Two contrasting churches in Headington, Baptist and Catholic, illustrate church diversity in Oxford

Headington Baptist Church is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the present building this year, but the church dates back to early 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my visits to Headington in Oxford last week, in between visits to the John Radcliffe Hospital, I visited a number of churches in the area, including Saint Andrew’s Church, Headington, Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Saint Michael and All Angels, New Marston, Headington Baptist Church and Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

Headington Baptist Church is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the present building later this year. But the story of the congregation dates back to the early 19th century, when New Road Baptist Church in Oxford started one of its first ‘mission stations’ for dissenters in Old Headington. This means the Baptist Chapel was the first nonconformist chapel in Headington, until a Methodist chapel was built in Trinity Road, Quarry, in 1830.

Headington’s first purpose-built Baptist chapel opened 1836 in what is now a private house known as Croft Hall. Croft Hall stood on land owned by the Latimer family, then the lords of the Manor of Headington and the owners of Headington House, and the freehold was acquired in 1841.

The chapel acquired more land In 1875 to extend its burial ground. However, the chapel was no longer big enough by the end of the 19th century, and the Baptists built a new chapel in Old High Street in 1901.

The cottage to the south of the new chapel was demolished in 1916, and two years later the vacant plot was bought by the Baptist Chapel. Most of the male members of the congregation were then away at war, and women and children helped to clear the site to grow vegetables. The site was to remain a vegetable plot for 16 years.

After World War I, a war memorial organ by Martin & Coate of Oxford was installed in the church in 1920.

The chapel was extended for the first time In 1934 over part of the vegetable plot, and the rest of the plot was turned into a garden. The garden was lost In 1971 when the church was extended again, and the new enlarged church was used for another 23 years until 2004.

The old church was demolished in August 2004 and the first service in the new church took place 20 years ago, on Sunday 5 November 2006.

The Baptist Church continued to own the old chapel in the Croft until the mid-1970s. Initially it was used as a Sunday school, but this was closed in 1924 because the building had fallen into disrepair.

The Freemasons offered to refurbish the building in 1937 as part of a leasing arrangement, and the continued to use the building until 1944. After that, the Exclusive Brethren used the building, and it was then used by a carpet shop. Croft Hall was sold in 1976 and has been converted into a private house.

Corpus Christi Church on the corner of Margaret Road, was built in two phases, beginning 90 years ago in 1936 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Corpus Christi Church on the corner of Margaret Road and Wharton Road in Headington was built in two stages in the 1930s and 1950s. The first Mass in Headington was said by Father Fabian of Greyfriars in 1932, and for about three years a Sunday Mass was celebrated at 9 am for a congregation of 30 to 40 in a café in New High Street.

Father William Flint had been sent to Headington by the Archbishop of Birmingham in November 1935 and Mass was celebrated for the first time in the new Parish Hall on the Feast of Corpus Christi, 12 June 1936. The construction of the church began that month.

Cardinal Arthur Hinsley (1865-1943), Archbishop of Westminster (1935-1943), laid the foundation stone on 1 October 1936. The first stage of the church – the east end – was blessed and opened on 18 February 1937 by Thomas Williams (1877-1946), Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham (1929-1946).

The church was designed by Gilbert Thomas Francis Gardner (1880-1955), who was an architect in Oxford for many years. His projects included the Oxford War Memorial (1921), Twinings shop, Oxford (1924), and shops and flats in Park End Street, Oxford (1925).

Corpus Christ Church in Headington was built in two phases: the east half was built in 1936-1937, and the second phase, the west half, was completed in 1953, although without the tower shown on the original plans. The break between the two parts can still be seen in the different coloured roof tiles and the different types of timber used for the woodblock floor.

The church is built with brick laid in English garden wall bond with a tiled roof and aluminium windows. The plan consists of a longitudinal aisleless nave with a narrower chancel, and a short west tower flanked by transepts. Above the moulded west doorway is a niche with a statue of Christ in Majesty.

The south elevation has gables over five of the central nave bays which project above the roofline. The central gable is wider, presumably due to the original porch below, which is now a niche with a Sacred Heart statue. The east end has a shallow curved extension of the early 1970s to the original blind east wall.

Inside, the church has a tunnel vaulted seven-bay nave. The lobby at the north-west was originally the baptistery, and retains its wrought-iron gates. The sanctuary is flanked by two side chapels. The stone altar, tabernacle stand and lectern date from the reordering in 1980. In the early 1970s, the east end was remodelled, with the addition In the 1970s of a curved dalle de verre window by Leslie Sheels, depicting the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

The north chapel has an icon of Mary Mother of God by the icon writer Alexander Gormatiuk of Moscow, installed in 2000. The south chapel has a copy of Michelangelo’s Pietà. Only the north side chapel retains its altar rails.

The Stations of the Cross (1985-1988) are circular reliefs in bronze by the Oxford sculptor Faith Tolkien (1928-2017), first wife of Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (1924-2020), a lecturer in New College, Oxford. Faith Tolkien’s bust of her father-in-law, JRR Tolkien, is in the English Faculty Library at Oxford University. Her other subjects include Iris Murdoch and CS Lewis.

When the church was refurbished in 2022/2023, the Oxford Preservation Society presented Corpus Christi Church with its 2023 Award for small projects.

• The Revd Ian McDonald is the Minister at Headington Baptist Church, where Sunday morning services begin at 10:30 am. Corpus Christi parish is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, and Canon Mervyn Tower is the parish priest. Sunday Masses are at 9 am, 11 am and 6:30 pm.

The first service in the new Headington Baptist Church was held on 5 November 2006 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For my guide to Oxford churches and chapels, visit here

A new biography of Patriarch Tikhon – a challenge to religious trends in Russia and the US today

Professor Scott M Kenworthy’s new biography of Patriarch Tikhon … launched in Cambridge this evening

Patrick Comerford

I an sorry to miss this evening’s launch of a new book in Cambridge, The People’s Patriarch: Tikhon Bellavin and the Orthodox Church in North America and Revolutionary Russia by Scott M Kenworthy, and published by Oxford University Press.

The book launch in Wesley House, Cambridge, this evening has been organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, where I have been a student on many courses over the years, mainly in Sidney Sussex College.

This is the first scholarly and comprehensive biography of Patriarch Tikhon, and draws on documents from the Soviet leadership and secret police file that were previously inaccessible to researchers. It provides an in-depth account of a crucial period of Orthodox Christianity in North America and of Patriarch Tikhon’s vital contributions to its development. But it is also an important book at this crucial time of dissonate relationship between the Russian Church and the rest of the Orthodox world.

