For the date of July 25th, the “Roman Martyrology” declares “In Lycia (on the southern coast of Turkey), in the time of Decius (249-251), St. Christopher, martyr. Being scourged with iron rods. Cast into flames from which he was saved by the power of Christ, and finally transfixed with arrows and beheaded, he completed his martyrdom.”
The earliest known inscription mentioning St. Christopher was found on an incised stone in the ruins of a church in ancient Chalcedon, built very near the basilica of St. Euphemia, where the 4th Ecumenical Council – the Council of Chalcedon – took place in 451. The church was consecrated to St. Christopher’s Martyrdom. Construction began in May of 450, and the date of the dedication was September 22, 452, during the time Theodosius II was emperor and Eulalius was bishop of Chalcedon. So the Council of Chalcedon took place during the construction of the church, and all the participating bishops would have been aware of it.
The inscription also declares that Christopher came from Bithynia (on the northern coast of Turkey) and that his relics are being deposited here in this new church. In the documents issued by the Second Council of Constantinople (553), there is a listing of several monasteries subject to the jurisdiction of Bishop Photin of Chalcedon. Among them is “St. Christopher “ton Tarullion”. Christopher is mentioned again in the Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes (“Liber Pontificarum”) n 742/743, when Pope Zacharias visited a St. Christopher’s basilica in a place called Aquila (near Rimini), some 50 miles from Ravenna.
Eventually, Christopher’s relics were transported to Constantinople, but it is not clear when or why. According to the “Synaxarion of Constantinople,” there was a church of St. Christopher in the Promotou area of Constantinople, near the church of St. Polyeuktos. It appears that the church was the site of the house of General Promotos, the Magister Militum of Emperor Theodosius I, who was assassinated by order of a rival in 391.
By 1075, St. Christopher’s gold encrusted skull and other relics were on the island of Rab (Arba), Croatia. Croatians claim that the skull was brought by a bishop from Constantinople to help the city during the Norman siege. In 1071-1075, Amicus II of Giovanazzo, a Norman nobleman – count of Molfetta and Giovanazzo, invaded Croatia in support of the Papacy in a dispute with the Croatian king. He captured the king, Peter Kresimir IV, paving the way for the coronation of the Papacy’s ally, Ditmar Zvonimir. He probably intended to carve out for himself a principality there, but he was defeated by the Republic of Venice (acting on behalf of Byzantium), and returned to Italy.
During the siege of Rab, when the bishop exposed the skull to the Norman army from the ramparts, the Normans withdrew. According to Bishop Jurai Kostica, in his “Miracula Sancti Christophori” (1308), when the skull was exposed to the enemy during the siege, everyone viewed on the city walls a mighty warrior who threatened the Normans with a spear. This warrior was said to be the saint himself, and the inhabitants managed to drive away the invaders. St. Christopher’s skull is still in the church of St. Justina in Rab. In 1358, another Croatian bishop exposed the skull on the wall of Rab to put an end to an Ottoman siege. (The Monastery of Karakalou on Mount Athos, first mentioned in the 11th century, also claims to possess the skull of St. Christopher.)
Eight years after the Norman siege of Rab, in 1087, after the death of King William the Conqueror of England, one of the Norman leaders named Wiliam Herlan, count of Morten (probably Guillaume “Werlenc”, count of Mortain), went to Croatia. Herlan had been a one of those who had opposed William the Conqueror during his climb to power before the Norman Invasion of England. In 1056, blaming Herlan for a rebellion, he expelled him. Herlan came to Croatia after the Normans had been driven away. Already tired of his former life, and impressed with the power shown by St. Christopher during the siege of Rab, Herlan decided to give up his military life and become a Benedictine monk. He took the name “Christopher”. Herlan met the Catholic Bishop of Trogir, St. John (Ivan) of Trogir, The bishop encouraged him in his plans to return to England, and he presented him with a portion from the relics of St. Christopher – a lumbar vertebra - to bring with him. Thus did our relic of St. Christopher reach England.
