The Palace Art-Fest 21-26 August 2008 - The Bishop’s Palace, Hereford In aid of Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust and Friends of Hereford Three Choirs Festival
Hereford Cathedral is currently undertaking an exciting major project
to commemorate the saints of Hereford. We are fortunate in possessing
three different ‘kinds’ of saint:
A Saxon saint - Ethelbert - who was martyred five miles
from Hereford in AD 794 and who, like all his contemporaries was
made a saint by popular acclaim rather than by legal process of
canonisation.
A medieval saint - Thomas Cantilupe - who was Bishop of Hereford from 1275 to 1282 and who was declared a saint in 1320 after an exhaustive legal process leading to his canonisation.
A ‘Church of England’ saint - the Anglican Church has no processes for
canonisation but has a large body of holy women and men, particularly
from the Reformation onwards, who are worthy of special honour
and who are commemorated by special days in recent revisions of
the Calendar. Hereford’s ‘saint’ in this category
is Thomas Traherne, the 17th century priest, poet and mystic.
Each of the saints of Hereford is to be commemorated in a different medium and, when completed, the three focuses of prayer will provide a ‘mini-pilgrimage’ route within the cathedral itself, and the parishes of the diocese will be particularly invited to come to the cathedral for evening pilgrimages and gatherings.
