Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 10 September 2011

Bl Agnellus of Pisa


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

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

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

photo

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa
Modern glass in Greyfriars Church,
Oxford

Image: Lawrence Lew OP on Flickr


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