In 1095, Herlan arrived in Canterbury, where he met the Archbishop, St. Anselm. At Anselm’s invitation, Herlan stayed to live in the Abbey of St. Augustine. In 1098, William/Christopher died and, according to his own will, was buried in the county of Morten, in Normandy, with which he had been connected by the years of his secular life. The relic of St. Christopher, which he had brought with him, was placed together with other famous relics at St. Augustine’s. Among them were the remains of St. Mildred, Abbess of Thanet.
In the ninth century, her nuns moved from Minster-in-Thanet to the newly-built church of St. Mildred in Canterbury. In 1027, at the behest of Abbot Aelfstan of St. Augustine’s King Cnut had ordered that her incorrupt and miracle working body be transferred from her convent chapel to St. Augustine’s. Another important relic at St. Augustine’s was the skull of the Kentish king, St. Ethelbert, at whose invitation St. Augustine had come to England in the first place.
In 1072, the first Norman abbot, Scolland, obtained permission from Pope Alexander II to move St. Augustine’s remains from his tomb into a much more elaborate tomb in the new church which was being constructed. Abbot Wido (Guy) completed the construction and, in 1091, after having moved the relics of St. Adrian, the Abbot, and many of Augustine’s saintly successors all into the elaborate apse, along with all the other relics treasured by the community, he had the new abbey church solemnly dedicated.
During the 14th century, one of the monks at St. Augustine named William Thorne wrote a “Chronicle”. In col. 1792 of the history, he wrote of Abbot Wido’s translation of the relics, “the greater part of these relics were removed and hidden privately (through fear of their being taken away on any invasion of an enemy) in the presence only of the Abbot and a few ancient monks, in night time, and laid as before mentioned and they concealing the fact, the memory of it became extinct till the year 1221, when it was discovered in the time of Abbot Hugh III, as will be further mentioned hereafter. The small remains being part of the bones and ashes of St. Augustine were closed up in two leaden vessels and hidden, and the one placed at the very bottom, and the other at the summit of the shrine, with diverse other precious relics, and that it was reported, that there were many other relics of saints hidden in different places of the church, which were not then discovered.”
Until the 14th century, the monastery expanded and was rebuilt and continued to move towards its final shape until its golden years came to an abrupt end in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
On July 30, 1538, the last abbot, John Essex, under threat of execution, signed a document transferring the monastery to King Henry VIII. Such a step on his part guaranteed the saving the lives of the 30 monks who left with the abbot. The monks were released in different directions, some becoming local parish priests. Unfortunately, most of the treasures of the monastery and its shrines were not saved. This was especially true for those relics which were in expensive and large reliquaries. With the transfer of the monastery to the king, part of the skull of King Ethelbert and most of the relics of St. Mildred were lost forever (however, our Shrine of All Saints was able to return a small portion of her elbow to the sisters of Minster Abbey (formerly Thanet) in July of 2018. With a Carbon-14 test, Oxford University had declared the bone to be just the correct age). One of the monks from St. Augustine’s who fled to mainland Europe brought our relic of St. Christopher with him to France.
In 1600, the Roman Curia gave permission for Benedictine monks to perform divine services in the English mission. In 1625, the relic of St. Christopher was in the hands of Richard Smith, who was titular bishop of Chalcedon and had arrived as a missionary in England in 1603 at a time when Catholicism was officially banned. He could have faced death if he was caught and tried. He served as chaplain to Viscountess Montague, wife of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu. From April, 1625. Smith was staying with the Brownes in their house at Turvey, in Bedforshire. Eventually, he moved into the French Embassy in London and brought the relic with him. By 1631, when an order was issued in England for his arrest, he had to leave England in haste, but left the relic in the Embassy.
In 1634, the Papal Ambassador Bishop Gregorio Panzani arrived in London. He was a Vatican secret agent sent by Pope Urban VIII and was in constant communication with King Charles I.
The French ambassador gave Panzani some things left by Smith, including the relic of St. Christopher. In 1636, Panzani left Great Britain before the start of the revolution, the cause of which was the beheading of Charles I in 1649, and the civil war that followed. He brought the relic of St. Christopher with him to the Vatican. In 1685, the Catholic James II became king of England. Pope Innocent XI, hoping for the restoration of Catholicism in England, sent Ferdinando d’Adda as his nuncio to England, the first official representative of the Papacy to go to England in over a century.
