TH E WOR LD IS OU R HOUSE

Housing the oldest surviving museum collection in the English-speaking world  

the christ ian heritage centre at stonyhurst

f o r e w o r d

Stonyhurst College, and the Jesuit Order who were its founders, have long been witnesses to the importance of faith. Over the last four centuries they have been entrusted with an astonishing variety of rare and beautiful objects, which, in their own way, have testified to the changes and trials undergone by those struggling to maintain their beliefs.

This excellent project to redisplay their astonishingly rich collections, making them available to many, seeks to draw together the faith story of the Catholics in Britain, those of other Christians, and other major faiths. Thus it will examine the universality of spiritual hunger in the heart of all mankind.

The Second Vatican Council said that the arts in human life should ‘seek to probe the true nature of man, his problems and experiences, as he strives to know and perfect himself and the world, to discover his place in history and the universe.’

This project will illuminate centuries of Catholic and Christian history, experience, thinking and culture, and be a beacon for present and future generations hoping to find their own place in history and the created universe, and I am delighted to offer it my support.

His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’ConnorArchbishop Emeritus of Westminster

A . M . D . G

p r e fac e

‘The Christian message has been an integral part of the language, thought and culture of the peoples of these islands for more than a thousand years.’

Thus spoke our beloved, now emeritus, Pope Benedict on his visit to the United Kingdom in 2010, a man who has given his life to the expression of the ‘language, thought and culture’ of Catholic Christianity. During his Pontificate he asked us to recall all that gave the deepest life to nations that had received the Gospel, whether more anciently or in recent centuries.

The Christian Heritage Centre, as we envision it, does not use the word ‘heritage’ to denote the past in a sense that might even bore us, because we tend to live today so much in the present, but to remind us of a pressing need to keep alive what brave and fine things were thought and done by our forebears, often, as sadly in the case of these British isles, at times in the teeth of terrible adversaries. The future of our culture requires of us that we remember, and try to make that remembrance count, in the lives of the young people with whom we want to share it in a lively and imaginative way.

The task of remembrance then is to keep a certain spirit alive. The task of our project for the Christian Heritage Centre is that it should play its part in keeping alive a Christian vision for this country and beyond.

Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor Royal Patrons

8th September 2013Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady

Kensington Palace, LondonAbove: Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor, Albert and Leopold

royal patrons

Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor

pat r o n s

HE Cardinal Christoph Schonbörn, Archbishop of Vienna

The Hon John Bruton, kcmco

The Baroness Cox frcs frcn

General the Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, gcb, lvo, obe, dl, kcsg, km, kcjco

For the full list of patrons please see www.christianheritagecentre.org.

t h e t ru s t

The Stonyhurst Christian Heritage Centre is a fully independent registered Charitable Trust established to:

• House and care for the Stonyhurst collection and to make it accessible to as wide an audience as possible

• Facilitate an educational programme for people of all ages and cultures

• Provide Retreat and Study Centre for those seeking to explore and deepen their faith, and accommodation for those engaged on scholarly research into the collection

While the Catholic heritage of England remains at the core of the collection, it is hoped that the astounding range of objects expressive of other religions and beliefs will resonate with audiences of all backgrounds, spurring inter-faith dialogue, leading to greater mutual understanding.

In this way, the Trust believes that the collection will not only enable English-speaking Catholics to re-connect with a crucial episode in their history, but will prompt all our visitors – at a time when the world is witnessing a tragic resurgence of religious conflict – to reflect more deeply on questions of faith, persecution and tolerance.

Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool,Chair, The Christian Heritage Centre Trust

t ru s t e e s

Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool, Chair

Mr John Cowdall

Mr Andrew Johnson

Mr Ilyas Khan

T H E S T O N Y H U R S T C H R I S T I A N H E R I T A G E

C E N T R E T R U S T

Right: Manuscript of the Homilies of Gregory the Great, c. 1170

In 1593 an English Jesuit College was founded on the continent, at St Omers, to provide a Catholic education for English boys, which was impossible on their native soil under the religious laws of the time.

