TODAY! Join us in church for our Christmas Festival - wrap up warm and enjoy some mulled wine and mince pies and help us raise money for our new heating system #folkestone #christmas #advent

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to see The Telling perform in our mediaeval church on Saturday 25 November with Vision: the imagined testimony of Hildegard of Bingen. Get your tickets! thetelling.co.uk/events/vision-…

Join us at St Mary & St Eanswythe Church this Advent and Christmas - we have lots going on and plenty of opportunities to get involved, reflect on the year past, and find out what Advent and Christmas means to us #advent #christmas #folkestone

Join us tomorrow 7pm - 8pm for candlelit sound meditation! Once again we are delighted to host Andre and Sasha aka Sound Emergence in our beautiful church. Get your tickets using the link or donate on the door:
eventbrite.co.uk/e/cycles-candl…

Day 23/23: We've reached our target, so we are bringing these posts to a close. We would like to say THANK YOU to all who made this momentous vision possible. “Congratulations! What a wonderful and appropriate reliquary!” Fr David Gilchrist, priest of Folkestone's Orthodox Church

Our penultimate post! Here, once again, is the image created by Sophie Hacker for St Eanswythe’s reliquary. The colour is inspired by Kentish lavender fields & the details in her costume are taken from the historically researched garments, made as part of ‘Eanswythe Found’.

Day 21/31: Here is the contemporary icon we commissioned from Alexandra Le Rossignol in 2022. The gold halo replaces Eanswythe's crown, Eanswythe’s water flows uphill to her minster and the geese and grain speak of her as a provider of food and justice. justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 20/31: Eanswythe’s royal status made the founding of Folkestone Minster possible. Eanswythe took the gifts she was blessed with and she offered them to the service of God and others. This image tries to hold the undoubted wielding of this power: justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 19/31: Princess Eanswythe’s choice to turn her back on a life of luxury has inspired a number of pieces of artwork in our church, drawing attention to aspects of her story that might inspire those who take the time to gaze on them:
justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 18/31: Blessed Eanswythe was not content to remain a royal princess. Refusing a marriage of alliance, she founded a community of nuns in Folkestone. She is part of a larger story of the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus across a previously pagan Europe. justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 17/31: DNA extracted from a tooth by the Francis Crick Institute was too badly deteriorated to furnish any information. But isotope results provided an insight into St Eanswythe's high protein diet, entirely consistent with a Kentish royal princess: justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 16/31: Radiocarbon dating showed the bones were of someone aged 18-20 who died around AD 660. This all fits perfectly with historical sources. If you’d like to contribute to our Pilgrimage Centre, our Just Giving page will stay open until 12 October: justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 15/31: St Eanswythe’s skeleton was carefully reconstructed in our church and samples sent away for testing. This is a moment when science and faith came together, symbolised by the presence of Bishop Rose with the scientific team in this photo. More on the results tomorrow!

Wow!! What an extraordinary and generous response there has been! Amazingly, our £9,000 target has already been reached, and we are only halfway through our fundraising campaign. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has contributed!
justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 14/31: As St Eanswythe’s bones were removed during the 2020 investigation, a hush fell over the whole team. They felt in the presence of something extraordinary, even those with no formal Christian faith. Help us build her new Reliquary! justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 13/31: Here is our Conservator, Dana Goodburn-Brown, examining the bones in 2020. Dana regularly checks their wellbeing and ensures that the new Reliquary will provide a kind environment for Eanswythe’s bones to rest. Help us reach our funding target! justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 12/31: Eanswythe's relics were found in a lead casket inside a wall. The monks must have been hiding her from Cromwell, as part of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. But the lead isn't safe, and we need help to create a new reliquary: tinyurl.com/m2hjhr3x

Day 11/31: In 2020 a scientific analysis of the bones dated them to the mid-7th century, and revealed a diet high in meat – a privilege of high social status. Why else would they be preserved? Taking all this evidence, we’re sure that the skeleton is hers: justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 10/31: The skeleton of a young woman was discovered in the wall of the Sanctuary in 1885, to the left of the altar. It was proclaimed by the Vicar, Revd Matthew Woodward, to be St Eanswythe’s. More about why we agree tomorrow! Help us reach our target justgiving.com/campaign/saint…

Day 9/31: The earliest source to give any information about Eanswythe is the Kentish Royal Legend, a mid-tenth-century list of Kentish saints. Please help us reach our target of £9,000 for Eanswythe’s new Reliquary, we're one third of the way there! justgiving.com/campaign/saint…