The Pope sent the relic of St. Christopher and had it presented to the king as a gift. With it came a message to James in which he gave the king instructions and advised him not to rush the restoration of Catholicism in England. The Pope did not approve of King James’ imprudent manner of trying to force things on his unwilling subjects. Unfortunately, James did not follow the Pope’s advice. In 1691, the deposed King James II left for mainland Europe after his last defeat in the Battle of the Boyne (July 1, 1690) and left the relic with his faithful Catholics in Dublin.
In 1738, the relic was in the possession of Richard Edgcumbe (Edgecomb), the 1st Baron Edgcumb, who, at the time, was Lord of the Treasury and Treasurer General of Ireland. On one of his visits to London on government affairs, Edgecumb met Lieutenant Augustus Keppel, the illegitimate son of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and an important Whig party member and Anne, daughter of the 1st Duke of Richmond (himself an illegitimate son of King Charles II). By origin, Keppel was a Puritan, but a difficult stretch of service in the navy, especially when he was very nearly killed in the capture of Paita (Peru) in 1741, led to his changing his world view and converting to Catholicism. In 1742, he was promoted to acting lieutenant and things improved for him. It was at this time of his spiritual transformation that Keppel met and formed a friendship with Lord Edgcumbe, who subsequently had considerable influence on Keppel’s interior life. Seeing how difficult a path Keppel was following, Edgcumbe made Keppel the temporary gift of the relic of St. Christopher, patron saint both of travelers and of sailors. The relic remained with Keppel for a long time during his naval service. A component of this was his participating on the British side in the American War of Independence. He was chosen commander of the Canal Fleet, whose first commander had been John Lindsay. Keppel chose the HMS Victory as his flagship. He brought the relic with him on board.
Keppel was promoted to full admiral on January 29, 1778. When he requested Parliament for the funds to sheath the naval ships with copper for their additional strengthening, the request was rejected. Later the lack of coppering the Navy was given as one of the key reasons leading to Britain losing the 13 American colonies. One of Keppel’s subordinate admirals, Sir Hugh Palliser, was also blamed for the bad state of the navy. When a battle Keppel fought with the French at Ushant on July 27, 1778, ended badly, Keppel was blamed and was removed from the command of the Victory. When he left the ship, he forgot the relic of St. Christopher, which he had hidden from prying eyes. Before the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, the HMS Victory came under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy, who served as first captain to the victorious Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. Hardy was with Nelson when the admiral was shot towards the end of the battle. In their last conversation, Nelson reminded Hardy to anchor the fleet and begged him to take care of Lady Hamilton. Then, very close to death, Nelson asked Hardy to kiss him on the cheek. “Now I am satisfied,” said Nelson. “Thank God, I have done my duty.” Hardy stood up and having spent a few moments looking down silently at his friend, he knelt and kissed him again on the forehead. “Who is that?” asked Nelson. He replied, “It is Hardy.” Nelson’s last words were, “God bless you, Hardy.”
The relic of St. Christopher was discovered in an overhaul of the ship in 1807. According to the decision of the naval command, it was supposed to be thrown out. But one of the young sailors, Morgan Walsh, who was brought up in a traditionally Catholic family, managed to steal and hide the reliquary and other items. During the Battle of Trafalgar, Walsh had been wounded and was very near where Nelson died. But Walsh recovered and stayed on with the ship for a while, before he was retired. Due to the political and religious complexities of Britain in the early 19th century, the relic of St. Christopher was kept hidden by the Walsh family.
In 1875, St. John Henry Newman was presented with the relic of St. Christopher as a gift from of one of the military men in Birmingham at the time – presumably a member of the Walsh family. He had it sealed and certified in its present state on July 9, 1875 by Bishop Francois-Andre’-Xavier de Gaffory of Ajaccio, the Primate of Corsica, who was in France on a mission at the time. Newman was then living at the Birmingham Oratory, Edgbaston, and remained there for the last forty years of his life. Several members of his community assisted in celebrating Masses at St. Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham - one of the first Catholic Cathedrals built in England after the Reformation. In fact, Newman had preached at the enthronement ceremony of William Bernard Ullathorne, the first Bishop of Birmingham.
