A Prayer for Today

Praying with the Saints of Hereford Cathedral
Daily Prayer:

Wednesday

Almighty God, gloried in all your saints, who gave grace to your servant Thomas of Hereford steadfastly to resist evil and uphold justice: grant that we who commemorate his holy life and angelic virtues may likewise live blamelessly and rebuke vice, that we may win with him an eternal crown; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Thomas Cantilupe

Among the mediaeval bishops of Hereford, Thomas Cantilupe, who lived in the thirteenth century, gained a great reputation as a scholar and a wise and caring bishop who stood firm against evil in whatever guise it came.

While visiting the papal court in Orvieto, Thomas died in 1282, and his bones were returned to Hereford where they were buried in a tomb in the Lady Chapel. In 1287, a little while before his bones were transferred to the shrine that now stands in the north transept, a number of miraculous cures were attested and attributed to his intercession. His cult developed and he was canonized in 1320, which led to his shrine becoming second only to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury as a place of pilgrimage for healing in England.

The feast day of St Thomas of Hereford is kept on 2nd October each year.