Professor Scott M Kenworthy is Professor of History in the History Department at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he also teaches for the Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Religious Studies programs, and is also Associate Professor of Comparative Religion.

He is the author of the prize-winning book The Heart of Russia: Trinity-Sergius, Monasticism and Society After 1825 and, with Alexander Agadjanian, Understanding World Christianity: Russia. He is a past president of the Association for the Study of Eastern Christianity and has held research fellowships in the US, Germany, Hungary and Romania.

On 28 October 1917, just days after the Bolsheviks seized power, the great Council of the Russian Orthodox Church voted to restore the patriarchate, which had been abolished by Tsar Peter the Great almost two centuries earlier in 1721. The council chose as the new patriarch Patriarch Tikhon (1865-1925), born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin, the son of a humble village parish priest.

As the Orthodox Bishop of North America (1898-1907), Patriarch Tikhon had already started putting into practice his vision of the Church as an organic body that welcomed the participation of all believers. The Bolsheviks, who had other ideas, aimed to create a revolution that would be carried out by the state on behalf of the people. They sought to eradicate religion as superstition, to disestablish the church and to destroy it altogether.

The alternate Russia that Patriarch Tikhon represented was crushed by the superior force of the Bolsheviks. But he helped to navigate the Church through immense challenges and, in the end, the Orthodox Church outlived the Soviet experiment.

In The People’s Patriarch, Scott Kenworthy tells the story of the clash of visions for the new Russia through the lens of the humble man chosen to lead the Church, whose life exemplifies the transformations within the Orthodox Church in late Imperial Russia and its fate during the Revolution. This the first critical biography of one of the most important Orthodox Christian leaders of the 20th century, based on an exhaustive use of previously untapped primary sources, including Patriarch Tikhon’s letters and encyclicals, previously classified documents from the Bolshevik leadership and Soviet secret police, and material from a dozen archives in five countries.

Patriarch Tikhon has been overlooked by most historians of Russia and the former Soviet Union, who have seen the Russian Orthodox Church as irrelevant within an anti-religious Communist polity. This book tells his story from his humble beginnings in the Pskov province in north-west Russia, to his ordination and consecration, and then his ministry as bishop of a diocese in Poland, where he was Bishop of Lublin.

For almost a decade (1898-1907), he was a bishop in the US, where he came to appreciate democracy, the separation of Church and State, and the vital part played by the laity and parish clergy within the Church. When he was appointed Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in 1898, he went to the US where he eventually became a naturalized American citizen. There he visited emerging Orthodox emigrant communities in cities such as New York and Chicago and in coal-mining and steel-making areas in in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

He reorganised the diocese, changed its name to the Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, and he blessed the cornerstone of Saint Nicholas Cathedral, New York, in 1901. He built churches across North America, opened dialogue with Greek Orthodox churches, and took part in the consecration of Reginald Heber Weller as an Anglican bishop in Saint Paul’s Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He returned to Russia in 1907 when he was appointed Bishop of Yaroslavl.

When he was chosen in 1917 as the eleventh Patriarch of Moscow and the first since Peter the Great abolished the patriarchate 200 years earlier, Patriarch Tikhon quoted Ezekiel prophetically: ‘How many tears and groans will I have to swallow.’

After the abdication of the tsar in March 1917, the Russian Church was freed from its subjugation to the State and became once again respected by a large section of the educated population. But the church also faced years of persecution, and lost its legal status and right to own property. Lenin launched a ferocious attack on the church in 1922, and Patriarch Tikhon was imprisoned from May 1922 until June 1923.

Patriarch Tikhon was effectively a prisoner in the Donskoi Monastery and was frequently interrogated in the Lubyanka. But on the occasions when he was allowed to take walks along the monastery walls, crowds would regularly gather below the walls to receive his blessing.

Thanks to changes in the regime and to support from abroad, particularly from Britain, Patriarch Tikhon was not put on trial or executed. On 13 April 1923, the Archbishop Randall Davidson of Canterbury and other British religious leaders, including the Chief Rabbi, issued a statement condemning religious persecution in the Soviet Union.

The British Foreign Secretary issued an ultimatum to the Soviet government on 8 May 1923, condemning ‘the definite object of destroying all religion in Russia’ and threatening to break off relations. The Soviet leadership was desperate to preserve the 1921 Anglo-Soviet Trade Treaty and to maintain good relations with Britain.

When Patriarch Tikhon died on 12 April 1925, between 30,000 and 40,000 attended his funeral in the Donskoi Monastery, many more than attended Lenin’s funeral the previous year.

Patriarch Tikhon defies definition, challengec the capitulation of many Christian leaders to the Trump regime in the US, and stands in sharp contrast to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow

Patriarch Tikhon defies definition as either a dissident or a collaborator. He endeavoured to preserve the Russian Orthodox Church while he tried to remain apolitical, and he criticised the Communist regime without opposing it.

He is a challenge to the capitulation of many Christian leaders to the Trump regime in the US. During his time as a bishop in the US, he came to appreciate democracy, plurality and diversity, and the separation of Church and State.

He also stands in sharp contrast to the present head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, with his intimate relationship with the Putin regime, his autocratic approach to church leadership, and his persistent attempts to sow divisions within the Orthodox churches.

The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC) said earlier this week: ‘Rather than serving as a prophetic voice for peace, reconciliation, and the sanctity of every human life, Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly offered religious justification for Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. He has portrayed the invasion as a sacred struggle, blessed those waging war, and increasingly intertwined the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church with the geopolitical ambitions of the Kremlin.’

Patriarch Kirill’s recent statements are disturbing and troubling. He has described Russia’s nuclear arsenal as a manifestation of God's ‘grace and mercy’ and he has claimed that the creation of the Soviet atomic bomb came about through divine providence and the prayers of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833), a Russian saint known for his life of contemplation and kindness.

His invocation of one of Orthodoxy’s most beloved saints in defence of nuclear weapons that are capable of unimaginable destruction is a profound distortion of the Christian faith. The Gospel proclaims peace, reconciliation, and the sacred dignity of every human person and must never be used to sanctify war, imperial conquest, or nuclear intimidation.

For more than four years, the Ukrainian people have endured the horrors of an unprovoked war with extraordinary courage, resilience, and unwavering faith. Families have been torn apart, cities have been reduced to rubble, and countless innocent lives have been changed forever.

In response, the Saint Nicholas National Shrine recently presented its Beacon of Hope Award to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine, recognising their courage, sacrifice, and resilience.

