550th Anniversary of the Chapel

On the 5th May 1474 the Chapel’s foundation stone was laid by President Tybard and blessed by Bishop Robert Tully of St David’s. In May 2024, 550 years later, the College celebrated the Anniversary of this event with ceremonies, services, and seminars.

Celebrations commenced with a service of Choral Evensong for the Eve of St Mark, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and continued with the choir’s iconic May Morning dawn serenade to thousands gathered at the base of the Great Tower. Soon afterwards, a myth-busting history seminar about Oxford’s May Morning traditions was offered by Professor Peter Davidson, and it can be read here.

The Informator rehearses the Choir on the Eve of St Mark.
BBC Van and Choristers in St John’s Quad.

On May 3rd, the Bishop of Winchester, The Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen (successor of the College’s Founder, William of Waynflete) was formally welcomed to the College by the Fellows in the context of a service of Choral Evensong. The Bishop’s sermon can be read here.

The Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Winchester and Visitor to the College is led by the Dean of Divinity to receive gifts from the President, Vice-President, the Master of Magdalen College School and Dr Faarham Nizami, Fellow of the College.
The Fellows and Choir greet the Bishop of Winchester in St John’s Quad with an Antiphon in Plainsong:
Terribilis est locus iste: hic domi est, et porta coeli: et vocabitur aula.
Alleluia, alleluia.
The Bishop of Winchester enters for the Sung Eucharist.
The Informator Choristarum conducts the College Choir and the Choir of MCS.
A moment in the Cloisters: the Consort of Voices, the Dean, the Reverend Professor William Whyte and a Sacristan await the beginning of the service.
Choir and Congregation in the middle of a hymn.

The Anniversary celebrations also included a number of talks addressing the history of the College and Chapel. The Reverend Dr Jo Spreadbury (Canon Precentor of Portsmouth Cathedral) presented her research on St Mary Magdalen in Medieval art and theology. The Reverend Dr Ayla Lepine (art historian and Associate Rector of St. James’s, Piccadilly), shared her knowledge about Pre-Raphaelite artists and Gothic Revival architecture in and around Oxford. The Reverend Professor William Whyte spoke about Magdalen’s longest serving President, Martin Routh, and the Chapel’s role in inspiring leaders of the 19th Century ‘Oxford Movement’. Finally, the medieval historian Professor Nicholas Orme invited us to consider the what life and learning may have looked like for a chorister attending Magdalen College School in the 15th Century.   

The celebrations reached their conclusion with a visit from Right Reverend Dr Stephen Croft, Bishop of Oxford, as he administered rites of Baptism and Confirmation to several members of the College. This was followed by a symposium marking the sixty-year legacy of C.S. Lewis, at which Professor Francis Spufford offered a keynote address.  

The Bishop of Oxford, the Dean of Divinity and the Reverend Esther Lay (Assistant Curate of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford) overlook candidates for Confirmation.
The Dean of Divinity distributes Baptismal candles.

The 550th Anniversary was an opportunity for the College community to honour our forebears and benefactors, and to give thanks for the continued vitality of the Chapel as a place of peace, beauty, and spiritual nourishment for members and visitors alike.