Our Lady of Tintern
Tintern Abbey is in the Wye Valley and Wordsworth has written a wonderful poem about this magnificent ruin. Fr Michael Seed asked me to attend the meeting in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey of the Ecumenical society of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Philip Chatfield the sculptor gave a fascinating talk with slides about his background and the work he has done particularly in Wales. He spoke of his training in Newcastle with Jonah Jones a pupil of Eric Gill's and how he inherited Gill's hammer which Jonah Jones passed on to him. Philip worked as a crew member on the brig Maria Assumpta and he was saved when the sailing ship was wrecked on the North Cornish coast in 1995. A few days after the wreck his mallet was returned to him! He scuplted a figure of Mary at St Thomas's cross, Monmouth and then a statue of Mary for St Mary's church, Monmouth. He worked in the churchyard in public. The stone was blessed at the quarry by local clergy.
He was told of fragment's of a 13th century statue of the Virgin and Child at Tintern Abbey. The head of the statue had been sawn off, the Child smashed and her right arm broken off. The drapery is in the French broad fold style and can be likened to statues at Amiens of 1250 and in Paris 1270. Philip also took inspiration from ivory carvings of the Mother and child with the child holding a goldfinch, symbolising the Spirit. The new statue has a smaller crown as being suitable for a Welsh Mother and people from all over the world have taken chips of the stone. The stone was blessed at the quarry and the sculptor was blessed by the Abbot of Caldey at Sung Vespers in the Abbey last September. On Wednesday 9 May at 12 noon there will be service of prayer in the Abbey to mark the anniversary of the foundation of the abbey and it is hoped the statue will be ready by then. More details on www.ourladyoftintern.co.uk. I showed this blog to Trish Clarkson at work and it turns out she lives near Tintern so we are planning to go down for May 9th!
The Society was marking the 90th birthday of the redoubtable Joe Farrelly, a tireless worker for ecumenism. See www.esbvm.org.uk.
He was told of fragment's of a 13th century statue of the Virgin and Child at Tintern Abbey. The head of the statue had been sawn off, the Child smashed and her right arm broken off. The drapery is in the French broad fold style and can be likened to statues at Amiens of 1250 and in Paris 1270. Philip also took inspiration from ivory carvings of the Mother and child with the child holding a goldfinch, symbolising the Spirit. The new statue has a smaller crown as being suitable for a Welsh Mother and people from all over the world have taken chips of the stone. The stone was blessed at the quarry and the sculptor was blessed by the Abbot of Caldey at Sung Vespers in the Abbey last September. On Wednesday 9 May at 12 noon there will be service of prayer in the Abbey to mark the anniversary of the foundation of the abbey and it is hoped the statue will be ready by then. More details on www.ourladyoftintern.co.uk. I showed this blog to Trish Clarkson at work and it turns out she lives near Tintern so we are planning to go down for May 9th!
The Society was marking the 90th birthday of the redoubtable Joe Farrelly, a tireless worker for ecumenism. See www.esbvm.org.uk.
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