St Mary de Castro, Leicester

I was pleased to call at the Church of St Mary de Castro in Leicester this winter. Its peculiar name has less to do with Cuban dictators than the Latin word for 'castle' in the shadow of which it once stood. It is an Anglo-Catholic congregation; Simon Jenkins' waspish comment in England’s 1000 Best Churches made me smile:

"Altars are dressed, candles burn in every corner, and not a shelf lacks an icon of sorts. My reaction is that if a church wishes to go down this route it should at least go the whole hog. Put back the screens, chantries, wall paintings and priests in constant attendance".

He seems to agree with the late Professor Pevsner, however, that the building’s finest features are its sedilia and piscina in the chancel, above. The former is a set of set three seats for officiating clergy, and the piscina a basin for the washing of the communion vessels. These are of the Norman or Romanesque design, with their perfectly rounded arches and heavy, zig-zag decoration. Such features put the building on the map. Yet there is evidence elsewhere that the style for which St Mary’s is now famous was covered up and replaced. See the photos below, with rounded arches and zigzag decorations ‘buried’ among the smoother designs of later architectural fashion. A medieval man living in 1300 would have thought the Norman design ‘old school’ and unfashionable. Do not assume that only we moderns gaze at older things and dismiss them; medieval folk were just as bad.

There is something about the gospel of Christ which is forever embarrassing people and causing even religious folk to squirm in disbelief. Today, it is its teaching on sexuality and marriage. Liberals vainly attempt to reinterpret it; aggressive secularists rightly see its incompatibility with current worldly trends and assumptions. They try to cover it up and conceal it,  but like St Mary’s rounded arches and zigzagged decorations it just won’t go away.  

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2

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