St Philip's Day Donation

Apart from the beautiful music and liturgy, St Philip's Day this year was also marked by an anonymous donation of £15,000 to our campaign. This brings the total raised so far to £639,030. We would like to record our thanks to the donor, whoever they may be, and assure them of our prayers.

This means that we will be able to proceed with the next work in the church, the restoration of the Relic Chapel. We have already received a grant of £5,000 for this work from the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust. To see some pictures of how the chapel once looked, how it is now and a design for the future, please click here.

The Relic Chapel was built to house the collection of Hartwell de la Garde Grissell. Grissell was an undergraduate at Brasenose College. He was instructed in the Catholic faith by Fr Edward Caswall of the Birmingham Oratory and received by Cardinal Manning. He spent many years as a Papal chamberlain in Rome, where he acquired the collection we now have. Some indication of its interest can be had by following this link.