The National Shrine of Saint Nicholas was established to bear witness to the Light of Christ in the midst of darkness. It stands at the World Trade Centre as a place of prayer, remembrance and healing, and a reminder that evil and hatred will never have the final word. The US is about to mark the 25th anniversary of the ‘9/11’ attacks on 11 September 2001, the shrine is a ‘beacon of hope’ to all who suffer from violence, war, terrorism, and despair.

The shrine’s decision to honour President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine has been criticised by Patriarch Kirill’s apologists, who have claimed that Ukraine is persecuting Christianity and ‘shutting down churches’.

Saint Nicholas National Shrine was consecrated in memory of lives lost to terrorism 25 years ago, and remains a reminder to the world, like Patriarch Tikhon, that the Light of Christ continues to shine in the darkness, and the darkness shall never overcome it.

The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies is on Jesus Lane, Cambridge, beside Jesus College and Wesley House and across the street from Westcott House and Sidney Sussex College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A new guide to my visits to churches in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Since moving to Stony Stratford in Milton Keynes on my retirement at the end of March 2022, I have enjoyed visiting many churches, church buildings, and religious centres in Stony Stratford and the Milton Keynes area, and I have been writing about them and photographing them.

As the weeks turned to months and the months became years, the number of churches and religious centres I have visited in Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, and further afield in the neighbouring counties of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, continues to grow, so that in time it became difficult for some readers to find these postings on this site.

An earlier posting that offers a guide to these places has become cumbersome to edit, and so this posting offers fresh links to these and similar postings, and a guide to churches and similar places in Oxford and Oxfordshire is to follow in the days ahead.

As I write about more churches and religious buildings, I intend to update this guide to my postings, indicating the date of the latest update at the end of this page, and to provide a link in the toolbars on the front page of this blog.

The tower of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalen in Stony Stratford … originally a chapel-of-ease for the parish of Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Milton Keynes:

1, The Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Central Milton Keynes (7 December 2022) and here (21 May 2026)

Bletchley:

2, Saint Mary’s Church, Church Green Road, Bletchley, Church of England (16 December 2023)

3, Whaddon Way Church, Church of England and Baptist (13 November 2023)

4, Water Eaton Church Centre, Drayton Road, Bletchley, shared by Saint Frideswide’s Church (Church of England) and Spurgeon Baptist Church (16 January 2024)

5, Queensway Methodist Church (15 November 2022)

Bradwell:

6, Bradwell Abbey (5 April 2022)

Calverton:

7, All Saints’ Church, Calverton (11 September 2022), and here (16 April 2022)

Crown Hill:

8, The Oak Chapel, Crown Hill Crematorium, Milton Keynes (5 August 2026)

Downs Barn:

9, The Cross and Stable Church (12 June 2022)

Eaglestone:

10, The Chapel and Quiet Room, Milton Keynes University Hospital (20 March 2024)

Fishermead:

11, Trinity Church and Centre, Fishermead (13 June 2026)

12, Chinese Overseas Christian Mission, Fishermead (10 June 2026)

Furzton:

13, Church of the Servant King, Dulverton Drive (12 March 2025) and here (11 February 2026)

Great Linford:

14, Saint Andrew’s Church, Great Linford (25 May 2022) and here (3 November 2022)

15, The Old Rectory, Great Linford (17 November 2022).

16, The former Congregational Chapel, Great Linford (17 November 2022)

Middleton (Milton Keynes Village):

17, All Saints’ Church, Milton Keynes Village (29 January 2023)

New Bradwell:

18, Saint James Church (22 May 2022)

19, New Bradwell Gospel Hall, Caledonian Road (27 March 2023)

Newport Pagnell:

20, Saint Peter and Saint Paul (5 May 2022)

21, Saint Bede’s Roman Catholic Church (30 May 2022)

22, Newport Pagnell Methodist Church (11 May 2022)

23, Newport Pagnell United Reformed Church (7 May 2022)

24, (former) Tickford Priory (4 May 2022); see also here (19 May 2025)

25, Former Baptist churches, Newport Pagnell, 30 May 2022

Olney:

26, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, Olney (13 April 2025)

27, Olney Baptist Church (12 April 2025)

Shenley Church End:

28, Saint Mary’s Church (15 October 2022)

29, ‘Glastonbury Thorn’, Shenley Church End (15 November 2025)

Stantonbury:

30, Christ Church, Stantonbury (8 January 2025)

31, Saint Peter’s Church (ruins), Stantonbury (9 January, 2025)

Stony Stratford:

32, Saint Mary and Saint Giles (27 March 2022), and here (18 April 2022)

33, Saint Mary Magdalene (Church of England), church tower and church ruins (11 April 2022)

34, Saint Mary the Virgin (Church of England), former parish church (28 March 2022)

35, Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Ambrosios and Saint Stylianos (10 May 2022)

36, Saint Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic Church (14 April 2022)

37, Stony Stratford Methodist Church (20 April 2022)

38, Stony Stratford Community Church, Baptist (20 April 2022)

39, Stony Stratford Evangelical Church (Congregationalist) (20 April 2022)

40, Saint Paul’s former school chapel (13 April 2022) and here (29 June 2026)

41, Saint Peter’s (the Old Cross Keys), former church hostel or hospital (29 June 2026)

42, The former rectories in Stony Stratford (29 May 2022)

43, Calverton Limes, former home of two generations of Percevals, rectors of Wolverton Saint Mary, Stony Stratford (28 December 2022)

Walton:

44, Saint Michael’s Church, Open University campus, Walton (14 November 2022).

Wavendon:

45, Saint Mary's Church, Wavendon (11 September 2024)

Willen:

46, Saint Mary Magdalene (26 May 2022)

Wolverton:

47, Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton (19 April 2022)

48, Saint George’s Church, Wolverton (9 April 2022)

49, Woverton Methodist Church, Church Street (24 January 2023)

50, West End United Church, Church Street (24 January 2023)

51, former United Reformed Church (Congregational Church), Wolverton (26 February 2023)

52, Wolverton Evangelical Church, former Emmanuel Hall (25 January 2023)

53, Wolverton House, birthplace of Archbishop John Habgood of York (23 January 2023)

54, Urban Farm, Windsor Street, church-run project in Wolverton (10 July 2026)

Woughton-on-the-Green:

55, Saint Mary’s Church, Woughton (21 March 2024)

The Chantry Chapel of Saint John the Baptist … the oldest surviving building in Buckingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Other parts of Buckinghamshire:

Addington:

56, Saint Mary the Virgin, Addington (30 November 2025)

Aylesbury:

57, The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury (14 September 2022)

58, Aylesbury Methodist Church (11 January 2026)

