Holy Globalism
In the curious mishmash that makes up the York Art Gallery, where some very fine pieces hang among some very indifferent pieces, I came upon this portrayal of St Birgitta, one panel of a diptych in which she is flanked by, of all people, St Anthony the Great. The ensemble was produced by Maso di San Friano about 1565 for a church near Florence. A fourteenth-century Swede in the company of a fourth-century Egyptian, removed from Renaissance Italy to post-industrial York. Just behind the Art Gallery stands St Olav’s church, dedicated in 1055. Just 25 years after Olav’s death, his cult had spread to the north of England. The communion of saints presupposes and nurtures a global view of history, and of mankind, that lets us draw lines and see connections across the pedantic boundaries we draw to enclose ourselves reassuringly in too narrow categories of belonging. We need this broader perspective now, when in many places portcullises are lowered, bridges burnt.
