In front of the Parish Church is the Al Saints’ Reliquary Chapel. It contains one of the largest collections of relics outside of Rome. Many of the relics housed there came from the Capuchin mother house in the Eternal City.

 

Gerard Dupon and Albert d’Have of Bruges, both of whom were friends of Father Taylor, created a stream of artistic and liturgical reliquaries of tremendous beauty. At the heart of the Chapel sits the marvellous canopy, and the Carfin Monstrance which was blessed by Pope Pius XI.

 

Among the larger reliquaries should be mentioned that of St Thomas More, with its reproduction of Holbein’s portrait of the martyr, and a picturesque replica of the Tower where he died; that of St Barbara, over seven feet high; that of St Ursula, which is a copy of a gorgeous casket made six centuries ago by the Flemish master, Memling of Bruges. Lastly, mention should be made of the reliquary of St Therese, one of the world’s finest, which gained for Carfin from Mother Agnes before her death, an unusually large relic of her sister.