59, (former) Congregational Church, High Street (14 September 2022)

60, Friends’ Meeting House (Quakers), Rickford’s Hill (14 September 2022)

61, New Tabernacle Church of God, Rickford’s Hill (14 September 2022)

62, The Prebendal House, Aylesbury (5 August 2025)

Buckingham:

63, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Parish Church (31 May 2022)

64, The Chantry Chapel of Saint John the Baptist (31 May 2022), and here (5 November 2025)

65, Saint Bernardine’s Roman Catholic Church, Chandos Road (6 November 2025)

66, former Franciscan seminary and church, London Road (18 July 2026)

67, The Old Meeting House, former Independent or Congregational chapel, Well Street (18 November 2025)

68, The Radcliffe Centre, former Congregational and United Reformed Church, Church Street (16 November 2025)

69, Salvation Army Citadel, Moreton Road, previously Primitive Methodists, Baptists (16 November 2025)

70, Well Street United Church, Methodists, URC and Baptists (16 November 2025)

71, Barton’s Chantry and Hospital, Church Street (9 June 2022)

72, Prebendal manors and houses, Buckingham (8 June 2022)

73, Saint Rumbold’s grave and legends, Buckingham (6 June 2022)

74, The Mitre Inn, Mitre Cottage on Mitre Street, Buckingham (25 November 2025)

Castlethorpe:

75, Saint Simon and Saint Jude Church (26 October 2025)

76, Castlethorpe Methodist Church (27 October 2025)

Gawcott:

77, Holy Trinity Church, Gawcott (23 November 2025)

78, Gawcott Methodist Chapel (24 November 2025)

Hanslope:

79, Saint James the Great Church, Hanslope (2 November 2025)

80, Hanslope Methodist Church (3 November 2025)

81, Gold Street Gospel Hall (former Baptist Chapel), Hanslope (3 November 2025)

Maids Moreton:

82, Saint Edmund’s Church, Maids Moreton (9 November 2025); see also here (11 November 2025) and here (12 November 2025)

83, The Old Rectory, Maids Moreton (8 November 2025)

Padbury:

84, Saint Mary’s Church, Padbury (14 December 2025)

85, The Old Chapel (former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel), Padbury (14 December 2025)

Seer Green:

86, Holy Trinity Church (18 January 2026)

Winslow:

87, Saint Laurence’s Church, Winslow (6 September 2022)

88, (former) Congregational Church, Horn Street (7 September 2022)

89, Keach’s Meeting House, Bell Walk (7 September 2022)

90, Winslow Tabernacle, the former Baptist Chapel off High Street, Winslow (8 September, 2022)

Bedfordshire:

Bedford:

1, (former) All Hallows’ Church, Church Square (8 August 2024)

2, Bunyan Meeting Church (Baptists, Congregational, URC), Mill Street (4 August 2024)

3, Holy Trinity Church, Bedford (1 August 2024)

4, (former) Howard Chapel (Congregational, URC), Mill Street (5 August 2024)

5, Saint Cuthbert’s Church, Bedford (31 July 2024)

6, Saint Paul’s Church, Bedford (29 July 2024)

7, Saint Peter de Merton Church, Bedford (30 July 2024)

8, (former) Panacea Society, Albany Road and Castle Road (28 July 2024)

9, sculpture of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, Bedford (3 August 2024)

Dunstable:

10, The Priory Church of Saint Peter, Dunstable (31 May 2026)

11, Christ Church, West Street, Dunstable (2 June 2026)

12, Dunstable Baptist Church at Saint Mary’s Gate, Dunstable (2 June 2026)

13, Dunstable Methodist Church, the Square, Dunstable (2 June 2026)

14, Saint Mary’s Church (Roman Catholic), Dunstable (1 June 2026)

Leighton Buzzard:

15, All Saints’ Church, Leighton Buzzard (17 August 2025)

16, Trinity Methodist Church, North Street (14 January 2026)

17, (former) Wesleyan Church, Hockliffe Street (14 January 2026)

18, Hockliffe Street Baptist Church (14 January 2026)

19, (former) Lake Street Baptist Chapel (14 January 2026)

20, Friends’ Meeting House (Quakers), Leighton Buzzard (31 August 2025)

Linslade:

21, Saint Barnabas Church, Linslade (24 August 2025)

Luton:

22, Saint Mary’s Church, Church Street, Luton (7 June 2026)

23, Bury Park United Reformed Church (12 January 2026)

The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Thomas of Canterbury on Barrack Road, Northampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Northamptonshire:

Cathedrals:

1, The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Thomas of Canterbury (Roman Catholic), Barrack Road, Northampton (5 February 2023)

Northampton:

2, All Saints’ Church, Northampton (6 February 2023)

3, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Sheep Street (7 February 2023)

4, Saint James’s Church, Saint James’s Road (8 February 2023)

5, Saint John’s Church (former), Bridge Street (9 February 2023)

6, Saint Peter’s Church, Marefair (9 February 2023)

7, Christ Image Assembly, Wellington Street (11 February 2023)

8, Friends’ Meeting House, Wellington Street (11 February 2023)

All Saints’ Church in Yelvertoft … Henry Comberford was the rector in 1546-1560 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Northamptonshire:

Badby:

9, Saint Mary’s Church (20 September 2023)

Blisworth:

10, Saint John the Baptist (7 September 2024)

Crick:

11, Saint Margaret of Antioch Church, Church Street (23 March 2023)

Deanshanger:

12, Holy Trinity Church, Deanshanger (22 March 2025)

13, Possible site of a monastery, Deanshanger (22 March 2025)

Lamport:

14, All Saints’ Church (6 May 2024)

15, Isham family chapel (6 May 2024), and the Lamport Crucifix (4 May 2024)

Long Buckby:

16, Saint Lawrence’s Church (4 April 2023)

17, Long Buckby Baptist Chapel (4 April 2023)

18, Long Buckby United Reformed Church (4 April 2024)

Old Stratford:

19, Memorial Hall, Old Stratford, venue for some evening services, Deanshanger parish (22 March 2025)

Passenham:

20, Saint Guthlac’s Church (21 April 2022), and here (8 June 2025)

Roade:

21, Saint Mary’s Church, Church End, Roade (9 September 2024)

22, Roade Baptist Chapel (9 September 2024)

23, Roade Methodist Church (9 September 2024)

Shutlanger:

24, Saint Anne’s Chapel-of-Ease (4 September 2024)

25, The Monastery, the former Parles and Comberford family chapel (4 September 2024)

26, (former) Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (8 September 2024)

Stoke Bruerne:

