Ribble Valley college loans 'thorn of Christ' to British Museum (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Ribble Valley college loans 'thorn of Christ' to British Museum

11:10am Wednesday 23rd March 2011 in News By Nazia Parveen, Reporter

FOR more than 200 years Stonyhurst College has cared for its most precious artefact — a thorn said to be from the crown forced onto Christ’s head at his crucifixion.

Now it is being loaned to the British Museum for a new exhibition for thousands of visitors to enjoy.

The Crown Of Thorns is said to have been seized from Constantinople, the imperial capital of the Roman Empire, in the Fourth Crusade and was later sold to King Louis IX of France whilst he was in Venice.

King Louis kept the religious relic in the specially-built Saint Chapel and thorns were broken off from the crown and given to people who married into the family as gifts.

The thorn at Stonyhurst College was said to have been given to Mary Queen of Scots who married into the French royal family and she took it with her to Holyrood in Edinburgh.

And following her execution in 1587, it was passed from her loyal servant, Thomas Percy, to his daughter, Elizabeth Woodruff, who then gave it to her confessor - a Jesuit priest - in 1600.

The Jesuits brought it with them to the Hurst Green college.

It has been kept at the Ribble Valley college every since.

Now it is to be loaned to the British Museum in London for a new exhibition, ‘Treasures of Heaven’, inspired by saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe.

Jan Graffius, curator at the Stonyhurst, said: "It is an incredible object and we are really delighted that it will form part of the British Museum exhibition.

"It is a priceless treasure."

Catriona Graffius, a sixth former at the college, was invited to take part in the production of a podcast guide for the exhibition.

The youngster, who was interviewed to give a pupil’s perspective on her school’s precious possession, said: “I was asked to describe the thorn, which has Mary Queen of Scots’ pearls twined around it.

“The thorn is placed in a chapel at Stonyhurst every year in Holy Week.”

The British Museum exhibition features some of the finest sacred treasures of the medieval age, which have been collected from more than 40 institutions and many of which have not been seen in the UK before.

The thorn will sit amongst rare loans from the Vatican, including from the private chapel of the popes and the Sancta Sanctorum.

Whilst the majority of objects date from between 1000 to 1500AD some of the earliest pieces include a late Roman sarcophagus dating from between 250 to 350AD.

Other exhibits include three thorns from the Crown of Thorns and the Mandylion of Edessa; one of the earliest known likenesses of Jesus.

The exhibition will open in June 23 and run until October 9.