ABSTRACT
No relics of St Thomas Cantilupe1 were discovered in his tomb when it was opened by Dean John Merewether during restoration work at Hereford Cathedral in 1846.2 This occasions no surprise in view of their history since the desecration of the shrine at the Reformation,3 when the saint’s broken and scattered remains were rescued and hidden for safe keeping in local Catholic houses in and around Hereford. The relics were concealed throughout the reign of Elizabeth I and well into the seventeenth century,4 their whereabouts being known only to a few loyal and trustworthy recusants. The clandestine network necessary for the success of this hazardous activity would have been aided considerably by the local Jesuit and Benedictine missions and chaplaincies, which long remained active in the town despite the risks involved.5 on one occasion the efficacy of the relics was tested when they were carried in a nocturnal torchlit procession through the streets in an attempt to protect the city from plague,6 apparently successfully and without interference from the authorities. During the Civil War many of the relics were surreptitiously removed from Hereford, firmly Royalist in its allegiance, to prevent their confiscation and destruction by besieging Parliamentarian troops under the command of the earl of Stamford.7 A local Catholic, a certain Mrs Ravenhill, is credited with safeguarding an arm bone (now lost), which eventually found its way to the English Jesuit College at Saint-omer in Artois, north-east France (previously Flanders, as part of the Spanish Netherlands),8 where it apparently remained until 1762. Thereafter, its history is uncertain, though it may have been taken to Bruges following the suppression and relocation of the College that year, and then later to Liège before being finally returned to Bruges towards
1 The saint’s life and cult are discussed in Chapter 14, Principal Hereford cults/St Thomas Cantilupe, with references. Relevant to this Appendix is Dom Illtud Barrett, ‘The relics of St Thomas Cantilupe’, in Jancey (ed.), St Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford: essays in his honour (1982), 181-5 [henceforth Barrett, ‘The relics of St Thomas Cantilupe’].