In 1850. Newman decided to give the relic of St. Christopher to St. Chad’s as part of its treasury. In 1879, Newman was appointed titular Cardinal of San Georgio in Velabro. The next year, he went to Rome to visit Pope Leo XIII and to visit his titular basilica. He brought several reliquaries with him to San Giorgio, but not the relic of St. Christopher. That remained at St. Chad’s. In 1887, he intended another visit to Rome, but he abandoned this idea, due to illness. In 1890, he died from the effects of lung disease.
We read again about the relic of St. Christopher in the Chronicle of Westminster. For a while, it was in the Anglican diocese of Chester. The best that researchers have been to sort out from the data is that one of the local bishops – either Catholic of Anglican - who attended Cardinal Newman’s funeral in 1890 received the reliquary in his memory. The curious thing is that it was identified during a reconstruction at St. Thomas of Canterbury Anglican Church in Chester. St. Thomas had always been a Catholic-leaning church; and, in 1909, H.E. Burder, a new vicar (1909-1948), was appointed. He instituted daily Mass and Sunday weekly sung celebrations of the Eucharist– which persist to this day. He commissioned architect Charles Deacon (1844-1927) to design a new high altar and reredos. On the old altar, he found our relic of St. Christopher, with the same certification document from Bishop de Gaffory of Ajaccio. By mutual agreement, in 1914, the Council and Chapter of the parish decided that it would be historical justice to restore it to the Catholic Church.
So they gave it to Cardinal Francis Alphonsus Bourne, the Archbishop of Westminster and Catholic Primate of England. In 1918, Cardinal Bourne went to Rome on the occasion of the celebration of the end of World War I. He left the relic in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. There is information that the relic remained there until 1939. With outbreak of World War II, the reliquary of St. Christopher disappeared from the field of view of the chroniclers and next appeared in 2019, at one of the international auctions. It came to us from Krasnodar, Russia, in the Fall of 2021.
The earliest known inscription mentioning St. Christopher was found on an incised stone in the ruins of a church in ancient Chalcedon, built very near the basilica of St. Euphemia, where the 4th Ecumenical Council – the Council of Chalcedon – took place in 451. The church was consecrated to St. Christopher’s Martyrdom. Construction began in May of 450, and the date of the dedication was September 22, 452, during the time Theodosius II was emperor and Eulalius was bishop of Chalcedon. So the Council of Chalcedon took place during the construction of the church, and all the participating bishops would have been aware of it.
The inscription also declares that Christopher came from Bithynia (on the northern coast of Turkey) and that his relics are being deposited here in this new church. In the documents issued by the Second Council of Constantinople (553), there is a listing of several monasteries subject to the jurisdiction of Bishop Photin of Chalcedon. Among them is “St. Christopher “ton Tarullion”. Christopher is mentioned again in the Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes (“Liber Pontificarum”) n 742/743, when Pope Zacharias visited a St. Christopher’s basilica in a place called Aquila (near Rimini), some 50 miles from Ravenna.
Eventually, Christopher’s relics were transported to Constantinople, but it is not clear when or why. According to the “Synaxarion of Constantinople,” there was a church of St. Christopher in the Promotou area of Constantinople, near the church of St. Polyeuktos. It appears that the church was the site of the house of General Promotos, the Magister Militum of Emperor Theodosius I, who was assassinated by order of a rival in 391.
By 1075, St. Christopher’s gold encrusted skull and other relics were on the island of Rab (Arba), Croatia. Croatians claim that the skull was brought by a bishop from Constantinople to help the city during the Norman siege. In 1071-1075, Amicus II of Giovanazzo, a Norman nobleman – count of Molfetta and Giovanazzo, invaded Croatia in support of the Papacy in a dispute with the Croatian king. He captured the king, Peter Kresimir IV, paving the way for the coronation of the Papacy’s ally, Ditmar Zvonimir. He probably intended to carve out for himself a principality there, but he was defeated by the Republic of Venice (acting on behalf of Byzantium), and returned to Italy.
