1922: Dewhurst Chalice

This chalice, still regularly used at Mass, is one of many which have been donated to the parish over the years. It is inscibed on the base with the words, "Donated by Mrs Dewhurst, 1922". Nothing else is known of its origin or of the donor; the appendices of Canon Billington's book (published 1910) do list Dewhursts among the communicants of 1799 and among those who helped to pay for the building of St Peter's in the 1850s, so it is at least possible that the donor of this chalice was part of a long-standing Catholic family in the Lancaster area.

The chalice has four scenes from the life of Our Lord at its base: His birth, His baptism, His crucifixion and His resurrection.

1893: Canon Billington arrives

Canon Billington, second rector of St Peter's and the parish historian who inspired this blog, was appointed rector at Lancaster on this day in 1893. Regular readers will recognise him, of course, but just in case you're in any doubt, he is seen here seated on the right of the image, a photograph which was unearthed during the course of 2009. The picture was not labelled, though it seems likely that the priests with him are his assistants in the parish. The first post on this blog gave a little information about his life before coming to Lancaster, so today's post is intended to provide a brief record of his many achievements here. Canon Billington remained at St Peter's until his death in 1916, and during his 23 years he achieved a great deal: he had the St Peter windows installed, he built the wonderful baptistery, he oversaw all the work of the golden jubilee, which included a reordering of the sanctuary and other major works, and - of course - he published a parish history with John Brownbill in 1910. It was a time of great activity in the parish and has left a legacy which is still obvious today; Canon Billington's zeal also helped prepare for the time when - eight years after his death - the church would be made the Cathedral of the new Diocese of Lancaster.

1891: the story of Helena Leeming

On this day in 1892 a parishioner of St Peter's, Helena Leeming, daughter of Richard Leeming who bought the church's pipe organ, made her solemn profession in the Carmelite monastery at Lanherne, Cornwall. She had left the parish in June 1891, shortly after the deaths of her parents, and had inherited a substantial sum from them. In Carmel she took the name 'Sister Mary Joseph of the Blessed Sacrament'. As a parting gift to the parish, she left this chalice, which is still in use and was the principal chalice used at the Cathedral during the 2009 visit of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, the famous 19th century Carmelite.

She disposed of her fortune by giving liberally to many charities, and she also donated the altar in the chapel at Lanherne, which is seen here in a photograph taken in 1937. The Carmel's archive records, "Not so many years after Sister Mary Joseph's profession, her health began to decline. She contracted a form of TB and later cancer. After suffering with great patience and courage, she died very peacefully on 3rd June 1911, and was buried in our private cemetery inside the enclosure. The monastery closed in 2001, and the community merged with that at St Helens; we are grateful to Reverend Mother Prioress for sending us information from the archive and the image of the altar. When the Carmelites left, some contemplative Franciscan sisters moved into the convent, so thankfully it is still home to a religious community and the altar is still in use. You can read a little about the community that is there today, and see a more modern picture of the altar, by clicking here.

The Church of Our Lady, Queen of Poland

Almost literally a stone's throw from the Cathedral is Lancaster's Polish Catholic Church. Yesterday the Bishop celebrated a Mass to mark the 60th anniversary of the Polish mission in the city, and the 25th anniversary of the church building. A significant number of Poles came to England around and after the Second World War, and there has recently been a new wave of immigration for economic reasons. Although Lancashire has always had 'local Catholics', some of whom can trace their families back prior to the Reformation, the Catholic Community has also benefited from those coming from Catholic communities elsewhere, most notably Ireland. More recently, a typical Sunday congregation at the Cathedral has become much more ethnically diverse on account of Lancaster University, which draws students from all over the world.

The Cathedral enjoys good relations with its Polish neighbours, and there are Catholics in the city who feel at home in both the churches. If you don't know the geography, you can see in this image just how close the two buildings are: the photograph is taken from the Cathedral tower, and the Polish Church is in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Bishop Brewer at St Thomas More's

Some blog readers will recognise a few of the faces in this photograph, which shows the blessing of a Christmas tree at St Thomas More's on this day in 1998. Among them are Bishop Brewer, and, to the left of the picture, Sister Maureen Coyne, and Ursuline sister who still serves the parish today. The blessing took place in the midst of work on the St Thomas More centre, which adjoins the church. Although blessing a Christmas tree seems one of the less significant acts of a Bishop's work, it was certainly handy for him to get to. From 1937, when St Thomas More's was founded, the Bishop of Lancaster was resident within its parish boundary, at Bishop's House on Cannon Hill. This situation ended in 2003, when Bishop O'Donoghue famously sold the house and moved into a small apartment on the Cathedral site, where he remained until his retirement in May 2009.

Canon John Blundell

This portrait, which hangs on the upper floor of Cathedral House, is believed to show Canon John Blundell, who was rector at St Peter's from 1922 to 1935. He succeeded Fr Robert Dobson, who had been made auxiliary bishop after only a few months in charge of the parish. Canon Blundell's thirteen years were not uneventful, for it was within his time that the church was raised to cathedral status, to serve the new Diocese of Lancaster; thus it was that he oversaw the transition from parish church to cathedral and became the first Cathedral Administrator. Canon Blundell died on this day in 1935; the notice book for 15th December that year gives details of his funeral: "Monday [16th]: Requiem Mass and funeral at 11.0am. The side aisles will be reserved for the school children; the first eight benches on both sides of the nave will be reserved for clergy, relatives and friends." Amongst the assistant priests at the time was Fr Oswald Brimley, who would become Canon Blundell's successor; the notice book entry for 9th February states simply, "The Bishop has appointed Fr Brimley as Administrator of the Cathedral". Fr Brimley, just 39 at the time, remained in this post until his retirement forty years later.

