Christopher Whall works in Gloucester Cathedral
"Christopher Whall's windows in Gloucester Lady Chapel are arguably the finest post-medieval stained glass in any of our cathedrals, and, with the possible exception of the unexecuted Christchurch Priory designs, his finest large scale work", William Morris Gallery catalogue[1]"Man's Fallen State"- The Fall and Deprivation of Paradise.
[2][3] In this window Whall takes his inspiration from the Creation Story from the Old Testament (Genesis iii) and in the centre light he draws the serpent wound around the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
"Man has been restored through the sacrifice of Christ and the Sacrament of the Gospel" is the message and in the centre of his composition Whall depicts wheat stalks and vine leaves (the bread and wine of the Eucharist).
As with Agnes, Lucy was determined to devote herself to Christ and refused when her mother proposed her marriage to a pagan.
She was imprisoned and her prison guards we are told were unable to move her or burn her and they ultimately took out her eyes with a fork before she was executed.
[2] According to legend Agatha was another who dedicated her life to God and resisted any men who wanted to marry her or have sex with her.
She is also considered the patroness of Bellmakers perhaps because bells were used as fire alarms[4] Aidan was also born in Ireland before becoming a monk at Iona.
He founded a monastery at Lindisfarne that became known as the English Iona and was a centre for missionary activity for all of northern England.
She spent some time at Chelles Monastery in France but was asked by St Aidan to return to Northumbria.
Orphaned when a young child, he was a shepherd for a time, is thought to have possibly fought against the Mercians and became a monk at Melrose Abbey.
[12] Helen was a British princess who married a Roman General, Constantius Chlorus, and became the mother of Constantine the Great.
In her eightieth year she made a famous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with the ardent desire of discovering the cross on which our Blessed Redeemer had suffered.
She also built a beautiful Basilica on Mount Calvary to receive these precious relics, sending portions of it also to Rome and Constantinople.
As she grew up she became exceedingly pious and when her parents' thoughts turned to marriage she would not think of marrying anyone in view of her dedication to God.
She learned that her beauty was the reason for the attentions of so many young men so she prayed fervently to God to take her good looks from her.
God granted her wish and seeing that his daughter was no longer pretty, her father agreed when she asked to become a Nun and it was when she was consecrated that a miracle happened and her good looks returned.
The inscription reads "Erected to the glory of God for the beautifying of His House in heartfelt gratitude for 75 years of continued and undeserved mercies".
Also note in bottom right hand corner by the dedication a small jug, a compass and carpenter's square with the initials P G-D, K T. R and S, these being of students and workmen who helped with the painting and fixing.
When his subterfuge was discovered, the judge who had ordered the arrest was furious and in spite of extreme pressure on Alban to deny his new religion he refused and was ultimately beheaded.
According to most scholars Lawrence was burned to death on a gridiron[18] Swithun was born in Wessex, England and was educated at the old monastery in Winchester, where he was ordained.
Swithun was named bishop of Winchester in 852 when Ethelwulf succeeded his father as king[20] Edward or Edward the Confessor's reign as King of England was a peaceful one characterized by his good rule and remission of unfair taxes but it also saw the struggle, partly caused by his natural inclination to favor the Normans, between Godwin and his Saxon supporters and the Norman barons, including Robert of Jumieges, whom Edward had brought with him when he returned to England and whom he named Archbishop of Canterbury in 1051.
Oswald was killed in the Battle of Maserfield Frideswide was a Benedictine hermitess and nun, the daughter of Prince Didan of the Upper Thames region of England.
When Prince Aelfgar of a neighbouring kingdom asked for her hand in marriage, Frideswide fled to Thomwry Wood in Birnsey, where she became a hermitess.
While groomed to enter the Augustinian Canons, he was instead drawn to the contemplative life and became a Carthusian in 1160, while visiting the Grande Chartreuse.
Hugh then became bishop of Lincoln in 1181 at the command of the King, accepting the office only after he was duly and freely elected.
Hugh died in Lincoln on 16 November, after a journey to France, and his tomb was a popular pilgrim site until its despoilment at the command of King Henry VIII in the sixteenth century[24] In his notes and the reference to Boniface, Whall refers us to his book on stained glass in particular Plate XI and pages 224-5 and the subject of "Staining" .
[3] The final saint is Winifred and in his depiction of her Whall includes the line of severance on her neck where she was beheaded and at the base water springing up on the site of her martyrdom.
He asks us to notice the map hanging over the edge of the table and says that with the help of opera glasses the ancient names of the towns may be read.
Whall explains that he intends the window to depict the "Spirit of the Lord" (Isaiah xi, 2), divided into the two great branches- COUNSEL and MIGHT.
They are of hammered and chased copper, subsequently oxidised with a view to toning the metal, in order to get as far as possible a subdued effect and so to harmonise with the solemn dignity of the Chapter House.