During the siege of Rab, when the bishop exposed the skull to the Norman army from the ramparts, the Normans withdrew. According to Bishop Jurai Kostica, in his “Miracula Sancti Christophori” (1308), when the skull was exposed to the enemy during the siege, everyone viewed on the city walls a mighty warrior who threatened the Normans with a spear. This warrior was said to be the saint himself, and the inhabitants managed to drive away the invaders. St. Christopher’s skull is still in the church of St. Justina in Rab. In 1358, another Croatian bishop exposed the skull on the wall of Rab to put an end to an Ottoman siege. (The Monastery of Karakalou on Mount Athos, first mentioned in the 11th century, also claims to possess the skull of St. Christopher.)
Eight years after the Norman siege of Rab, in 1087, after the death of King William the Conqueror of England, one of the Norman leaders named Wiliam Herlan, count of Morten (probably Guillaume “Werlenc”, count of Mortain), went to Croatia. Herlan had been a one of those who had opposed William the Conqueror during his climb to power before the Norman Invasion of England. In 1056, blaming Herlan for a rebellion, he expelled him. Herlan came to Croatia after the Normans had been driven away. Already tired of his former life, and impressed with the power shown by St. Christopher during the siege of Rab, Herlan decided to give up his military life and become a Benedictine monk. He took the name “Christopher”. Herlan met the Catholic Bishop of Trogir, St. John (Ivan) of Trogir, The bishop encouraged him in his plans to return to England, and he presented him with a portion from the relics of St. Christopher – a lumbar vertebra - to bring with him. Thus did our relic of St. Christopher reach England.
In 1095, Herlan arrived in Canterbury, where he met the Archbishop, St. Anselm. At Anselm’s invitation, Herlan stayed to live in the Abbey of St. Augustine. In 1098, William/Christopher died and, according to his own will, was buried in the county of Morten, in Normandy, with which he had been connected by the years of his secular life. The relic of St. Christopher, which he had brought with him, was placed together with other famous relics at St. Augustine’s. Among them were the remains of St. Mildred, Abbess of Thanet.
In the ninth century, her nuns moved from Minster-in-Thanet to the newly-built church of St. Mildred in Canterbury. In 1027, at the behest of Abbot Aelfstan of St. Augustine’s King Cnut had ordered that her incorrupt and miracle working body be transferred from her convent chapel to St. Augustine’s. Another important relic at St. Augustine’s was the skull of the Kentish king, St. Ethelbert, at whose invitation St. Augustine had come to England in the first place.
In 1072, the first Norman abbot, Scolland, obtained permission from Pope Alexander II to move St. Augustine’s remains from his tomb into a much more elaborate tomb in the new church which was being constructed. Abbot Wido (Guy) completed the construction and, in 1091, after having moved the relics of St. Adrian, the Abbot, and many of Augustine’s saintly successors all into the elaborate apse, along with all the other relics treasured by the community, he had the new abbey church solemnly dedicated.
During the 14th century, one of the monks at St. Augustine named William Thorne wrote a “Chronicle”. In col. 1792 of the history, he wrote of Abbot Wido’s translation of the relics, “the greater part of these relics were removed and hidden privately (through fear of their being taken away on any invasion of an enemy) in the presence only of the Abbot and a few ancient monks, in night time, and laid as before mentioned and they concealing the fact, the memory of it became extinct till the year 1221, when it was discovered in the time of Abbot Hugh III, as will be further mentioned hereafter. The small remains being part of the bones and ashes of St. Augustine were closed up in two leaden vessels and hidden, and the one placed at the very bottom, and the other at the summit of the shrine, with diverse other precious relics, and that it was reported, that there were many other relics of saints hidden in different places of the church, which were not then discovered.”
