Lady Loretta Commemoration 2026 - Polycarp’s Bones: talk by James Harpur

Name: Lady Loretta Commemoration 2026 - Polycarp’s Bones: talk by James Harpur
Start: 2026-03-07T19:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-07T21:00:00+00:00
Location: St. Stephen's Church, Canterbury

Schedule

Sat Mar 07 2026 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

St. Stephen's Church, Canterbury | Canterbury, EN

Polycarp’s Bones: the story of Christian pilgrimage and the cult of relics with scholar and poet, James Harpur. Includes music and wine.
About this Event

Polycarp’s Bones: the story of Christian pilgrimage and the cult of relics. ]

A talk by scholar and poet, with a musical prelude sung by former members of the Canterbury Gregorian Chant Society followed by wine and conversation.

A fund raising event for The Friends of St Stephens to cover the cost of repair to the stained glass windows in our beautiful church.

The New Testament refers to people being ‘strangers’ and ‘pilgrims’ on earth, longing for a ‘heavenly’ country, and this sentiment lies at the heart of Christian pilgrimage. James will explore how pilgrimage was born and grew in antiquity, how it blossomed in the Middle Ages and faltered in subsequent centuries, only to re-emerge stronger than before in modern times.

James Harpur has published ten books of poetry, including The Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea, The Oratory of Light: poems inspired by Iona and St Columba, and his latest, The Gospel of Gargoyle. He is also the author of several non-fiction books, including The Pilgrim Journey and Dazzling Darkness: the lives and afterlives of the Christian mystics. www.jamesharpur.com

The hymn ‘Jesu Dulcis Memoria’ (Jesus the thought of you fills my heart with joy) was sung by anchorites and anchoresses. This will be sung to its beautiful Gregorian chant melody together with the Marian antiphon for the time between Candlemas and Easter, ‘Ave Regina Caelorum’ (Hail Queen of Heaven).

Lady Loretta de Braoze lived an enclosed life as an anchoress at St Stephen’s Hackington (now known as St Stephen’s Canterbury.) for over 40 years in the 13th century. She was enclosed in 1221 and died still in enclosure on 4th March 1266. Despite her physical enclosure she had an important ministry which included welcoming Franciscans to England and on at least one occasion advising the King. You can learn more about her and the anchorite way of life from the events, recordings and documents on the St Stephens Hackington website here https://www.ststephenscanterbury.net/loretta/