Tag Archives: Oxford

Archangel Uriel

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  • Mosaic of St. Uriel by James Powell and Sons, at St John’s Church, Warminster.
  • Saint Uriel (meaning ‘God is my light’ or ‘light of God’), one of four stained glass windows in the cloisters of Chester Cathedral depicting the Archangels mentioned in the Christian Bible. Uriel is often depicted holding flame or the sun.

Archangel Uriel appears in the Second Book of Esdras found in the Biblical apocrypha  in which the prophet Ezra asks God a series of questions and Uriel is sent by God to instruct him. This is one of my favorite episodes involving angels: Ezra asks Uriel to explain the visions to him and Uriel replies: “I will answer your question if you can answer mine: How much does fire weigh? How much wind can fit in a bag? Where does the day go when it is over?” Ezra cannot answer these and Uriel tells him, “If you cannot answer these questions about things you have direct experience of, how can you expect to understand the secrets of God, which you have no direct experience of?”

In Christian folktales, Uriel plays a role in the rescue of Jesus‘ cousin John the Baptist from the Massacre of the Innocents ordered by King Herod. St. Uriel carries St. John the Baptist and his mother Saint Elizabeth to join the Holy Family after their Flight into Egypt. This family reunion is depicted in Leonardo da Vinci‘s Virgin of the Rocks.

In other Christian folktales, St. Uriel stands at the Gate of Eden with a fiery sword and in the Life of Adam and Eve, Uriel is said to be one of the cherubim described in the third chapter of Genesis guarding the Tree of Life. He is also identified as one of the angels who helped bury Adam and Abel on the edge of Eden.

In British Christianity, St. Uriel is sometimes considered the Patron Saint of the Sacrament of Confirmation. The motto of Oxford University (“Dominus illuminatio mea“) is thought by some to be a variation of St. Uriel’s name in Latin.

St. Hilary of Poitiers, patron of Spring Semesters

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The Ordination of Saint Hilary, from a 14th-century manuscript

Born in Poitiers at the beginning of the fourth century and dying there as well (13 January AD 368), Hilary was raised as a pagan but converted to Christianity when he met the God of nature in the Scriptures. He was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France but took his position seriously and was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century: Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. (It was the practice in many places during this period for many clergy–both bishops and priests–to chosen and ordained not because they “felt called” to the ministry but because the people chose them, based on qualifications and abilities that the candidates themselves did not see or appreciate in themselves. St. Ambrose of Milan is another famous example of a candidate chosen to be bishop and ordained against his own will.)

The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.”

While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people. He wrote and preached constantly, leaving us a wealth of books and sermons.

In the Western Christian calendar of saints, Hilary’s feast day is on 13 January, 14 January in the pre-1970 form of the calendar. The spring terms of the English and Irish Law Courts and Oxford and Dublin Universities are called the Hilary term since they begin on approximately this date. Some consider Saint Hilary of Poitiers the patron saint of lawyers.

Agincourt, Oxford, and All Souls’ Day

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Martyrdom of SS. Crispin and Crispinian

The battle of Agincort, made famous in Shakespeare’s play Henry V, took place on October 25, 1415 the commemoration of St. Crispin. See clips of the famous “Band of brothers” speech with reference to St. Crispin’s Day here.

Born to a noble Roman family in the 3rd century AD, Crispin and his brother Crispinian fled persecution for their faith, ending up at Soissons, where they preached Christianity to the Gauls while working as shoemakers and cobblers at night. They earned enough by their trade to support themselves and also to aid the poor. Their success attracted the ire of the governor of Gaul, who had them tortured and thrown into the river with millstones around their necks. They survived but were beheaded by the Emperor c. 285–286.

The college dedicated to All Souls in Oxford received its foundation charter in 1438 from King Henry VI. It is the only Oxford college to have only graduate students, no undergraduates. It was founded by Henry VI with the religious duty–in addition to academic research–to pray for those who had died at Agincort or in other battles during the Hundred Years War that England fought to control the crown of France. The number of the dead to be prayed for was overwhelming and the religious dedication was broadened to include all the departed, not just those slain in battle with the French. The college marks November 2, All Souls’ Day, as its name’s day; the commemoration of All Souls is 9 days after the commemoration of St. Crispin and his brother, thus including an allusion to the battle fought at Agincort which was the source the college’s original dedication..

All Souls has had many famous students, including Christopher Wren, William Blackstone, William Gladstone, and Lawrence of Arabia. British forces which fought at the Battle of Mons in August 1944 were said to have been protected by the ghosts of archers slain at Agincort.

All Souls College, Oxford with the dome of the Radcliffe Camera behind.