Online History Talk - The Saints of Peterborough

About

Dr Francis Young will explore the cults of Peterborough's medieval saints and the veneration of individuals including Katharine of Aragon, Mary, Queen of Scots and Edith Cavell.

Unlike many other great monastic churches, medieval Peterborough Abbey did not house the body of one single famous saint.

Instead, the Anglo-Saxon and Norman abbots of Peterborough strove to create an impressive collection of relics, from the valuable arm of St Oswald to the local saints Kyneburgha, Kyneswitha and Tibba.

Peterborough was also home to other saints' cults, such as the apparently invented Saints Wulfade and Ruffin, and even an unauthorised 'folk saint', Laurence of Oxford.

Francis is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Reader in the Church of England and the author of 15 books on the history of religion and belief, including Peterborough Folklore (2017). He is a historian specialising in the history of religion and belief. He is the author, editor or co-author of 18 books and is interested in how history illuminates the nature of belief and in the intersections between religion, folklore, magic and other forms of supernatural belief.