The Bishop of Shrewsbury has compared the progress of the relics of St Bernadette around Britain to the journey of the late Queen’s coffin from Scotland to London.
In a homily he will preach in Shrewsbury Cathedral and in St Werburgh’s, Chester, Bishop Mark Davies described “the reverence and love with which the mortal remains of our departed Queen Elizabeth have been received on their last journey”.
“Her Majesty’s mortal remains are a tangible connection with our late monarch, recalling the memory of her dedicated life and inviting prayer among the many who have stood along the roadways or passed before them,” he said.
He drew a comparison with the relics of St Bernadette, which arrive in his diocese today as part of their tour. They “provide for us a tangible connection with the heroic life of this young woman”.
Crowds of locals lined many parts of the route as the Queen’s body was driven from Balmoral to Edinburgh on Sunday, and thousands lined the Scottish capital’s Royal Mile as the coffin was borne in procession to St Giles Cathedral by the Royal Company of Archers, the sovereign’s bodyguard in Scotland.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to visit the Queen’s lying in state in Westminster Hall in the coming days, with authorities concerned that the number of mourners could see London become “full” for the first time in its history.
This dedication, said Bishop Davies, “helps us appreciate how the Church from the beginning treated the bodies of the saints with great reverence, as those who lived united with Christ who left for us the memory of their witness”.
On Sunday, Bishop Davies issued a new pastoral letter to the parishes of his diocese, replacing an original letter on the relics of St Bernadette, because, he said, we “can sometimes be unsure today how to respond to death and to the sudden shock which comes with the loss of someone who has always been part of our lives”.
He said that the Church directs its grief into prayers for the dead “filled with Christian hope”. He cited the word of St John Chrysostom, the Doctor of the Church whose feast is celebrated on 13 September: “Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.”
Bishop Davies continued: “This must always be our final duty of charity to everyone we may have known in this life, and this must surely be our final duty to Queen Elizabeth II, to pray that she may rest in peace. It is for this reason that we do not merely commemorate our longest serving monarch, but remember her in Christian prayer.”
In his homily in Shrewsbury Cathedral, the bishop said that the relics of St Bernadette also prompt us to seek the intercession of the saints for the living and the dead, “and as we venerate [her relics] with reverence, we are invited to ask her prayers in Heaven as we continue our journey on earth”.
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