York Catholic History Day will take place at the Bar Convent, York, on Saturday June 1.
This year, York University PhD student Laura Atkinson will take us back before the Reformation to explore ‘Record keeping and the Care of Souls in Late 13th-century York’ a paper based on her research in the registers of Archbishops William Wickwane and John le Romeyn.
Dr Hannah Thomas, special collections manager at the Bar Convent, will talk about ‘Secrecy and Survival: Georgian York through the Eyes of a Catholic Convent’, using the convent’s archives to explore the lives of Catholics in York in a period when practising the Catholic faith was still illegal.
Information about many aspects of Catholic life in more recent times, after Catholic Emancipation, that enabled Catholics to participate in public life, can be found in diocesan year books and their predecessors, particularly those of the 20th century. Diocese of Leeds archivist Robert Finnigan will talk about ‘Diocesan Almanacs, Directories and Yearbooks: an Invaluable Archival Reference’ and explain the wide range of material about both national and local Catholic life that can be found in these often overlooked publications.
The programme begins at 10.30am, with tea and coffee available from 10am. Lunch is available at the Bar Convent Café (please phone 01904 464910 to book a table, as the café gets busy) and participants may like to visit the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre during the lunch break. The day will end with mass in the Chapel at approximately 4.30pm.
The cost of the day is £18.50, students £9 (cash only please). For more information contact judith.smeaton@btinternet.com