BLESSED AGNELLUS

The Celebration at Oxford
The Archbishop of Birmingham assisted last Sunday at Oxford at the celebration held by the Greyfriars, in Iffiey Road, to commemorate the seventh centenary of one who may be regarded as the founder of the English Province.
Blessed Agnellus was appointed by St. Francis himself to lead the first Franciscans into England. He settled his cornmunity at Oxford, during the reign of Henry III, in 1224. The history of the Friars in that city is an inspiration. Besides attaining well-deserved celebrity in the learned world (their first lecturer was the famous Grosseteste, later Bishop of Lincoln), they set an example of the genuine Franciscan spirit.
When these early Friars met on the way to and from lectures, through snow and in bare feet, they must needs laugh and embrace; and sheer joy often interrupted the singing of office in their chapel.
The site of the Franciscans' old home, where their Blessed Superior died in 1236, is in King's Terrace, Penson's Gardens. It was visited in procesion on Sunday afternoon.
A Distinguished Gathering
The celebration began with solemn high Mass in the church of SS. Edmund and Fride,swide, where three branches of the Franciscan Order were represented. The Very Rev. Fr. Giles, 0.S.F.C., Capuchin Minister Provincial was the celebrant; the deacon was the Commis
sary Provincial of . the Conventuals, Fr. Thomas Grassmann, 0.F.M.C., and Fr. Fridolin Shockley, 0.F.M., from the Holy Name Province, U.S.A., was the sub-deacon.
Among the many clergy, professors and others attending the celebration were Father M. D'Arcy, S.J., LL.D., Master of Campion Hall; Dom Justin McCann, 0.S.B., Master of St. Benet's Hall; the Rev. Ronald Knox; Professor F. de Zulueta, Regius Professor of Civil Law; Professor F. M. Powicke, Regius Professor of Modern History; Professor J. R. Tolkien, and Professor the Rev. K. E. Kirk, D.D.