The final scene shows St Aloysius on his death bed aged 23, having caught the plague from those he had been nursing.
As well as the stunning scenes from St Aloysius’s life, this work has unlocked some of the general patterns that continued in other parts of the sanctuary. Notice how the leaf and vine pattern actually continues the mouldings above the reredos statues. It also ties in with the gold decoration behind the tabernacle and crucifix, and the brass railings beside the lecterns, showing us how the original decoration of our sanctuary all came together.
This work enables us now to reconstruct the decoration of the rest of the sanctuary, which has not survived under the modern paint in the same way as these murals, suffering from damp and flaking plaster over the years.
It is astonishing how quickly @clivedenconservation were able to uncover these paintings that had been lost for 60 years. Thank you to all our generous benefactors who made it possible to begin this work so quickly.
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