently, however, despite the Victorian inscription, historians have identified this as George Stanley (ca1440-1509) of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, High Sheriff of Staffordshire (1473) and a younger son of Thomas Stanley of Elford.

Yet, antiquarians in the 18th century identified the effigy with Sir Humphrey Stanley (ca 1455-1504) of Pipe, and, since the mid-19th century, the monument has been ascribed to Sir Humphrey Stanley’s son, John Stanley of Pipe, who died in 1515.

However, prior to any of these claims, the monument was long identified simply as ‘Captain Stanley,’ who for some unknown offence had been excommunicated, and who, after penitence, had been buried in the cathedral on condition that the evidence of his punishment should appear on the effigy on his burial place.

During the Siege of Lichfield and the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, the Roundheads defaced and mutilated the Stanley monument to such an degree that many later doubted the story of a Stanley who was buried depicted in such a humiliating state of punishment.

A drawing of the effigy published by the Revd Stebbing Shaw in his History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (Image © Staffordshire Past Track)

Shortly before the Civil War, Sir William Dugdale (1605-1686) made a coloured drawing of the effigy for Sir Christopher Hatton (1605-1670). Dugdale had many links with south Staffordshire and was also the father-in-law of the Lichfield-born antiquarian Elias Ashmole (1617-1692).

According to Dugdale, Hatton foresaw the Civil War and the destruction of churches, and commissioned Dugdale in 1641 to make exact drawings the monuments in Westminster Abbey and the principal churches in England. Dugdale’s drawing of the effigy in Lichfield Cathedral shows the stone figure of Stanley bareheaded and bare-chested, flanked by two bucks’ horns, wearing a skirt decorated with heraldic arms and armour on his legs.

But Dugdale’s depiction of the monument was long-lost, nor did he not offer a definitive identification of a Stanley family member.

The Revd William Stukeley (1687-1765) was an important antiquarian in the early 18th century, pioneering the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric sites at Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire. He published over 20 books on archaeology and other scholarly topics.

Stukeley included the Stanley tomb among the ‘remarkable subjects’ things he had seen in Lichfield Cathedral during a visit in 1715. He recalled: ‘ As you walk down the south isle the first figure in the walk at a the wall of the choir lieth one Capt. Stanley, said to be of the house of Derby, he was a stout and valiant man and is said to have challenged any may to fight with him, not excepting the king, for which insolency the king commanded him to be stripp’d naked from the waist upwards, and to go so till he should repent of that rash challenge; but tho’ the king took pity on him to see him go naked and order’d him to wear cloaths again, yet he refused and went so as long as he lived, and so is he figured on the tomb naked from the waist upwards.’

However, once again, Stukeley does not definitively identify this Captain Stanley, and he places him in the Derby branch rather than the Elford or Pipe branches of the Stanley family.

At the end of the 18th century, the Welsh antiquarian Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), in his Journey from Chester to London (1792), identified this tomb with Sir Humphrey Stanley (ca 1455-1504) of Pipe.

Pennant, in his description of the tomb, wrote: ‘I find a Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, who died in the reign of Henry VII, who had a squabble with the chapter about conveying water through his lands to the close … so probably this might be the gentleman who incurred the censure of the church for his impiety.’

Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe was a grandson of Sir Thomas Stanley (died 1463) of Elford. Sir Humphrey was knighted by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and was three times sheriff and several times MP for Staffordshire. However, when he died in 1504, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and not in Lichfield Cathedral.

His son and heir John Stanley, who also lived at Pipe, married Margaret Gerard and died in 1514, leaving two infant daughters and coheirs, Elizabeth and Isabel. From there, the genealogy of the Stanley family is confusing, and there are confusing and conflicting accounts of intermarriage with the Heveningham family, who eventually inherited Pipe Manor.

The Revd Stebbing Shaw, in his History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (1798), said the arms on the base of the tomb show ‘the arms of Stanley impaling or, three chevronels gules (Clare).’ This would mean that the person in the effigy married a woman from the Clare family. However, Sir Humphrey Stanley married Ellen Lee from Stone and was buried in Westminster Abbey, not in Lichfield Cathedral. In addition, the sketch of Stanley’s body in Shaw (vol 1, plate XXIV, after p 246), does not match Dugdale’s drawing.

Hewitt’s reproduction of Dugdale’s sketch of the Stanley effigy in Lichfield Cathedral

Dugdale’s drawing was found in the 19th century among papers belonging to the Earl of Winchelsea. It showed the figure’s skin was bare, and that the skirt had the Stanley coat-of-arms. However, this discovery did not clear up the difficulty about identifying the subject of this effigy.

