Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Adrian Fortescue and St. Hugh of Lincoln

When I recently discovered that the First Garden City Heritage Museum in Letchworth had done an exhibition on Fr. Adrian Fortescue and the parish of St. Hugh of Lincoln in Letchworth, I immediately contacted them.

The museum staff were kind enough to send me a number of photos from the exhibition, which include historical photos of the original parish of St. Hugh itself (which is no longer standing, at least in the form Fortescue knew it in), of Adrian Fortescue himself, and also of Fortescue's marvelous script work -- not to mention a few other odds and ends.

Today, I thought I would show you a few of these photos, focusing on the interior of the parish of St. Hugh itself as well as one other photo. These might lend at least some sense of liturgical life under Fortescue's influence.

(Note: these photos are copyright © First Garden City Heritage Museum. They are reproduced by the NLM with permission.)


Note the ICXC NIKA ("Jesus Christ Conquers") Christogram on the antependium, something frequently seen in the Eastern Church and which Fortescue also adopted


Click to enlarge and see the beautiful detailing of the ciborium magnum, as well as the patterns behind the candlesticks. Atop the ciborium is written "Beati qui ad coenam nuptiarum Agni vocati sunt" taken from the Book of Revelation, chapter 19, verse 9: "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb"






Fortescue himself (in cope) with some of his servers


Rest assured, there will be more forthcoming in relation to this, but I could not resist showing these photos quickly.

All photos © First Garden City Heritage Museum

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