Walk 11: Stonyhurst College
Figure 1: Crucifix belonging to Thomas More kept in the museum at Stonyhurst College. The photo is taken from the online exhibition.
Stonyhurst College is a co-educational boarding and day school for 3-18 years old boys and girls in Clitheroe, Lancashire, North of England. It was originally founded in Saint-Omer on 1593 by Fr Robert Persons SJ under the patronage of Philip II of Spain.
The town of Saint-Omer was in the Burgundian Netherlands, which from 1482 was part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 to 1678 of the Spanish Netherlands.
The present site includes an extensive museum which holds a number of relics of St Thomas More and other items related to the history of the Church in England. There is an online exhibition of those relics. Catholic families, at a time when such schooling was illegal in the boys’ home country. Persons secured the patronage of Philip II of Spain, providing permission and funding to establish the institution in Saint-Omer, a town then located in Spanish Netherlands.
Thomas More Research 