J Hewitt wrote in the Archaeological Journal (volume 24, 1867, pp 222-225) that further investigation showed that the arms of Clare are also the arms of Gerard, and he linked the effigy instead with Sir Humphrey Stanley’s son, Sir John Stanley (died 1514) of Pipe, who married Margaret Gerard, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard.

Hewitt noted that the monument had long been identified as ‘Captain Stanley,’ who for some unrecorded offence had been excommunicated, and who, ‘after atonement, had been buried in holy ground on condition that the evidence of his punishment should appear on the effigy on his burial place.’

In reality, John Stanley of Pipe, elder son of Sir Humphrey Stanley, died in July 1515 and had never been knighted. However, in the same edition of the Archaeological Journal, a Dr Rock wrote that ‘this Stanley, of knightly rank, had drawn upon himself the greater excommunication through the spilling of blood in Lichfield Cathedral on some occasion … He lies bareheaded and naked as far down as the girdle. His upraised hands, according to the representation given by Pennant, and copied in Shaw’s History of Staffordshire, held a scroll which must have been the document … signifying under the bishop’s hand that, having undergone the canonical penance, the offender was again admitted to all Christian privileges.’

This John Stanley of Pipe, who died in 1515, was an elder brother of William Stanley of Elford, who married Margaret Comberford, a daughter of Thomas Comberford (1472-1532), of Comberford, Tamworth and Lichfield. Margaret’s brother, Humphrey Comberford (ca 1496/1498-1555), married the heiress of Wednesbury, Dorothy Beaumont, whose father was a half-brother of John Stanley (1470-1534), son of George Stanley who now seems, definitively, to be the person represented in the effigy in Lichfield Cathedral.

This George Stanley (ca 1440-1509), who has been identified convincingly in recent decades with the monument, was a younger son of Thomas Stanley of Elford and an uncle of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe.

Dr Nigel J Tringham of Keele University, the Victoria County History of Staffordshire, and other sources, as well as sites such as ‘Find a Grave’, now identify this effigy with George Stanley. Dr Tringham presented his conclusions in ‘An early eighteenth-century description of Lichfield Cathedral’ (Transactions of the South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, 1986-1987, vol 28, 1988, pp 55-63).

This more recent identification is also the conclusion of P Montague-Smith in his paper ‘The mystery of the Stanley Memorial, Lichfield Cathedral, and its heraldic solution’ (The Coat of Arms, Heraldry Society, Vol V (new series), no. 128, Winter 1983/1984).

This George Stanley was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1473, and Escheator of Staffordshire. He married Eleanor Sutton, a daughter of Sir John Sutton of Dudley and widow of Sir Henry Beaumont of Wednesbury, who died in 1471. Eleanor and her first husband, Sir Henry Beaumont of Wednesbury, were the parents of Sir John Beaumont, whose daughter and co-heiress, Dorothy Beaumont, married Humphrey Comberford of Comberford and Tamworth.

Indeed, this Humphrey Comberford was a brother of Dorothy Comberford, who married William Stanley, a brother of John Stanley, identified by many with the Stanley effigy in Lichfield Cathedral. He was also a brother of Canon Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral, and Richard Comberford, often (albeit mistakenly) identified as the ancestor of the Comerfords of Co Kilkenny and Co Wexford.

George Stanley and Eleanor Sutton (Beaumont) were the parents of one son and one daughter, John Stanley and Anne, the wife of Sir John Wolseley.

George Stanley died in 1509 and was buried in this tomb in Lichfield Cathedral. However, why he is apparently depicted in a state of penitence and his sin both remain unknown, and the plaque above the effigy continues to identify this effigy as John Stanley, son of Sir Humphrey Stanley.

The Stanley coat-of-arms (left) in a stained glass window in the Chapter House, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Morning prayers in Easter with USPG: (50) 28 May 2023

Titian’s painting of ‘Pentecost’ or ‘the Descent of the Holy Spirit’ in the Church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Easter season enters its final day today, the Day of Pentecost (28 May 2023), or Whit Sunday.

A note on the Easter Season in the service booklets in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, and Saint George’s Church, Wolverton, reminds us:

‘The Great Fifty Days of Eastertide is where the joy created on Easter Day is sustained through the following seven weeks, and the Church celebrates the gloriously risen Christ.

