St Etheldreda's Church, Holborn, London

Pilgrims visit this church to venerate the hand relic of St Etheldreda, and also as a stopping point on the London Martyrs' Way pilgrimage route, developed by the British Pilgrimage Trust

Highlights

• Church restored to Catholic use
• Relic hand of St Etheldreda

England's most famous female saint is venerated in this ancient London church. Though not quite the household name she once was, St Etheldreda is remembered with great affection by many. She did, after all, bequeath us the magnificent Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire.

St Etheldreda's shrine at Ely was destroyed at the Reformation. But her hand relic survived, part of which is kept at this church in a silver reliquary, shaped like a hand with a window in the palm for viewing, shown to me on a visit. Another part of the hand can be seen in a Roman Catholic church in Ely itself.

A statue of the saint stands beside the high altar, above a cask in which the hand relic is stored. The church is open during the day.

This quiet enclave of medieval devotion is just a minute's walk from the bustle of Holborn, tucked between houses in the middle of a gated cul-de-sac. It has been linked to Ely Cathedral since the 13th century, when the bishop of Ely decided to build a London residence here. The bishop's palace was destroyed over the intervening centuries, but this private chapel survived and was put to a variety of uses before finally returning to Catholic ownership. It has been fully restored and is an active church today. Its atmospheric crypt, also used as a chapel, is a popular venue for baptisms.

The link with Ely makes it a fitting place to house the hand of St Etheldreda. The relic was removed from her shrine in the 12th century and passed into the ownership of the Duke of Norfolk. It was hidden during the Reformation, and eventually given to this church in the 19th century by one of the duke's descendants.

It is the east window, rather than the relic cask, that dominates the church's simple interior. It is said to be the largest area of stained glass in London, a 20th-century work depicting Christ the King. St Etheldreda herself appears in the bottom left-hand corner of the window, holding Ely Cathedral in her arms.

In some ways this church building is itself a relic, a pre-Reformation chapel that has been returned to Roman Catholic use. It was bought and converted in 1874 by the Rosminian Order, which still owns it. It is the oldest Catholic church building in England, and also the first medieval building in England to revert to Catholic use. There is an older one in Wales (Caldey Island).

It is little wonder then that the Reformation figures so largely in the rest of the church. Rows of statues commemorating eight martyrs of the Reformation stand on either side of the nave, looking down on worshippers. Their veneration is entirely understandable in a building that was directly affected by Henry VIII's reforms – though their presence contrasts starkly with the witness of St Etheldreda. She dates from a very different period in history, when there were no substantial church divisions.

Shakespeare refers to Ely Palace in two of his plays: Richard II and Richard III. He steers clear of nearly all mention of religion in his works, a wise move given the amount of suffering it caused during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Directions

St Etheldreda's Roman Catholic Church, 14 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY.

www.stetheldreda.com

W3W: simple.focal.bench

GPS: 51.5187N 0.1072W

Farringdon and Chancery Lane

London Underground stations 250m

Ely Place is just north of Holborn Circus. The church is on the left-hand side halfway along this cul-de-sac. It is open Monday to Saturday 8am–5pm, and Sunday 8am–12:30pm.

For Mass times and other information see the website or tel: 020 7405 1061.