S Eanswythe

Media reports indicate that some bones, found in a lead box within a church wall (Church of S Mary and S Eanswythe, Folkestone) are seventh century, and therefore have a very decent chance of being the relics of S Eanswythe, Abbess, Princess of the Royal House of Kent, grand-daughter of King Ethelbert, Kent's first Christian monarch.

May she pray for us.

I like to recall that there was a kingdom of Kent before there was an England, let alone a Yewkay, and that the Primacy S Gregory established at Canterbury made that corner of England an outpost of specifically and intensely Roman Christianity.

May S Eanswythe indeed pray for us!

In the magnificent rose-coloured Cathedral at Kirkwall in the Orkneys, it appears that when the Presbyterian Reformation struck, they put their relics in boxes and placed them behind masonry. These included the relics of S Magnus the Martyr. What a happy afternoon I spent there in the company of Fr Michael Mary and the admirable Redemptorists of Papa Stronsay.

May S Magnus pray for us!

That devoted antiquary Adolph Hitler made a valuable contribution to the study of Reformation Exeter by uncovering a collection of votive offerings which had been walled up by the tomb of bishop Lacey. Lacey was never canonised ... the Reformation came too soon ... but he had a lively cultus among the common folk. The protestant Dean, Dr Simon Heans, did his best to suppress this devotion and, indeed, vandalised the monument, but his canonical colleagues got him locked up for 'Lutheranism'.

May Bishop Lacey pray for us!