‘The Paschal Candle we lit on Easter Day stands prominently in our church for all the Eastertide services. The Alleluia appears frequently in the liturgy, speech and song, and white or gold vestments and decorations emphasise the joy and brightness of the season.

‘On the fortieth day of Easter, there is a particular celebration of Christ's ascension. He commissions his disciples to continue his work, he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then he is no longer among them in the flesh. The ascension is therefore closely connected with the theme of mission.

‘The arrival of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost completes and crowns the Easter Festival.’

As the booklet for the midday Eucharist in Lichfield Cathedral reminds me: ‘The Great Fifty Days of Eastertide form a single festival period in which the tone of joy created at the Easter Vigil is sustained through the following seven weeks, and the Church celebrates the gloriously risen Christ’.

Later this morning I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist celebrating Pentecost in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton. Later this afternoon, as part of the celebrations for Pentecost, the church is sharing a Taizé service, a reflective service of music, silences, scripture and prayer, including prayers for healing.

Ordinary Time resumes tomorrow.

But, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection. I am reflecting each morning during Easter and Ascensiontide in these ways:

1, Looking at images or stained glass windows in a church or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute seen from the Grand Canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘Pentecost’ by Titian, the Church Santa Maria della Salute, Venice:

This morning, on the Day of Pentecost, I am looking back on a recent visit to the Church Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, where the treasures include Titian’s painting of ‘Pentecost’ or ‘the Descent of the Holy Spirit.’

In A Passage to India (1924), EM Forster describes Salute, one of the most painted and depicted churches in Venice, as ‘holding the entrance of a canal which, but for it, would not be the Grand Canal.’

Santa Maria della Salute is at the southern-most entrance to the Grand Canal. The dome of the Salute is an emblem of the skyline of Venice and the church and its silhouette have inspired artists from Canaletto to Turner and Sargent.

This baroque church stands between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, on the narrow finger of Punta della Dogana. It can be seen clearly from the waterfront at the Piazza San Marco.

Although Salute is best-known for the dome that makes it an architectural landmark, its spacious, light-filled interior – like so many churches in Venice – is filled with artistic treasures.

So often, people raise their glasses in Italy with the toast Salute!. It might be too easy to translate this as ‘Cheers!’ or ‘Your health!’ But the name of this church is associated with prayers for the health of Venice and deliverance from the plague almost 400 years ago.

The Salute is one of the so-called ‘plague churches’ in Venice and its full name is Santa Maria della Salute: Saint Mary of Health, or Saint Mary of Deliverance.

After Venice was devastated in an outbreak of the plague in 1630, the Serene Republic agreed to build a church dedicated to Our Lady of Health or of Deliverance as a thank-offering for the city’s deliverance. The church was designed by the architect Baldassare Longhena, who studied under Vincenzo Scamozzi.

Venice was devastated by a the plague in a wave that began in the summer of 1630 and continued into 1631, killing almost one-third of the population of the city. In all, 46,000 people died in the city, and 94,000 more died in the lagoon and the surrounding islands.

As they prayed for an end to the plague, the people of Venice held processions and public displays of the Blessed Sacrament, with processions to the churches of San Rocco and San Lorenzo Giustiniani. Over half a century earlier, during another plague attack in 1575-1576, the city had responded by commissioning Andrea Palladio to design the Church of Il Redentore (the Redeemer) on Giudecca.

On 22 October 1630, Church and State responded as the Venetian Senate decreed that a new church should be built, dedicated not to a another ‘plague’ saint or patron but to the Virgin Mary, who was revered as a protector of the Republic.

But the Senators also wanted a monumental church in a place that could be reached easily from Saint Mark’s Square. The location was chosen from among eight potential locations, partially because it was possible to link it with San Giorgio, San Marco and Il Redentore, and the four churches form an arc in Venice. The Salute also stands close by the custom house or Dogana da Mar, the symbol of the maritime commerce of Venice, and near the civic centre of the city.

At first, the Patriarch of Venice opposed the location of the church. He owned a church and seminary that stood on the site until the dispute was resolved. Eventually, building work began in 1631.

The architect Baldassare Longhena was only 26 when he was chosen by the Senate in a 66-29 vote to design the new church.

The Salute was novel in many ways, showing the influence of Palladian classicism and the domes of Venice. But this octagonal church is also influenced by Byzantine designs, including the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.

Salute is a vast, octagonal building with two domes and a pair of bell-towers, designed by Longhena as a crown-like church. However, the decorative circular building also looks like a reliquary, a ciborium, or an embroidered, inverted chalice that shelters the piety of Venice. It is full of Marian symbolism: the great dome represents her crown, the cavernous interior her womb, and the eight sides the eight points on her symbolic star.