27, Saint Mary the Virgin (3 September 2024) and here (5 September 2024)

28, the Old Chapel, (former) Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (8 September 2024)

Towcester:

29, Saint Lawrence’s Church (20 March 2025)

Watford:

30, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church (11 March 2023)

Yelvertoft:

31, All Saints’ Church, Yelvertoft (20 March 2023)

The Quaker Meeting House at the north end of Wellington Street in Northampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Other Religious Traditions:

Synagogues in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire:

Bedford:

1, Jewish Bedford (12 July 2024) and here (9 August 2024)

Bletchley:

2, Bletchley: Bletchley Hebrew Congregation (1 December 2023)

Dunstable:

3, former synagogue, Watling House, 123 High Street North, Dunstable (5 June 2026)

4, former synagogue, 132 Luton Road, Dunstable (5 June 2026)

5, former synagogue, Poynters Road, Dunstable (5 June 2026)

Great Linford:

6, Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue, Great Linford (25 November 2022)

Luton:

7, Luton United Synagogue, Dunstable Road, Luton, and Jewish Luton (5 June 2025)

8, Luton Town Hall, venue for occasional Jewish services, 2001-2009 (5 June 2025)

9, 5 Moor Path, the first-ever synagogue in Luton (5 June 2025)

10, former synagogue, Bury Park Road (5 June 2025)

11, former synagogue, 51 John Street, Luton (5 June 2025)

Northampton:

12, Northampton Hebrew Congregation, Overstone Road (10 February 2023)

13, the Mediaeval Synagogue, Sheep Street (3 February 2023)

Wolverton:

14, The Wolverton United Synagogue Membership Group, or the Haversham Jewish Community, New Bradwell and Haversham (24 March 2023)

Mosques:

1, Fishermead: the Islamic Centre Milton Keynes, Fishermead Boulevard (12 June 2026)

2, Wolverton: The Central Jamia Mosque, Church Street, Wolverton (11 March 2024)

3, Luton: Islamic Cultural Centre, Bury Park Road (5 June 2025)

Buddhists:

1, Japanese Peace Pagoda, Willen, 24 May 2022

Other traditions:

1, The Tree Cathedral, Milton Keynes, 3 August 2022

The Peace Pagoda on the shores of Willen Lake was built in 1980 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Last updated: 30 August 2026

Saint Athanasius III of Rethymnon and stories of Byzantine intrigues, murders and persecution

An icon Saint Athanasius Patellarios of Rethymnon, Patriarch of Constantinople, completed by Alexandra Kaouki in 2011 (icon © Alexandra Kaouki)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Athanasius was a 17th century saint who was born in Rethymnon and who was twice Patriarch of Constantinople on two brief occasions, in 1634 and 1652. His story is entwined and entangled with Ottoman intrigue, that saw patriarchs removed, returned, deposed, exiled and even strangled at the whim of capricious sultans. Many Patriarchs held office for a few days and no more, while others returned to the throne, two, three, four and five times, and in one case six times.

I was reminded on Friday of these intrigues and the persecutions and traumas that faced the church in Orthodox Church over the centuries after my friend Alexandra Kaouki (Αλεξανδρα Καουκι), the foremost icon writer in Rethymnon, posted an icon she had completed in 2011 of Saint Athanasius.

Saint Athanasius Patellarios ((Άγιος Αθανάσιος ο Πατελάρος), commonly known as Saint Athanasius of Lubny or the Wonderworker, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two brief periods, in 1634 and again in 1652, and had also been the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki.

He was born Ἀλέξιος Πατελλάριος (Alexios Patellarios) ca in 1597 in the village of Axos, in the hills above Panormos, east of Rethymnon, when Crete was under Venetian rule. His ancestors were Greek noble family with ancestry dating back to the Byzantine imperial house of Palaiologos. His father Georgios was a scientist and publisher, and his elder brother Eustaphios became a physician.

Saint Athanasius studied at Arkadi Monastery, near Rethymnon and his home village of Axos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

He studied at Arkadi Monastery, near Rethymnon, where his studies included studied rhetoric, grammar and poetry, mathematics and astronomy, music and literature, theology and philosophy, sciences and languages (Greek, Latin, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew). He lived at Arkadi until he was 26 and then, after his parents died, he shared his property among the poor and with the name Ananias was became a novice in a monastery in Thessaloniki.

From Thessaloniki, he moved to the Monastery of Esphigmenou on Mount Athos, then travelled on to monasteries in Jerusalem, Palestine and Mount Sinai, and was tonsured with the name Athanasius.

When he returned to Thessaloniki he was ordained priest and worked as a missionary among the Vlachs and the Moldovians. At times, he returned to Mount Athos in search of solitude.

His work drew him to the attention of the controversial Patriarch Cyril I (Lukaris) of Constantinople (1621-1623), who appointed him a preacher of the patriarchal throne. He became the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1622, and remained there as bishop until 1634 when he was chosen as the Ecumenical Patriarch in controversial circumstances.

The Church of Saint Gregory Palamas has been the cathedral of Thessaloniki since the end of the 16th century … Saint Athansius became the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki in 1622 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cyril I, who was also from Crete, was a controversial patriarch, known for his supposed attempts to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church along Calvinist lines, although those attempts were rejected and his actions, motivations and opinions are still debated.

Cyril I, who had been the Patriarch of Alexandria as Cyril III, was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on six occasions, constantly deposed, banished or forced to resign several times at the instigation of both his Orthodox opponents and the French and Austrian ambassadors. He was the Patriarch for 21 days in October 1612; for 29 months from 4 November 1620 to 12 April 1623; for about 10 years from 22 September 1623 to 4 October 1633; for 4½ months from 11 October 1633 to 25 February 1634; for 11 months from April 1634 to March 1635; and, finally, for 15 months from March 1637 to 20 June 1638.

When Cyril I was deposed for a fourth time in 1634, he was succeeded by Saint Athanasius, who lasted as Patriarch for little more than month, and Cyril returned to the patriarchal throne for a fifth time.

Cyril Lucaris was born in Candia, present-day Iraklion, in Crete in 1572, and travelled throughout Europe, studying theology in Venice, Wittenberg and Padua, and in Geneva, where he was influenced by Calvinism and Reformed theology and developed great antipathy for Roman Catholicism. During that time, he may also have been the Rector of Ostroh Academy, in present-day Ukraine. In 1596 he was sent to Poland by Patriarch Meletius I of Constantinople to lead Orthodox opposition to the Union of Brest, a proposed union of Kiev with Rome.