Until the 14th century, the monastery expanded and was rebuilt and continued to move towards its final shape until its golden years came to an abrupt end in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
On July 30, 1538, the last abbot, John Essex, under threat of execution, signed a document transferring the monastery to King Henry VIII. Such a step on his part guaranteed the saving the lives of the 30 monks who left with the abbot. The monks were released in different directions, some becoming local parish priests. Unfortunately, most of the treasures of the monastery and its shrines were not saved. This was especially true for those relics which were in expensive and large reliquaries. With the transfer of the monastery to the king, part of the skull of King Ethelbert and most of the relics of St. Mildred were lost forever (however, our Shrine of All Saints was able to return a small portion of her elbow to the sisters of Minster Abbey (formerly Thanet) in July of 2018. With a Carbon-14 test, Oxford University had declared the bone to be just the correct age). One of the monks from St. Augustine’s who fled to mainland Europe brought our relic of St. Christopher with him to France.
In 1600, the Roman Curia gave permission for Benedictine monks to perform divine services in the English mission. In 1625, the relic of St. Christopher was in the hands of Richard Smith, who was titular bishop of Chalcedon and had arrived as a missionary in England in 1603 at a time when Catholicism was officially banned. He could have faced death if he was caught and tried. He served as chaplain to Viscountess Montague, wife of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu. From April, 1625. Smith was staying with the Brownes in their house at Turvey, in Bedforshire. Eventually, he moved into the French Embassy in London and brought the relic with him. By 1631, when an order was issued in England for his arrest, he had to leave England in haste, but left the relic in the Embassy.
In 1634, the Papal Ambassador Bishop Gregorio Panzani arrived in London. He was a Vatican secret agent sent by Pope Urban VIII and was in constant communication with King Charles I.
The French ambassador gave Panzani some things left by Smith, including the relic of St. Christopher. In 1636, Panzani left Great Britain before the start of the revolution, the cause of which was the beheading of Charles I in 1649, and the civil war that followed. He brought the relic of St. Christopher with him to the Vatican. In 1685, the Catholic James II became king of England. Pope Innocent XI, hoping for the restoration of Catholicism in England, sent Ferdinando d’Adda as his nuncio to England, the first official representative of the Papacy to go to England in over a century.
The Pope sent the relic of St. Christopher and had it presented to the king as a gift. With it came a message to James in which he gave the king instructions and advised him not to rush the restoration of Catholicism in England. The Pope did not approve of King James’ imprudent manner of trying to force things on his unwilling subjects. Unfortunately, James did not follow the Pope’s advice. In 1691, the deposed King James II left for mainland Europe after his last defeat in the Battle of the Boyne (July 1, 1690) and left the relic with his faithful Catholics in Dublin.
In 1738, the relic was in the possession of Richard Edgcumbe (Edgecomb), the 1st Baron Edgcumb, who, at the time, was Lord of the Treasury and Treasurer General of Ireland. On one of his visits to London on government affairs, Edgecumb met Lieutenant Augustus Keppel, the illegitimate son of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle and an important Whig party member and Anne, daughter of the 1st Duke of Richmond (himself an illegitimate son of King Charles II). By origin, Keppel was a Puritan, but a difficult stretch of service in the navy, especially when he was very nearly killed in the capture of Paita (Peru) in 1741, led to his changing his world view and converting to Catholicism. In 1742, he was promoted to acting lieutenant and things improved for him. It was at this time of his spiritual transformation that Keppel met and formed a friendship with Lord Edgcumbe, who subsequently had considerable influence on Keppel’s interior life. Seeing how difficult a path Keppel was following, Edgcumbe made Keppel the temporary gift of the relic of St. Christopher, patron saint both of travelers and of sailors. The relic remained with Keppel for a long time during his naval service. A component of this was his participating on the British side in the American War of Independence. He was chosen commander of the Canal Fleet, whose first commander had been John Lindsay. Keppel chose the HMS Victory as his flagship. He brought the relic with him on board.
