Seeing St Christopher was the title of the press release I sent out locally in advance of yesterday's Festial performance. August 7 was St Christopher's Day; if you follow the Julian calendar, that is.
Medieval people believed that whoever saw an image of St Christopher would not 'die an evil death' that day. So the giant was often painted on the wall of a church opposite the main doorway so that travellers could grab a glimpse of the saint before embarking on dangerous journeys. The idea of Seeing St Christopher was to see how many St Christophers I could see in the course of the day – a kind of inverted 'pilgrimage' as the whole point of the journey was to see the protective images.
Somewhere between each of the churches I planned to stop and collect something to make into a badge. Again, a sort of inversion of medieval practice as people who went on pilgrimages would often buy a souvenir badge featuring the saint whose shrine they were visiting. My badges would form a memento of the journey itself rather than the destination; the number I was wearing would increase as the day went on.
And, not to add any further pressure to this unrehearsed event, BBC Radio Norfolk had responded to my press release by suggesting that they phone me at 2.10pm for a live interview.
Well, this all sounds OK, but things didn't go totally to plan. After frantically getting stuff ready to take, mostly in connection with the badges, we left home later than intended (Trevor had kindly agreed to come with me as my glamorous assistant and to take documentary photos). And, more to the point, I had no idea how complicated a children's badge-making machine is (or perhaps it's just me?!)
I spent ages trying to make the first badge, before Trevor pointed out that the badge-making machine itself was faulty and there was no way that it could make a badge properly. So that was one thing I ended up having to compromise on, although we did stop between each church for me to jump out and collect something just in case I can work out another way of working with them that seems conceptually sound.
When Radio Norfolk phoned, I was 'seeing' only my second St Christopher, but the interview went OK and I think I got away with it … I felt really sad afterwards that I hadn't mentioned Trevor and he had been so brilliant and helpful and supportive, not to mention taking fantastic photos. So, Trevor – THANK YOU.