From its foundation the College was seen by English Catholics as a safe haven not only for their sons, but also for precious vestments, silver, manuscripts and relics rescued during the turmoil of the English Reformation and sent to the College to be held in trust on behalf of the Catholic community.

Out of difficult and dangerous circumstances a remarkable and unique body of sacred artefacts was formed, of critical importance for the history of faith and culture in England from the Middle Ages onwards. In 1794, the College moved to its native land, and found a new home at Stonyhurst in Lancashire, bringing with it this precious collection of sacred material – and much else besides.

t h e j e s u i t s a n d e d u c at i o n

Founded in 1540, the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, is a major world order of missionaries, educationalists, scientists, writers, and theologians. The Jesuits devised the greatest experiment in education the world has ever seen, laying the foundations of modern day humanist teaching and learning, and earning them a formidable reputation as ‘the schoolmasters of Europe’.

Stonyhurst, where that teaching was put into practice, is the world’s oldest surviving Jesuit school and embodies the Jesuit approach to education – an approach that is world-affirming, that assists personal freedom and growth within the human community, and that promotes dialogue between faith and culture.

T H E S T O N Y H U R S T S T O R Y

Above: Fr John Fenwick SJ, St Omers London agent,

sending young students to St Omers from Dover

Right: the College at St Omers in 1689

T H E O L D E S T S U R V I V I N G M U S E U M C O L L E C T I O N

I N T H E E N G L I S H - S P E A K I N G W O R L D

The Stonyhurst collection is the oldest surviving museum collection in the English-speaking world and has been described as the collection of a ‘forgotten ancient British university’. It embodies the Jesuit philosophy encapsulated in the Jesuit Jerome Nadal’s phrase ‘the world is our house’ – outward-looking, respectful of other cultures, intrinsically inclusive and resolutely opposed to oppression and exploitation – that made the Jesuits keepers of memory and preservers of culture.

The first acquisition, Henry VII’s cope and chasuble, was recorded in 1609 at St Omers. Since then the College has become the repository for the historically marginalised but culturally-important Roman Catholic minority both at home and in exile from before the Reformation until the present day.

It has also gathered together an awe-inspiring array of objects amassed through the activities of the Jesuits as missionaries and teachers all over the world.

t h e t i s s u e o f m e m o r y o f t h e b r i t i s h r o m a n c at h o l i c c o m m u n i t y at h o m e a n d i n e x i l e

The collection originated as a sanctuary for the shattered fragments of sacred culture rescued during the Reformation; and to this day it continues to be the chief repository of memory for the Roman Catholic community of Britain, at home and in exile. On behalf of the British Jesuit Province, it holds many important artefacts, such as a Thorn from the Crown of Thorns, the rope that bound St Edmund Campion to the hurdle at the time of his execution and personal items which belonged to St Thomas More.

Top left: Henry VII Chasuble, c1490, taken by Henry VIII to his meeting with the French King Francois I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Left: Reliquary containing a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, which once belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, the property of the British Jesuit Province, at Stonyhurst.Right: Our Lady of Pomata with Saints, Andean school, late 17th century.

“c o l l e c t i n g t h e w o r l d ” – a r e p o s i t o r y o f g l o b a l c u lt u r e

The Jesuit Order produced some of the most inspirational and spectacularly successful missionaries the world has ever seen. Part of their success was due to their sensitivity to indigenous local cultures and beliefs, and their habit of absorbing whatever was good and familiar into Christian faith and practice.

The Stonyhurst collection is a testimony to the unique heritage of dialogue with other cultures and faiths which the College inherits from the Jesuit tradition. This explains why it now includes artefacts from all major cultures and every quarter of the globe, making it a collection of world art of breathtaking scope and calibre, brought back from the mission fields.

Throughout the centuries, the College has used these objects to demonstrate to its students the universality of humanity’s search for God.

At the same time, the collection shows how Stonyhurst’s staff and pupils have made a unique mark on the world around them, as missionaries, scientists, naturalists, travellers, civil servants, archaeologists and antiquarians.