Keppel was promoted to full admiral on January 29, 1778. When he requested Parliament for the funds to sheath the naval ships with copper for their additional strengthening, the request was rejected. Later the lack of coppering the Navy was given as one of the key reasons leading to Britain losing the 13 American colonies. One of Keppel’s subordinate admirals, Sir Hugh Palliser, was also blamed for the bad state of the navy. When a battle Keppel fought with the French at Ushant on July 27, 1778, ended badly, Keppel was blamed and was removed from the command of the Victory. When he left the ship, he forgot the relic of St. Christopher, which he had hidden from prying eyes. Before the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, the HMS Victory came under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy, who served as first captain to the victorious Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. Hardy was with Nelson when the admiral was shot towards the end of the battle. In their last conversation, Nelson reminded Hardy to anchor the fleet and begged him to take care of Lady Hamilton. Then, very close to death, Nelson asked Hardy to kiss him on the cheek. “Now I am satisfied,” said Nelson. “Thank God, I have done my duty.” Hardy stood up and having spent a few moments looking down silently at his friend, he knelt and kissed him again on the forehead. “Who is that?” asked Nelson. He replied, “It is Hardy.” Nelson’s last words were, “God bless you, Hardy.”
The relic of St. Christopher was discovered in an overhaul of the ship in 1807. According to the decision of the naval command, it was supposed to be thrown out. But one of the young sailors, Morgan Walsh, who was brought up in a traditionally Catholic family, managed to steal and hide the reliquary and other items. During the Battle of Trafalgar, Walsh had been wounded and was very near where Nelson died. But Walsh recovered and stayed on with the ship for a while, before he was retired. Due to the political and religious complexities of Britain in the early 19th century, the relic of St. Christopher was kept hidden by the Walsh family.
In 1875, St. John Henry Newman was presented with the relic of St. Christopher as a gift from of one of the military men in Birmingham at the time – presumably a member of the Walsh family. He had it sealed and certified in its present state on July 9, 1875 by Bishop Francois-Andre’-Xavier de Gaffory of Ajaccio, the Primate of Corsica, who was in France on a mission at the time. Newman was then living at the Birmingham Oratory, Edgbaston, and remained there for the last forty years of his life. Several members of his community assisted in celebrating Masses at St. Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham - one of the first Catholic Cathedrals built in England after the Reformation. In fact, Newman had preached at the enthronement ceremony of William Bernard Ullathorne, the first Bishop of Birmingham.
In 1850. Newman decided to give the relic of St. Christopher to St. Chad’s as part of its treasury. In 1879, Newman was appointed titular Cardinal of San Georgio in Velabro. The next year, he went to Rome to visit Pope Leo XIII and to visit his titular basilica. He brought several reliquaries with him to San Giorgio, but not the relic of St. Christopher. That remained at St. Chad’s. In 1887, he intended another visit to Rome, but he abandoned this idea, due to illness. In 1890, he died from the effects of lung disease.
We read again about the relic of St. Christopher in the Chronicle of Westminster. For a while, it was in the Anglican diocese of Chester. The best that researchers have been to sort out from the data is that one of the local bishops – either Catholic of Anglican - who attended Cardinal Newman’s funeral in 1890 received the reliquary in his memory. The curious thing is that it was identified during a reconstruction at St. Thomas of Canterbury Anglican Church in Chester. St. Thomas had always been a Catholic-leaning church; and, in 1909, H.E. Burder, a new vicar (1909-1948), was appointed. He instituted daily Mass and Sunday weekly sung celebrations of the Eucharist– which persist to this day. He commissioned architect Charles Deacon (1844-1927) to design a new high altar and reredos. On the old altar, he found our relic of St. Christopher, with the same certification document from Bishop de Gaffory of Ajaccio. By mutual agreement, in 1914, the Council and Chapter of the parish decided that it would be historical justice to restore it to the Catholic Church.
So they gave it to Cardinal Francis Alphonsus Bourne, the Archbishop of Westminster and Catholic Primate of England. In 1918, Cardinal Bourne went to Rome on the occasion of the celebration of the end of World War I. He left the relic in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. There is information that the relic remained there until 1939. With outbreak of World War II, the reliquary of St. Christopher disappeared from the field of view of the chroniclers and next appeared in 2019, at one of the international auctions. It came to us from Krasnodar, Russia, in the Fall of 2021.
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