First Burial, 1859

Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that the first burial to take place in St Peter's cemetery after the opening of the new church took place on this day in 1859. The cemetery had been opened earlier, in 1850, so had obviously already been used, but it seems that between the opening of the church in October 1859 and December that year no burials took place there. It seems unlikely that there were no funerals for a two-month period; probably funerals did take place but the deceased were buried in the town cemetery.

So the first person to be carried from the new church to his final resting place in the parish cemetery was a Mr Daniel Gillooly, age 64, of Monmouth Street. He had died on 8th December 1859 and was buried two days later, 150 years ago today.

The Immaculate Conception, 1954

The Cathedral's Lady Chapel is, in the words of Canon Billington, 'dedicated to Mary in honour of her Immaculate Conception', the feast which is celebrated today. Contrary to popular misunderstanding, it has nothing to do with the conception of Jesus; rather the doctrine states that Mary herself was conceived without sin. Although the belief had been widely held by Catholics for a long time, it was only formally defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854, just a few years before Lancaster's new church opened. The Lady Chapel's dedication, therefore, is no surprise. In 1954, a century after the declaration, Pope Pius XII declared a Marian year to mark the anniversary, and Cathedral parishioners made a point of celebrating the feast with particular solemnity. There was a triduum - three days of prayer - which featured Mass each morning and sermon each evening. The triduum ended with the feast itself, on which day around 370 people took part in a torchlight procession, followed by Pontifical High Mass sung by Bishop Flynn. Such events give us a glimpse of the popular piety which has always been a part of the life of St Peter's parish, and indeed the Church more widely.

Keeping the roof on

The words 'dry rot' bring fear to any parish priest, and Cathedral Administrators have had to deal with this problem on more than one occasion. It seems to have been a problem in the 1950s and 1960s, and again in the early 1990s. This picture was labelled as showing a workman dealing with the problem, 'c. 1992'. There is a constant programme of maintenance on the Cathedral building, which requires a huge amount of upkeep, but it is a tribute to those who built the church that, 150 years on, it is still in very good shape.

Another view of Dalton Square

An earlier post showed an image of the Coulston's house in Dalton Square, which was used by the Sisters of Nazareth 1899-1902. Here's another view of the same house, which - as can be seen - had doors onto both Dalton Square and Robert Street. It's very revealing to compare the census returns around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1891 (address listed as 2 Robert Street) lived Margaret Coulston and her sister Elizabeth; two visitors and three servants are also listed. In 1901 (address given as Nazareth House, Dalton Square) there were Sister Mary Ronan and six other nuns plus a further five men, nine women and 41 children in residence - a total of 62 people. It is perhaps unsurprising that they soon looked for another building to occupy!

Early Concelebrated Mass

Among the liturgical reforms that emerged following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was the possibility of concelbration at Mass. In this way each priest is understood to offer the sacrifice of the Mass even if he is not the principal celebrant. Although concelebration is a long-established practice in the eastern rites, it has no history in the Latin liturgy and its introduction inevitably brought with it some practical problems. This photo shows an early concelebrated Mass in the Cathedral sometime in the 1970s; Bishop Foley is presiding. Notice how the priests are not in matching chasubles; there would have been no sets of multiple vestments before the reforms. Another issue was space: sanctuaries in churches were not designed for large numbers of priests. See here how the priests are fairly tightly gathered around the temporary altar that was in use at the time. In the Cathedral space was a particular problem, especially at large gatherings such as the annual Chrism Mass. No solution was found until the 1995 reordering, when the construction of a new sanctuary at the transept crossing allowed priests to gather in the transepts for these large celebrations.

1938: the death of Bishop T. W. Pearson

Lancaster's first bishop, Thomas Wulstan Pearson, died on this day in 1938. A native of Preston, he had been educated at Douai and joined the Downside community of Benedictines in 1887. He remained there until 1912, when he was appointed assistant priest at St Mary's church, Highfield Street, Liverpool. Four years later he was appointed Prior at Ealing Abbey in West London, though it appears that he was unhappy with this appointment and made several requests to be allowed to resume pastoral work. Greater responsibility was laid on his shoulders when he was ordained Bishop of Lancaster in February 1925 (see here), a post which he held until his death.

The notice book entries for 1938 list the Bishop as being ill from around the end of October, and his death is announced in the entry for 4th December. An announcement of the funeral was made as follows: "The body of His Lordship will arrive at 4pm and will lie in state until 7pm. The Solemn Dirge will be sung by Archbishop Downey [of Liverpool] on Monday at 11am. The clergy will occupy the choir benches in the nave; some benches will be reserved for the mayor and relatives etc. The rest of the nave and side aisles will be for the general public. The funeral will take place in our own cemetery." So it was that Bishop Pearson became the first to occupy the vault which now contains the bodies of all the deceased bishops of this diocese to date.

A glance at the list of Mass intentions reveals that at least ten Masses were offered in the Cathedral for the Bishop in the week of his funeral. He had served the Diocese well, overseeing the events of its foundation, which must have been an enormous administrative task. During his episcopate he opened a number of new churches and parishes around the Diocese, including St Thomas More's, founded from the Cathedral.