He became the Patriarch of Alexandria at the age of 29 in 1601. Apart from his first brief time as Patriarch of Constantinople in 1612, he remained in Alexandria for 20 years until he became the Patriarch of Constantinople for the second time.

As Patriarch, Cyril I adopted a theology that was heavily influenced by Reformation theology. Faced with Turkish oppression on the one hand, and on the other by Jesuit missionaries working among Orthodox people, he recognised the need for schools teaching Orthodoxy and the Greek language, and founded a theological seminary on Mount Athos and a Greek printing press in Constantinople. However, the French government protested when the press began publishing anti-Catholic pamphlets and the Ottoman authorities forced it to close.

In his efforts to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church along Calvinist lines, Cyril I sent young Greek theologians to study in Switzerland, the Netherlands and England. He was particularly interested in the Church of England, corresponded with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and sent Metrophanes Kritopoulos, a future Patriarch of Alexandria (1636-1639), to study at Balliol College, Oxford.

His Confessio or the Eastern Confession of the Christian Faith, was published in Geneva in two Latin editions In 1629, with four French, one German and one English edition, and a Greek edition in 1633.

Saint Athansios moved to the Monastery of Esphigmenou on Mount Athos at an early stage in his life (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Cyril I was deposed by the sultan for a fourth time on 25 February 1634, and was imprisoned on the island of Tenedos. He was succeeded by Athanasius III, who assumed the Patriarchal throne on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1634. But he was Patriarch only for less than 40 days until April 1634, and he was deposed in intrigues that brought Cyril I back to the throne.

After he was deposed, Saint Athanasius was exiled to the island of Rhodes. He then lived in solitude on Mount Athos for over a year, fasting and praying at a that later became the Skete of the Prophet Elijah, near the Pantocrator Monastery.

For a time, Saint Athanasius lived in Ancona and Venice in Italy, where the Pope tried him to induce him to become a Catholic, promising to make him a cardinal.

Meanwhile, Cyril I, who had returned to Constantinople and replaced Athanasius as Patriarch, remained in office for only 11 months, and was deposed yet again in March 1635. Cyril returned as patriarch for his sixth and final time in March 1637 but was deposed on 20 June 1638. When Sultan Murad IV was to setting out for the Persian War, the Patriarch was accused of a design to stir up the Cossacks. To avoid trouble during his absence, the Sultan had him strangled by the Janissaries on 27 June 1638 aboard a ship in the Bosporus, and his body was thrown into the sea. The Council of Constantinople in September 1638 anathematised both Cyril I and his Eastern Confession.

Meanwhile Athanasius became Bishop of Thessaloniki once again in 1638. Because of a problem with paying metropolitan taxes, he was imprisoned and but was released through the intercession of Tsar Mikhail Romanov.

Athanasius was invited to Moscow in 1643, but on the way he fell ill in Moldova. He stayed there and founded there the monastery of Saint Nicholas near Galaţi, where he remained until 1651, returning often to Mount Athos where he hoped to spend his last days.

However, at the beginning of 1651 he returned to Constantinople. When Patriarch Cyril III was deposed in June 1652 after eight days, Athanasius was called back as Patriarch and was enthroned once again on 25 May was again enthroned. But on this occasions he remained patriarch for only 15 days. He found he was not acceptable to either the Muslims or the Catholics in the city, and in his sermon at his final Patriarchal service he denounced papal claims to universal jurisdiction over the whole Church.

After two weeks, he stepped down as Patriarch of Constantinople in favour of Metropolitan Paisius of Laureia, who remained in office as Patriarch Paisius I for only nine months, from July 1652 to April 1653.

After he was deposed a second time, Athanasius returned to Thessaloniki once again and renewed his connections with Mount Athos, expressing the hope that he could live out his life there.

Saint Athanasius visited Russia in April 1653, and he was met with honour in Moscow by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon (1652-1658) who donated generously to his monastery. He left to return to Galaţi in December 1653, but on the journey he fell ill and stayed at the Monastery of Transfiguration Mhar near Lubny in Ukraine in February 1654. When he died on 5 April at the Mhar Monastery, Abbot Petronios and the monks buried the former patriarch in a sitting position, according to the Greek custom for a bishop.

Saint Athanasius was recognised as a saint by the Russian Church on 1 February 1662 and his feast day was 2 May, the feast of Saint Athanasius the Great. His relics were later moved to Cathedral of the Annunciation in Kharkiv in Ukraine. Today the Mhar Monastery is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, affiliated to the Moscow Patriarchate, while the Annunciation Cathedral is the main Orthodox church of Kharkiv and the seat of the Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

A part of the saint’s relics, said to be a fragment of a finger, was brought to his home village of Axos near Rethymnon in 1993, and is kept in the Church of the Saint Athanasius Patellarios, built in 2008. The day the relic was moved, 21 August, is kept as his feast day in Crete. Alexandra Kaouki shared her icon of Saint Athanasius last Friday (21 August) to mark that feast day in Crete.

As for Cyril I – the controversial patriarch whose career is intertwined with the life story of Saint Athanasius – his body was recovered from the Bosphorus and was buried in Nicomedia, and after many years was brought back to Constantinople. He has been reappraised in recent decades, and the overwhelming majority of Greek and Russian Orthodox scholars today deny the authenticity of the Eastern Confession. This recent rehabilitation has led to the canonisation of Cyril I by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria in 2009 and by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2022.

The Church of the Four Martyrs in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

There is widening chasm between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of Russia today, and it is in danger of becoming a real schism. On the surface, these problems centre around the attitude of the two churches to the competing claims of Orthodox churches in Ukraine at a time of war in Ukraine. But at its heart this is a deeper conflict about the attitude of the Patriarchate of Moscow towards the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Moscow has refused to take part in many Pan-Orthodox initiatives, including the synod in Kolymbari in Crete ten years ago (19-26 June 2016) and has since continued to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate in intrigues and conflicts that have drawn in other Orthodox churches, including those in Greece, Romania and Alexandria.

An example of how divisions within Orthodoxy have been exploited by the Patriarchate of Moscow has been seen in recent days with the visit to Moscow by Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu with relics of Saint Spyridon. The bishop’s decision to concelebrate with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has caused controversy within the Orthodox Church of Greece, with church circles in Greece describing the visit as a ‘coup’ and questioning why the bishop celebrated with a patriarch who does not commemorate Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, the head of the Church of Greece.

The Moscow Patriarchate suspended Eucharistic communion with the Church of Greece in October 2019 after the Church of Greece recognised the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Metropolitan has been criticised for praising and presenting honours and medals to Patriarch Kirill who supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. There are in Greece that visit is being exploited by Moscow for its own purposes.

