Inghilterra (2)
28 June, 2006 by PF
(Now that I have given my talks at the Passionist Spirituality Institute, I can catch up on blogging.)
The next morning we left Aston for Daventry, the former home of the Passionist Contemplative Nuns. The nuns, who are now fewer in number, have moved to a new location in the grounds of Belmont Abbey. We were going to Daventry to meet a representative of the John Hardman Trading Company, a stained glass firm from Birmingham, to discuss moving the stained glass window from the nuns’chapel.
The window is about seventeen feet wide by about fourteen feet high. It was made by James Paterson of Devon, who also made a stained glass window for Agatha Christie –not of Hercule Poirot but the Good Shepherd. The window pictures Our Lady of the Passion, to whom the monastery was dedicated. Based perhaps on the image of the Mother of Holy Hope and certainly on the Belle Verrière of Chartres, it depicts Mary enthroned and crowned holding the child Jesus, who shows the Passionist sign. Unusually, the sign is red rather than black. The artist did not think that black would work in glass and preferred the sign in red. Surrounding the central figures is an oval of twelve stars supported by the four winged creatures of the Apocaypse, who symbolise the four evangelists. To the left and right are scenes of the Annunciation and the Pietà. The archangel Gabriel and the angel of the Pietà are particularly striking.
Unfortunately, the man from Birmingham couldn’t make it; after waiting two hours at the monastery, we finally reached him by phone, discovered what was going on (or not going on) and were able to make a new appointment for the following day; we then proceeded to our next destination, which was Oxford.
At Oxford we had arranged to meet Matthew Allen, a student at the University. Matthew manages a very fine website devoted to Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. He is also President of the Oxford University Newman Society. He brought us on a walking tour of part of the University, while we chatted about his interest in Saint Gabriel. A highlight of the walk was our visit to the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, where John Henry Newman was Vicar. Afterwards we visited Blackwell’s, but had to leave when the fire alarm went off; it’s the first time I’ve visited Blackwell’s in Oxford without buying a book, so some good came of it.
