Issue 44 winter 24 - Journal - Page 102
notably by Julian Filowchowski7. The Archbishop Romero
Trust’s gift to the Archdiocese of two relics, a fragment of
blood stained alb from Romero’s martyrdom and one of
Romero’s skullcaps, generated a completely new devotional prayer space in cathedral with my substantial reliquary cross, commissioned by the Trust and sponsored by
CAFOD8 finding its place in what transpired - from
archives - was previously intended for a Relics Chapel.9
Transcribed onto computer by Llort’s studio11, we
generated CAD images of the cross in its finished appearance, in colour and in 3-d. John Jones12, our collaborative
design visualiser, prepared illustrations demonstrating
that the cross seemed fitting for the place, containing the
two relics, Romero's sacramental, sacerdotal ‘Presence’
presented to the Most High, at the feet of his Christ.
Making the details
With the design concept agreed, the task in hand
becomes one of technical detail and constructional installation: it reverts from the artists and protagonists and
clergy into the hands of the architect and cathedral works
department. Llort’s artwork was designed to the gross
dimensions of my design: the panels were painted in
El Salvador, transported then hung on a double-skin
plywood structure detailed & built in the UK.
Such a new shrine is but one droplet along a shining path
of witness. Each artist’s work sits within a continuum of
artists & craftspeople active throughout the ages in the
great church. ‘Naïve’ or ‘Indigenous’ - depending on one’s
cultural stand-point - the art of El Salvador fathered by
Fernando Llort is a bright and personal tribute to this
significant Central American pastor, assassinated at the
altar while celebrating a liturgy.
Fernando Llort’s colourful, glossy artwork cross-references
Romero’s Cross to other glass-art windows, as if it were
“solid stained glass”10. Llort’s panels were designed by his
own hand - the “Resurrection” face showing Romero
enfolded in the robe of Christus rex, the “Ministry” face
evoking Jesus’s teaching at the Sermon on the Mount and
the Last Supper.
Below: Harry Clarke’s “Coronation of Mary” window by William
Dowling. Further below: Fernando Llort’s studio’s computer graphic
of “Resurrection” [ “Ministry” was illustrated in the third article,
issue no. 43]
Above, Trent Shopfitters’ workshops: dry assembly with trial text of
the dedication
The technical team should then ask, “is this shrine now
permanently in this place?”. Cuthbert has moved, Swithun
has been translated, Beckett reverted for a time from an
altar to a candle: ‘how will the new shrine fare if re-sited,
and how will the space that it leaves evolve during some
future iteration of the Faith?’ We proposed a mutable,
reversible installation.
A 12mm baseplate of mild-steel was let into the post-War
Granwood floor, forming a base plate with a 600mm high
steel spigot bolted in place, from which the plywood structure is vertically cantilevered. A 2mm stainless steel ‘presence circle’ carries an incised, dedicatory, inscription to
Archbishop Romero & Bishop Michael Evans13. This
spigotted detail proved literally pivotal in 2023.
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