An exploration into the cult of divinity and the Stuart royal family, from Mary Queen of Scots to Prince Charles Edward Stuart

Drawing on the important Jacobite collections and archives held at Stonyhurst College and by the British Jesuit Province, Dr Jan Graffius will examine the theology and practice of Stuart relics, memorabilia, and their significance. The talk will be accompanied by the opportunity to see a selection of these extraordinary artefacts up close. And a chance to see a unique recipe for King James’s Gingerbread.

Dr Janet Graffius has been Curator of Collections and Historic Libraries at Stonyhurst since 2001. She studied Art History at St Andrews University and has worked with major public museums and collections since 1983, including the British Council and the National Trust. She has published widely in Britain, Europe, and America on various aspects of the College Collections and Libraries, from medieval manuscripts and vestments to Shakespeare and Jesuit Drama in The Times Literary Supplement, through to her more recent conservation work with Oscar Romero’s relics in El Salvador, for which she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of London.

Her specific area of research relates to the use and significance of relics and English Catholic material culture in the Early Modern period, which was the subject of her PhD at Aberdeen University, and for which work she was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She has appeared on several television programmes, including the BBC Treasures of Heaven with Andrew Graham-Dixon, and on a BBC Radio 4 series about Shakespeare with Dr Neil MacGregor of the National Gallery, among many other programmes. She has curated numerous exhibitions in Britain, as well as in France, Italy and the US, and lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of cultural, ethnographic, artistic, and literary subjects relating to the College’s famous historic Collections and Libraries.