The life of Saint Athanasius is a reminder that there is nothing new in these conflicts and intrigues and that they stretch back many centuries. But there is also a reminder in the story of this one saint from Rethymnon of the thread that links together all these churches, including Constantinople, Greece, Crete, Alexandria, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.

The Cathedral of the Presentation of the Theotokos in Rethymnon … Saint Athanasius is commemorated in Crete on 21 August (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

‘A little too gorgeous and complete’: the Catholic church in Cambridge owes much to a former ballerina

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs (OLEM) stands on the corner of Hills Road and Lensfield Road in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

It is impossible not to notice the exuberantly massive Roman Catholic Church that stands tall on a prominent street corner on the way from the train station into the heart of Cambridge city centre.

This impressive – if not overpowering – castellated Gothic building is known locally as the Catholic church, or simply as ‘the Catholic,’ although local Cambridge Catholics often refer to it affectionately by its acronym, OLEM – Our Lady and the English Martyrs.

It was the first church my friend from Ireland and I visited during our walk-about in Cambridge two weeks ago. She was taking a short ‘top-up’ course in theology, and I was happy to show off the Cambridge I have known for almost 20 years.

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs, also known as the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs (OLEM), stands on the corner of Hills Road and Lensfield Road, a busy junction facing Regent Street and Gonville Place and a prominent corner in south-east Cambridge sometimes known locally as ‘Hyde Park Corner’.

It is a large Gothic Revival church built in 1885-1890, a Grade I listed building and the tallest building in Cambridge at 65 metres (213 ft), including the spire.

The Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs is a large Gothic Revival church in Cambridge designed by Archibald Dunn and Charles Hansom (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

For the first quarter of the 19th century, the nearest place for Catholic worship in Cambridge was at Sawston Hall, about 10k m south of the city. Saint Andrew’s Church was designed in 1842-1843 by AWN Pugin (1812-1852), the great architect of the Gothic revival, and built on Union Road. At the same time, Pugin published his trenchant critique in the Ecclesiologist of the architecture and style of Saint Paul’s Church, close-by on Hills Road. A few years later, Pugin would play an important role in the restoration, decoration and furnishing of the mediaeval chapel in Jesus College in 1846-1849.

The parish priest Canon Thomas Quinlivan (1816-1885) was born in Co Clare, and arrived in Cambridge in 1843. He quickly became a popular figure and acquired additional adjacent land In 1865, but he could not raise adequate funds a new building project needed.

The ban on Roman Catholics attending the university, receiving degrees or holding fellowships in Cambridge colleges, was finally lifted in 1871. Until then, Saint Andrew’s had served the small Catholic community in Cambridge, but the increasing number of Catholic students at the University of Cambridge created the need for a new, much larger church.

With the aid of the Duke of Norfolk, the Lensfield estate was bought in 1879, and the task of raising more funds fell to Canon Quinlivan’s successor, Monsignor Christopher Scott. The new church was all made possible by Yolande Lyne-Stephens (1812-1894), a wealthy widow and famed French-born former ballerina at the Paris Opera and Drury Lane.

Monsignor Scott wished to commemorate the Catholic Martyrs who died between 1535 and 1681, over 30 of whom had been in residence at the University. On the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August 1884, she offered Scott £70,000 – the equivalent of almost £10 million today – to finance building the new church in its entirety, ensuring that it was to be built to her taste. She also paid for other churches, convents and schools in England and for the bishop’s house in Northampton.

Yolande Lyne-Stephens bankrolled the construction of the ‘mini-cathedral’ in Cambridge, one of the largest Catholic churches in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Yolande Lyne-Stephens was the widow of Stephens Lyne-Stephens (1801-1860), a wealthy landowner who was said to be the richest commoner in England, and she bankrolled the construction of this ‘mini-cathedral’ – one of the largest Catholic churches in England.

In her biographical study, The beauty of her age, Jenifer Roberts tells the dark side of the story of Yolande Lyne-Stephens. She was born Pauline Duvernay in poverty in Paris, and by today’s standards, the adults involved in her life in her teens would all be accused of abusing her and her fellow dancers.

Roberts describes how Yolande was sold for sexual assignations from puberty, gave birth to two children, and became the mistress of a succession of men by the age of 18, including Louis Veron, manager of the Paris Opera.

When Yolande married Stephens Lyne-Stephens, the wealthy heir to the Lyne-Stephens glass fortune, she retired from the stage. They were married for 23 years before Stephens Lyne-Stephens died. Numerous court cases followed but Yolande inherited the family fortune and became the wealthiest woman in England – even richer, it was said, than Queen Victoria.

She dedicated the rest of her life to philanthropy and Catholic piety, despite living in a barely disguised ménage-à-trois with General Edward Stopford Claremont (1819-1890) and his Frances Charlotte (Wetherall) – Stopford Claremont was an illegitimate grandson of the 2nd Earl of Courtown.

The church is designed in the Gothic revival style, inspired by the Early Decorated or Middle Pointed style of the late 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The new church was designed by the architects Archibald Dunn (1832-1912) and Charles Hansom (1842-1900) of Newcastle. Their work includes the tower of the Catholic cathedral in Newcastle (Grade I), and the chapel of Stonyhurst College (Grade II*).

The building work by Rattee and Kett began in 1885, and the foundation stone was laid in June 1887. Despite the ill health of Yolande Lyne-Stephens, the church was completed and then consecrated on 8 October 1890. By the time of its completion, the total cost had risen from £30,000 to £70,000.

The first Mass was attended by all the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales except for Cardinal Manning and Bishop Vaughan.

The church is one of the largest Catholic churches in the United Kingdom. Outside and inside, it is a riot of detail and decoration: Gothic gargoyles and sleeping dogs, angels and saints, apostles and martyrs, all decorate and embellish the church in stone and in glass.

It is designed in the Gothic revival style, inspired by the Early Decorated or Middle Pointed style of the last quarter of the 13th century, and follows the traditional cruciform layout. Although it is not traditionally oriented – the High Altar and liturgical east face the geographic south-east – my references follow the conventional liturgical compass points.

The church has a polygonal apse and a central lantern tower. Casterton stone was used for the foundation, Ancaster stone for the plinth, the remainder is Combe Down stone, while the interior is built in Bath stone, Plymouth marble and Newbiggin stone.

The spire, the tallest in Cambridge, is 65 metres (214 ft) high and can be seen for several miles. The approximate internal dimensions are: length 48 metres (157 ft), width across the aisles 16 metres (52 ft), width at the transepts 22 metres (72 ft), and the height of the nave 15 metres (49 ft).

