If you want to celebrate Midsummer, do it with light and fire
June 12, 2020
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Traditional customs for June centre on the summer solstice – midsummer, as it has been known in English since the
Walks and flowers: May customs worth reviving
May 15, 2020
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Most traditional May customs have two key elements, fortunately both still available to enjoy even in lockdown: walks and flowers.
There were many contenders for England’s patron saint. So how did we end up with George?
April 23, 2020
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The saint’s romantic story and his association with royalty meant that he was not as easily forgotten as some of his medieval rivals
How a mediæval carol was saved from obscurity
December 19, 2019
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A young woman is singing her baby to sleep, crooning words of tenderness: “Lullay mine liking, my dear son, my
How to feast like a medieval Catholic
December 20, 2018
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“Good day, Sir Christmas, our king!” proclaims an English carol of the 15th century, welcoming the beginning of the Christmas
Stop teaching our children lazy anti-Catholic myths
September 14, 2017
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Textbooks are distorting medieval history and ignoring the era’s rich Catholic culture
There’s no excuse for teaching medieval myths
September 14, 2017
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There’s something about the word “medieval” which makes some people behave very strangely. As Professor David Paton recently noted on
This Lent, rediscover Oxford’s forgotten poet
March 9, 2017
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William Herebert was one of the first people to turn Latin hymns into English poetry
This Lent, rediscover Oxford’s forgotten poet
March 9, 2017
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In early 14th-century Oxford, surrounded by some of the foremost theologians of medieval Europe, a Franciscan friar named William Herebert