Preface

Instead of the inevitably short and amateur souvenir we had planned for this Centenary occasion, we have this worthwhile and professional record. For this we are indebted to Sister Mary Winefride Sturman, a.s.u., M.A., PH.D. Its long bibliography gives some idea of the amount of time and skilled research she has expended on its production. We are - as indeed will be many who will come after us - truly grateful to her.

It is worth recording that this year is also the 11 th centenary of the transferring of the mortal remains of st. Werburgh from Hanbury in Staffordshire, to Chester. That event resulted in attracting here the numerous pilgrims, the various communities of friars, and especially the Benedictines, whose Abbey Church which is now the Anglican Cathedral, enshrined her relics behind their High Altar. Until the Reformation, that Abbey Church was known as St. Werburgh's. She was also Patroness of the city. Indeed, a direct sequel to her being brought here was the development of the medieval city.

It will be clear from these pages that things Catholic really began to happen again in Chester when the famines of the last century in Ireland forced so many to emigrate. The industrial development of this country at that time attracted its quota of them. The Penal Laws had not long been repealed in Ireland, so they were uneducated, unskilled, and many of them could speak only Gaelic. Jobs were scarce, very impermanent, and the wages pitiful. Moreover, the bigotry against both their Faith and nation was rampant here, so that the struggle to survive, let alone keep the Faith, was an unending challenge. Indeed, their condition was little better than what obtains in so much of the "Third World" today. Qualities can really be said to exist only when they have been put to the test, and it is surely an enormous tribute·to their characters, and worth recording, that from such poverty and adverse conditions, they gave so much and so regularly not merely for churches of the elegance of St. Francis's and St. Werburgh's, but also for schools and presbyteries, and enough to staff and maintain them.

The majority of the Catholics in Chester today are their descendants, and so much of the vitality of their loyalties is due directly to what they have inherited. We thank God that the Faith of their Fathers is living still, and sincerely hope and pray that a perusal of this book will give it a new stimulus.

F. MURPHY, P.P.
S. DENTON, a.F.M., Cap.