A long queue of people, some with tears in their eyes, snaked their way solemnly round a historic London building to file past the mortal remains of a woman who is venerated around the world.
This was not the lying-in-state for Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall, but rather a visit to St George’s Cathedral this week by the relics of St Bernadette of Lourdes, described by priests as a “celebrity” among Catholic saints, on their first ever UK tour.
On a raised platform near the altar stood an ornate golden casket with its own spire and stained glass frontage.
The relics have come to the UK for the first time
RACHEL ADAMS FOR THE TIMES
Stored within are fragments of bone and tissue taken from the body of Bernadette Soubirous, a French peasant who reported seeing multiple visions of