Above, left to right: Book of Hours of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1558, the property of the British Jesuit Province, at Stonyhurst; a silver gilt Baroque monstrance; watercolour of Fr Matteo Ricci SJ, Jesuit missionary in 16th century China; detail from the St Ignatius Chasuble, c. 1650-70; and a 10th century Qu’ran fragment.

Far left: Signature of Elizabeth Plantagenet (daughter of Edward IV and later queen of Henry VII) in her Book of Hours c. 1480; reliquary containing the rope that bound St Edmund Campion to the hurdle at the time of his execution, the property of the British Jesuit Province, at Stonyhurst.Left: Brass and silver celestial sphere, signed and dated 1623, Quaim Muhammed.

The first items acquired were vestments, manuscripts, silver and relics collected by British Catholics in the turbulent days of the Tudor monarchs, and smuggled over to St Omers for safekeeping. At St Omers these artefacts played a crucial role in the spiritual mission of the College, and were seen as representing the British Catholic cultural memory, rescued from destruction: a source of deep and powerful inspiration.

There are significant royal connections, including items which belonged to Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Mary Tudor, Mary Queen of Scots, James II and the Stuart family, including Prince Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f t h e s t o n y h u r s t c o l l e c t i o n

The cultural significance of the Stonyhurst collection thus transcends national boundaries and is of common importance for present and future generations of many peoples and nations.

It exhibits a vital interchange of human values over a very long time span across much of the globe and bears exceptional testimony to many of the living cultural traditions that have been most decisive in shaping the modern world.

Most importantly, these objects are still used for rituals and feast days. The collection embodies living traditions, expressing practices and beliefs celebrated the world over, which communities and individuals can recognise as part of their particular heritage. In so doing, it represents an outstanding example of cultural continuity.

The Stonyhurst collection is thus not merely remarkable but unique. Its national and international importance lies not just in its astounding scope, or in the number of iconic objects it contains, but in its significance as a collection. Every object, book or document in the College is a small piece in a vast mosaic, each with its own history and significance. But when these are taken together, the collection becomes immeasurably more than the sum of its parts.

It was, and still is, the collection of a single organisation with an unbroken history going back to the 16th century. It embodies a 400-year record of a faith community, over a thousand years of English Catholic history, and several millennia of world history.

There is, quite simply, no comparable collection of its kind anywhere.

Left: The Shakespeare First Folio, 1623, once the property of Thomas, Lord Arundell of Wardour, whose uncle was Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton.Above: Manuscript of poetry by St Robert Southwell SJ. Southwell was a Jesuit priest and martyr, executed in 1595. His mother and Shakespeare’s mother were cousins.Right: Engraving of St Edmund Campion being dragged to execution at Tyburn, from a book on the English Martyrs published in 1583, in the Historic Libraries. Inset: Triptych painted by Fernando Llort of El Salvador in 2011 depicting the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980. The triptych houses a relic of Archbishop Romero’s blood-soaked alb.

When the College left France, the Jesuits brought as many artefacts as possible to Stonyhurst, and set up the first Museum in 1796. The Arundell Library was completed in 1855, and a larger Stonyhurst Museum was formally established in 1884.

Although this was dismantled in the 1970s and its contents stored, the Trust has now launched a project to house and interpret the collection in a manner worthy of its exceptional cultural value, and to make it accessible to the widest possible audience. In this way, the Trust is seeking to rectify the anomaly by which a collection of global weight and calibre has for too long remained virtually unknown.

