The shrine of St Thomas de Cantelupe stands in a transept of Hereford Cathedral. A sliver of bone from his remains is housed within a glass vial atop this ornate construction, rebuilt and redecorated to look as it did during the early 1300s when his cult was at its most popular.
As his political and episcopal careers developed Thomas displayed absolute and unbending faith in both his legal and spiritual convictions, with the Malvern hills and its surrounding areas a frequent battleground for both. In a dispute over the boundaries of his diocese and a neighbour de Cantelupe lit hundreds of candles all along a ditch marking the border one night, an awe-inspiring display which saw some people moving across to his side in fear of the godly power he wielded. He clashed with Gilbert de Clare, “the Red Earl”, when the fiery baron enclosed a hunting chase at Colwall, and on one day the two parties clashed while out riding. De Clare and his men brandished a charter, mocking the cleric and his group, and so without saying a word Thomas de Cantelupe walked over to a copse of trees where, after a few minutes, he emerged wearing all of his robes of office and episcopal regalia. With staff in hand he bellowed at de Clare's men to stand down or face excommunication, and they did.
He clashed with the Archbishop of Canterbury to the point where he was actually excommunicated himself and so, with an entourage of followers, de Cantelupe journeyed to Rome to request a reversal from the Pope himself. This was granted after the Pontiff “received him well”, but Thomas fell ill and died shortly after embarking on the journey home. His flesh was removed from his body and interred at a monastery near Orvieto while his bones were returned to his bishopric of Hereford.
Once installed at Hereford a campaign to have Thomas de Cantelupe made a saint gathered pace as a cult grew up around his bones, the first miracle being an ironmongers's wife who was cured of being a “furiosa”. This was an old term for the female insane, a “furioso” being the male equivalent. Limbs were healed, the blind restored to full sight, but there seemed to be an unusual preponderence of children being revived after drowning in barrels of various lighids. When the inquisitors arrived at Hereford in 1307 to determine the case for his canonisation, they noted a colossal amount of offerings piled up around the shrine. 170 wax models of ships, with another 41 made from silver, 1424 wax effigies of either limbs or entire human bodies, 77 models of animals and birds, 108 crutches, 3 small carts, 108 crutches, 97 night gowns, and 116 items of jewellery. Anyone who has visited the shrine of a saint in a Catholic country will have seen the same thing still going on today, including full-sized wax figures of humans.
Perhaps the most bizarre miracle attributed to Thomas de Cantelupe was the quite literal ressurection of a man from the dead. William “Cragh” ap Rhys was a Welsh man-at-arms who had fought as part of a rebellious warband against Edward I in a land dispute but was defeated and captured by William de Briouze of Swansea castle. He was sentenced to hang along with some of his comrades but on the day of execution something unexpected happened. The fellow being hanged alongside Cragh was a giant of a man and as the pair swung and spasmed on the end of their nooses the scaffold actually collapsed. De Briouze ordered them to be hanged again after a hasty re-assembly and this was duly carried out, with the pair being left to dangle for some hours afterwards.
Lady Mary, the wife of William de Briouze, took an unusual interest in the fate of William Cragh and after unsuccessfully canvassing her husband for mercy for him she rushed to his corpse which was being kept in a house nearby. It was later described by de Briouze's son as being as dead as a corpse could be, the tongue was swollen and black, the eyeballs popped almost out of their sockets while clotted blood filled every orifice. Lady Mary went to the shrine of Thomas de Cantelupe to beg for his intercession, returning there after having a taper – a thin candle for religious purposes – made to the length of Cragh's corpse. This was lit, prayers were made and...incredibly...William Cragh rose from the dead!
The undead Welshman made a barefoot pilgrimage to Hereford from Swansea – in the company of William de Briouze - to give thanks for his second chance but was hauled before the inquisition to determine if a miracle really has taken place. The man must have been terrified, worried whether he was to be hanged a third time, and grunted out his answers before pledging to make a pilgrimage to Rome. He duly set out but was never seen again, and who could blame him? Unless he received a pardon he would be at perpetual risk of being executed again, and one can only wonder at what must have been going on in his mind while he tried to make sense of what had happened. He was undead, and people in whichever community he might have returned to might have regarded him as a sinister figure to be avoided rather than a walking miracle.
As for Thomas de Cantelupe, he was canonised in 1320, but his relics were scattered across various locations as the cult around him dwindled. As for William Cragh, perhaps a movie might be made of his life...a Welsh Zombie In Hereford?
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