Saintly Saturdays for January

31 December 2008

A new podcast series starts on Saturday (3 January) and runs throughout this month.  ‘Holy Footsteps’ will bring to life amazing stories of saints associated with the Clifton Diocese.  We’ll be travelling around the diocese - to locations that are significant to the saints and others who feature in the series.  Often we’ll take you to places where our holy heritage is still clear to see.

A new episode of ‘Holy Footsteps’ will appear on cliftondiocese.com every Saturday during January.  Each episode is presented by a local expert in their subject - people who give us a real insight into these pilgrims of faith.

Our fist ‘Holy Footsteps’ episode takes us to Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol.  We visit the Holy Trinity Anglican church and The Sacred Heart Catholic church.  We’re in the company of Reverend Brian Torode, an expert in the life of St Wulfstan.  Based in Cheltenham, Reverend Torode is an Honorary Chaplain of Gloucester Cathedral.  St Wulfstan’s episode will be online on this Saturday (3 January). 

On Saturday 10 January we find out about St Arilda.  She lived near Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire and that’s where we headed - to the Anglican parish church dedicated to her.  Cider, sailing and singing combine to make for a fascinating podcast with Jane Bradshaw. 

The Abbot of Downside, Right Reverend Dom Aidan Bellenger OSB, is our historical expert who presents our podcast on St Oliver Plunkett.  We travel to Downside Abbey at Stratton-on-the-Fosse where some of the remains of St Oliver Plunkett are kept.  You can listen to Abbot Aidan from Saturday 17 December.

West Harptree in Somerset is the venue for ‘Holy Footsteps’ on Saturday 24 January.  The Assistant Clifton Diocese Archivist Gill Hogarth details the life of St Alexander Briant.  The episode comes from St Mary’s Anglican parish church in the village. 

‘Holy Footsteps’ concludes on Saturday 31 January.  Father Richard Barton, Parish Priest of Our Lady and St Alphege in Bath, is our final presenter.  He tells of the fascinating life of Blessed Dominic Barberi as we travel to locations across Gloucestershire where Blessed Dominic lived and preached. 

Father Richard played an important part in producing our ‘Holy Footsteps’ series.  He worked as our historical consultant and helped coordinate the recording of the series. 

Keep with cliftondiocese.com for much more news, podcasts, pictures and events from around the Catholic Church in the West of England during 2009.