The project to house the Stonyhurst collection comprises four interlinked phases.

p h a s e 1

The first phase was the restoration of St Peter’s Church, and has already been completed thanks to the generosity of the Society of Jesus.

p h a s e 2

The second phase – which is the Trust’s immediate objective – includes the restoration of various historic structures to their original historic function, and involves:

• Restoring and refurbishing the Arundell Library, the Square Library, the Bay Library, the Historic Museum (latterly the ‘Rhetoric Playroom’) and the adjacent rooms. This will provide an ideal space for the College’s 40,000 books, as well as exhibitions, entertaining, scholarly research and badly-needed custom-built storage. In addition, the Libraries and Historic Museum will act as

H O U S I N G T H E C O L L E C T I O N

Top left: the old museum.Left: the Bay LibraryRight: St Peter’s Church, newly restored

an impressive showcase for the much bigger and more important project to restore and convert the historic College Mill as a museum to house the collection.

Phase 2 has also seen the donation by the College to the Trust of the land required for the execution of Phases 3 and 4.

p h a s e 3

Phase 3 comprises a Retreat and Study Centre where

visitors can deepen their experience of the collection. St Ignatius Loyola understood that retreats encourage individuals and groups to question their understanding of their own spirituality, to step outside of daily life, to reflect, to find solace and ultimately to discern their own beliefs more truly.

p h a s e 4

The final phase is the development of the historic College Mill into a fully-fledged museum to house the collection.

Above: Architect’s visual of a Phase 2 space, the Historic Museum.Right: The Stonyhurst Mill, c. 1840.Opposite: Architect’s visuals of Phase 4.

The project also involves a vigorous and imaginative ‘Collegium’ educational programme designed to engage people of all ages and backgrounds, from nursery to post-graduate level. This will provide a forum for debate and the brisk exchange of ideas, and will promote the ideal of mutual understanding and tolerance.

The ecumenical and diverse nature of the collection will draw in groups who might not normally consider themselves at home in either a museum or a religious environment. It will be a place where shared experiences can lead to enlightenment and acceptance.

Through clear and simple presentation the Centre will bring the collection to life and raise fundamental questions about faith, tolerance and ideology. There will also be quiet spaces for contemplation and reflection, where visitors can linger in the presence of powerful and remarkable objects.

In addition, a reading room and archive will give scholars access to a breathtaking variety of books and manuscripts, reflecting over a thousand years of discussion, philosophy, argument and controversy.

‘As the fruits of a community which has lived its faith intensely and continues to do so, the cultural treasures of the Church should not be seen in exclusively cultural terms or their meaning will be lost. They could be a real inspiration for humanity at the dawn of the Third Millennium…bringing out the quality of objects on view with a lively educational presentation, to avoid such museums being storehouses for dead objects.’

towards a pastoral approach to culture1999 pontifical council for culture

T H E C O L L E G I U M

‘The world rests itself on the breath of children in schools.’

the talmud

H O W Y O U C A N H E L P

The Stonyhurst Christian Heritage Centre Trust needs your help to create a fitting home for the Stonyhurst collection. You can find out more about the collection at: www.stonyhurst.ac.uk (click on the link to Libraries and Collections).

This is a unique project of great significance in both telling the sacred story of Catholics and of other Christians in England and beyond, and in creating a space where people of faith, and of no faith, can reflect on the central importance of honouring and respecting each other’s traditions and beliefs.

If you would like to learn more about any aspect of the project, please get in touch.

If you are able to offer assistance, advice or financial support, whether substantial or modest, we would be very glad to hear from you.

T H A N K Y O U

Please contact:

Mr Julian RidleyThe Stonyhurst Christian Heritage Centre TrustStonyhurst College, Stonyhurst, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 9PZ

Telephone 01254 826345 www.christianheritagecentre.com Charity Number 1149129The Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst is a UK Registered Charity, no 1149129. Donations from the USA are tax-deductible.

Above:Detail of the Lucca Chasuble, c1475, made for the Bonvisi family, who were London Merchant Bankers. Antonio Bonvisi was one of St Thomas More’s closest friends.

Back cover: The Holy Spirit, detail of Helena Wintour’s Pentecost vestments, embroidered c. 1660, the property of the British Jesuit Province, at Stonyhurst.

L . D . S

‘... the Holy Ghost over the bentWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.’

From ‘God’s Grandeur’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins,

Jesuit priest and poet who taught at Stonyhurst from 1882-1884