Our Story

St Birinus was sent to England by Pope Honorius I, arriving at Dorchester-on-Thames in 634. Here, in the river Thame, he baptised the King of Wessex and brought about the conversion of this part of England to Christianity.

On the same spot Birinus built his Cathedral, Dorchester Abbey, from where he oversaw the construction of churches and parishes across the whole of Wessex. He died in 649 and was venerated as a great saint of England until the Reformation, when Cromwell’s men all but destroyed any trace of his shrine in Dorchester. The extraordinary medieval abbey survives, with its huge open spaces and high gothic vaulting – a testament to the architectural prowess of early English church builders.

Fast forward to the 19th century, when an old recusant family, the Daveys, built a church on the banks of the river, one hundred yards downstream from the abbey. The church was named for St Birinus, thus resurrecting an ancient devotion asleep for too long. It is a neogothic gem and has since been visited regularly by great Catholics including John Henry Newman and J.R.R. Tolkien.

It wasn’t just Christianity that Birinus brought to England; it was also music. With his fellow Benedictine monks, St Birinus brought the liturgy and the Gregorian chant that accompanies it. Thus Dorchester-on-Thames found itself at the centre of a cultural and musical phenomenon. For this reason, the great Gregorian chant scholar, Dr Mary Berry, chose to be buried in the churchyard.

Composer/conductor Ryan Wigglesworth and soprano Sophie Bevan MBE moved to the parish in 2016, and founded The Davey Consort to sing at Mass every Sunday. As well as the chant propers, the Consort sings polyphonic sacred music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, much of which has not been sung for 400 years or more. In 2017 the Consort evolved into a charity with the aims to promote greater knowledge of and wider access to the performance of this music, both in concert and within the context of the Catholic liturgy.

The St Birinus Festival was conceived by Ryan and Sophie as a celebration of this rich heritage. Here, on the banks of the Thame, where music, liturgy, and the Word were first introduced to our Pagan landscape, we come together for 4 days every year to celebrate the feast of our great patron. We do so with a festival of liturgy, music, workshops, concerts, talks and recitals. Underpinning the rhythm of the festival is the Liturgy of the Hours: daily Lauds, Mass, Vespers and Compline. We bring together a wide variety of performers, choirs, instrumentalists, and ensembles, all for one purpose: to demonstrate the power of Beauty to transform and inspire.

Patrons of the charity

George, Earl of St Andrews
The Most Reverend Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham
Lord and Lady Jay of Ewelme
Sir James MacMillan
Sir Stephen Hough
Richard Fitzalan Howard LVO
Josephine Fitzalan Howard
Thomas and Imogen Birch Reynardson