An engaging book about Hereford Cathedral's famous saint, Thomas Cantilupe, has recently been published by the Gracewing press, and throws interesting light on religious faith in Herefordshire during the Middle Ages.

The impressive 200-page volume, St Thomas of Hereford by journalist Gabriel Alington not only catalogues the life of the 13th century son of the Church but creates vivid impressions of an age of faith which really was another place, another time.

We may never know whether or not real miracles did occur in the hubbub of Hereford Cathedral eight hundred years ago, around the great man's tomb. But many people believed they did, as the following passage shows:

"At the peak of the cult, with a positive forest of candles planted round the shrine, the north transept must have blazed...Even in 1291, when the cult was declining, the value of candle wax burned throughout the year was about £20, roughly ten thousand pounds today..."

People left gifts for St Thomas, such as silver ships, rings, and wax images of body parts.

This book is full of interesting details and occasional speculation. We learn how medieval bodies were sometimes boiled, so that the bones could be parted from the flesh and put into caskets. We also discover that the castrated parts of the rebel Simon de Montfort provided the warrior with a curious moustache, after death.

A possible link between St Thomas and Hereford Cathedral's famous Mappa Mundi is also touched upon. This is indeed a fascinating book, and can only be thoroughly recommended.

Gary Bills-Geddes