The west front and west door of the church in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The (north) entrance porch is richly carved and ornamented, with a trumeau featuring Saint John Fisher (1469-1535), cardinal, Bishop of Rochester, Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, who was martyred on 22 June 1535. In the tympanum is a figure of the Virgin Mary surrounded by sensing angels and a scrolling vine populated by martyrs.

The best general impression of the interior is obtained from the gateway in the iron screen dividing the nave from the ante-chapel. Inside and over the west door stands the figure of Our Lady of the Assumption crowned with lilies and standing on the crescent moon with the vanquished serpent beneath. The west window shows the English Martyrs arranged in two principal groups, the clergy on the south side with Saint John Fisher in their midst and the laity on the north grouped round Saint Thomas More.

The depictions in the windows include the dedications of Cambridge Colleges and scenes from the lives of English martyrs, in particular Saint John Fisher. The nave windows depict saints connected with the Church in Britain, arranged in chronological order from east to west.

The aisle windows were almost completely destroyed when the church was struck by a bomb on 1941, but were later replaced in their original form. They represent the various sufferings of the English Martyrs, their being brought before the council, racked, hung, drawn and quartered in the sight and sympathy of the faithful.

The north aisle windows depict Carthusians, Saint Thomas Moore, Blessed Margaret Pole and others, while the south aisle is made a ‘Fisher Aisle’, devoted to scenes from the life of Saint John Fisher.

Inside the church, looking from the iron screen dividing the nave from the ante-chapel towards the rood and the liturgucal east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Rood, between the nave and the sanctuary, is of the type known as Majestas, with the figure of Christ with glorified wounds, robed in alb, stole and pallium as High Priest and crowned as King ‘reigning from the Tree’. The oak cross is about 6 metres high, the figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John are of Kauri pine. They were carved locally by B Maclean Leach and completed and blessed in 1914.

Beyond the present, modern altar is the High Altar with the relics of Saint Felix and Saint Constantia, early martyrs Church. The tabernacle and ornaments of the altar are French work from Lyons. The baldacchino above the High Altar is similar to one over the tomb of Robert the Wise (1275-1343) at Santa Chiara, Naples. The figure of Christ in glory at the top is supported by angels on each side.

The Chapel of the Holy Souls is at the west end of the south aisle. The sculpture above the altar depicts the solace and relief of the Holy Souls in Purgatory through the intercessions of the Virgin Mary and the angel who comforted Christ in Gethsemane.

The organ was built in 1890 by Abbott and Smith to a specification by the Dublin-born composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), Professor of Music at Cambridge; his students included Herbert Howells, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The north aisle of the church, looking towards the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The belfry houses a ring of eight bells hung for change ringing, with a ninth for the Angelus. All the bells were cast in 1895 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. The tenor bell is believed to be the largest in Cambridgeshire. The chimes heard at each quarter-hour of the clock, made by Potts of Leeds, are based on the ‘Alleluia’ chant for the Easter Vigil.

The church has a 16th-century oak statue of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child beside the south aisle. The statue is said to have been found in Emmanuel College in 1850, and is said to be the same statue that Thomas Cromwell ordered to be removed in 1538. A notice under the statue the statue of was formerly in the Dominican priory that stood on the site of Emmanuel College.

The one additional donation Yolande Lyne-Stephens consented to was a mediaeval cross from the Austrian aristocrat Baron Anatole von Hügel (1854-1928), curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and a prominent Catholic in Cambridge.

The north entrance porch is richly carved and ornamented, with a trumeau featuring Saint John Fisher (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was intended to make a strong, dramatic statement of faith in a city that had a strong Protestant tradition. This new Catholic church on such a prominent site, with its dedication to the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, caused much controversy among local Anglicans and members of the university. The steeple was taller than the then recently-completed All Saints’ Church opposite Jesus College, and such a large church outside the Church of England ruffled the feathers of many people in Cambridge.

Perhaps for these reasons and many others, EM Forster says in The Longest Journey that the Catholic church ‘watches over the apostate city, taller by many a yard than anything within, and asserting, however wildly, that here is eternity, stability, and bubbles unbreakable upon a windless sea.’

After its opening, the church saw a great rise in the number of Catholics in the parish. This was partly due to Monsignor Scott’s pastoral work as parish priest and Father Robert Benson’s reputation as a preacher. Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) was, perhaps, the best-known priest associated with the church is. He had studied classics and theology at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1890-1893.

Benson was a son of Archbishop Edward White Benson of Canterbury, who had ordained him priest in 1895. But after some time with the Community of the Resurrection, he became a Roman Catholic in 1903, was ordained a priest a year later and was then sent to Cambridge, and was a curate there in 1905-1908.

He found the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs ‘a little too gorgeous and complete.’ But his impact on Cambridge undergraduates was so great that leading Cambridge Anglicans tried to put pressure on his family to make him leave.

Most of the windows were shattered and damaged during the Blitz in World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

During the Blitz in World War II, a small bomb struck the sacristy during an air raid in 1941, blowing a 6-ft hole in the roof and another in the wall of the Sacred Heart chapel. The blast also shattered most of the windows and collapsed part of the organ gallery.

To bring the sanctuary in line with the liturgical directives resulting from the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), it was redesigned and reordered by Gerard Goalen (1918-1999), a major architect of the Liturgical Movement in Catholic church design. Bishop Charles Grant of Northampton consecrated a new central altar on 7 April 1973. The original high altar was later used mainly for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Stanford organ was renovated in 2002 by Nicholson & Co Ltd. The choir is semi-professional and includes former university choral scholars. A second choir, the Schola Cantorum, sings almost exclusively in Latin, and sings polyphony and Gregorian chant at the weekly solemn Latin Mass.

Looking out on Hills Road from the north porch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was upgraded to a Grade I listed building from Grade II* in 2022. The rectory immediately to the south of the church dates from around 1890. In the Tudor style, of red brick with stone dressings and a castellated slate roof, it is a Grade II listed building.

Today, Cambridge is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia. Meanwhile, Pugin’s old church was dismantled and re-erected as the Church of the Sacred Heart in St Ives in Huntingdonshire and is now listed Grade II.

•The Right Revd Monsignor Provost Eugène Harkness is the Rector and parish priest. Mass times are: Saturday, 10 am and 6 pm (Vigil); Sunday, 8 am, 9:30, 11 am, 1 pm (Polish), 4:30 and 6: 30 (Latin); weekdays, 8 am and 12:15. The church is open daily

The rectory beside of the church is in the Tudor style, and is a Grade II listed building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)