The Priest

© Godric Godricson

I like this brass set into the floor of a rural parish. The brass is at once proud as it makes clear the ordination and priesthood of the deceased whilst at the same time exuding the calm serenity of the departed. There is a contradiction here that is spellbinding. The high and the low all in one brass. The chasuble  flows and swirls and is matched by the stole that appears to the lower front. The ends of a stole are called 'spades' and they pop up as tassells.

This implies to me that the stone covers the extant grave of a priest. Those hands manipulated the consecrated host and carried the word of God in a troubled world. May he rest in peace and rise in glory