Salute stands on a platform made of a million wooden piles, and is built of Istrian stone and marmorino or brick covered with marble dust. At the top of the pediment, a statue of the Virgin Mary presides over the church. The façade is decorated with figures of Saint George, Saint Theodore, the Four Evangelists, the Prophets, and Judith with the head of Holofernes. Recently, the statues of the four evangelists have been identified as the work of Tommaso Rues.

Inside, the church is octagonal with eight radiating chapels on the outer row. The three altars to the right of the main entrance are decorated with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary by Luca Giordano: the Presentation, the Assumption and the Nativity, and there is a painting by Titian of Pentecost or the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

Longhena himself designed the Baroque high altar, which displays a 12th or 13th century icon from Crete of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, known in Greek as Panagia Mesopantitisa, the ‘Virgin Mediator’ or the ‘Virgin Negotiator.’ The icon was brought to Venice from Iraklion in 1669 when the capital of Crete was captured by the Ottoman Turks.

The group of statues above the high altar shows the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven driving the Plague out of Venice. This theatrical Baroque masterpiece was executed in 1670 by the Flemish sculptor Josse de Corte.

Tintoretto painted the ‘Marriage at Cana’ in the great sacristy, which includes a self-portrait. Titian painted Saint Mark Enthroned with Saints Cosmas, Damian, Sebastian and Roch, seen in the altarpiece in the sacristy, as well as ceiling paintings of David and Goliath, Abraham and Isaac and Cain and Abel, and eight tondi of the eight Doctors of the Church and the Evangelists, all in the great sacristy, and the Pentecost in the nave.

The church was not completed until 1681, shortly before Longhena died. He wrote:

‘I have created a church in the form of a rotunda, a work of new invention, not built in Venice, a work very worthy and desired by many. This church, having the mystery of its dedication, being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, made me think, with what little talent God has bestowed upon me of building the church in the … shape of a crown.’

Later he wrote: ‘It is a virgin work, never before seen, curious, worthy and beautiful, made in the form of a round monument that has never been seen, nor ever before invented, neither altogether, nor in part, in other churches in this most serene city.’

Longhena’s last great work in Venice before he died is the Ca’Pesaro, a colossal baroque palace on the Grand Canal.

The Senate agreed to visit the church each year. On 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, or the Festa della Madonna della Salute, the city officials paraded from San Marco to the Salute for a service in gratitude for deliverance from the plague. This involved crossing the Grand Canal on a specially-built pontoon, and this parade is still a major event in Venice each year.

As time passed, the dome of the Salute became an important landmark on the Venetian skyline and it soon became an emblem of the city, inspiring painters from Canaletto (1697-1768) to JMW Turner (1775-1851) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

Inside the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSVA):

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13 But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 “In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”’

The High Altar in the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 20: 19-23 (NRSVA):

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

Inside the dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Pentecost.’ USPG’s Chaplain, the Revd Jessie Anand, introduces this theme this morning, reflecting on Pentecost and languages:

‘On the first day of Pentecost, hearing people speak in different languages and understanding the mighty works of God was a first-hand experience. Today in the world church, Pentecost reminds us of the importance of gathering multilingual worshippers to witness Christian unity.

‘In the Philippines, Filipino Christians from 7,640 islands, and speaking many different mother tongues, worship in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church) and the Episcopal Church. There are 183 languages in the country. Among them, Tagalog and English are the official languages. The presence of multilingual worshippers in Philippine’s churches, and their witness in their communities, certainly promotes the Pentecostal experience in the life journey of Filipino Christians.

‘In Saint Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral at Quezon City in Manila, the worshippers had a vision to include deaf people and people who do not speak. Many worshippers have undertaken sign language training which helps to unite all worshippers in a meaningful Pentecostal experience. No one is excluded on grounds of language.

‘Pentecost enables us to rise above the limitations of our own languages. It is transformative and demonstrates the inclusive nature of God’s kingdom.’

The USPG Prayer invites us to pray this morning (Sunday 28 May 2023):

O Breath of life, come sweeping through us,
revive your Church with life and power;
O Breath of life, come, cleanse, renew us,
and fit your Church to meet this hour.
– Elizabeth Ann Head (1850-1936).

Collect:

God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Faithful God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation
the way of life eternal:
open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute seen from the waterfront at Saint Mark’s Square in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org