Rachel Koopmans
Biographic Data
| ID | 3652583 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Koopmans |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Koopmans |
| SIGNATURE | KOOPMANS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1225-0811 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Leprosy, Dropsy, a Head Injury, and a Shrine
In early 2020, one of the Thomas Becket stained glass “miracle windows” of Canterbury Cathedral, numbered nIII for its position on the north ambulatory aisle according to the Corpus Vitrearum numbering system, was removed for a British Museum exhibition. Close investigation of nIII’s glass led to a much-improved understanding of its original medieval content and how the window was restored by George Austin Jr. in 1857. This essay argues for new r…
The Life and Miracles of Saint Godric, Hermit of Finchale
The smallest matters
Stories involving lost items, sick or missing birds and animals, and the strange behaviour of objects such as coins, candles and relic containers are frequently encountered in high medieval miracle collections, with the ‘jokes’ of St Foy of Conques being a well-known example. Such miracles, in which saints were thought to incongruously exercise their powers on ‘minor’ or ‘trifling’ matters, provoked a range of reactions, from laughing delight to …
Gifts of Thomas Becket’s Clothing Made by the Monks of Canterbury Cathedral
A close study of the gifts of Thomas Becket's clothing made by the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury in the late 12th century elucidates the major role played by clothing relics in Becket's early cult. Immediately after the martyrdom, the monks distributed some of Becket's clothing to the poor, and it is argued here that this event is the subject of a stained glass panel in Canterbury Cathedral. Dommartin Abbey in the Pas-de-Calais claimed to ha…
An admirable little book written by a lady
The preservation of the papers of Emily Williams (1835–1900) allows a close examination of the work of an important female antiquarian of the late Victorian period. Williams, the first known woman to write a book on English stained glass, published Notes on the Painted Glass in Canterbury Cathedral anonymously in 1897. The book formed the foundation for later studies of the cathedral's monumental glass and includes multiple illustrations based on…
The Royal Abbey of Reading, by Ron Baxter
This book was inspired by the author’s interest in Reading Abbey’s surviving carved stonework, much of which was unearthed in excavations and is now held in Reading Museum, and more generally by his sense, stated in the preface, that the abbey has had ‘a raw deal’. Founded and lavishly endowed by Henry I in 1121, Reading held a high ranking among English Benedictine abbeys throughout the medieval period, but it suffered particularly badly in the …
Water mixed with the blood of Thomas’
Four remarkable stained glass panels in the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral (executed c.1185–1220) picture the mixing of Thomas Becket’s blood with water at Becket’s tomb. The ‘water of St Thomas’ was among the most widely renowned medieval water relics, reputed to have healed the sick throughout Latin Christendom. This article examines the glass images, comparing them with narratives in the glaziers’ source text, Benedict of Peterborough’…
Thomas Becket and the Royal Abbey of Reading
Drawing on a wide variety of evidence, including letters, charters, indulgences, poems, miracle stories, relic lists, and a stained-glass panel in Canterbury Cathedral, this essay examines how the monks of Reading Abbey reacted to the controversy between King Henry II and Thomas Becket in the late 1160s and the beginning of Becket’s cult in the 1170s and 1180s. Reading Abbey was founded and richly endowed by Henry II’s grandfather, Henry I. Willi…
Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation by Robert Bartlett (review)
Reviewed by: Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation by Robert Bartlett Rachel Koopmans (bio) Robert Bartlett. Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2013. 737pp. ISBN 978-0691159133, $39.95. Robert Bartlett has provided readers interested in hagiography and the medieval cult of the saints with a magisteri…
Early Sixteenth-Century Stained Glass at St. Michael-le-Belfrey and the Commemoration of Thomas Becket in Late Medieval York
“Of all the discoveries and new knowledge during the course of the Great Reinsertion,” Dean of York Eric Milner-White enthused in 1959, “none has been larger, stranger and more unexpected than this.” Milner-White was writing about a discovery of a series of early sixteenth-century stained glass panels, “strange” and “unexpected” in part because its panels were split between two churches. Nine panels were in York Minster, where Milner-White was in…
The Conclusion of Christina of Markyate's Vita
The Vita of Christina of Markyate has been celebrated as ‘perhaps the twelfth century's most effective and revealing personal history of a woman’. Indeed, the Vita 's account of Christina's early career is vivid and remarkably detailed: one can read at length of Christina's saintly childhood, her efforts to escape an unwanted marriage, her ascetic hardships living with the hermit Roger and her intimate spiritual friendship with Abbot Geoffrey of …
The Conclusion of Christina of Markyate's Vita
The Vita of Christina of Markyate has been celebrated as ‘perhaps the twelfth century's most effective and revealing personal history of a woman’. Indeed, the Vita 's account of Christina's early career is vivid and remarkably detailed: one can read at length of Christina's saintly childhood, her efforts to escape an unwanted marriage, her ascetic hardships living with the hermit Roger and her intimate spiritual friendship with Abbot Geoffrey of …
Water mixed with the blood of Thomas’
Four remarkable stained glass panels in the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral (executed c.1185–1220) picture the mixing of Thomas Becket’s blood with water at Becket’s tomb. The ‘water of St Thomas’ was among the most widely renowned medieval water relics, reputed to have healed the sick throughout Latin Christendom. This article examines the glass images, comparing them with narratives in the glaziers’ source text, Benedict of Peterborough’…
Thomas Becket and the Royal Abbey of Reading
Drawing on a wide variety of evidence, including letters, charters, indulgences, poems, miracle stories, relic lists, and a stained-glass panel in Canterbury Cathedral, this essay examines how the monks of Reading Abbey reacted to the controversy between King Henry II and Thomas Becket in the late 1160s and the beginning of Becket’s cult in the 1170s and 1180s. Reading Abbey was founded and richly endowed by Henry II’s grandfather, Henry I. Willi…
The Conclusion of Christina of Markyate's Vita
The Vita of Christina of Markyate has been celebrated as ‘perhaps the twelfth century's most effective and revealing personal history of a woman’. Indeed, the Vita 's account of Christina's early career is vivid and remarkably detailed: one can read at length of Christina's saintly childhood, her efforts to escape an unwanted marriage, her ascetic hardships living with the hermit Roger and her intimate spiritual friendship with Abbot Geoffrey of …
Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation by Robert Bartlett (review)
Reviewed by: Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation by Robert Bartlett Rachel Koopmans (bio) Robert Bartlett. Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things? Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2013. 737pp. ISBN 978-0691159133, $39.95. Robert Bartlett has provided readers interested in hagiography and the medieval cult of the saints with a magisteri…
Early Sixteenth-Century Stained Glass at St. Michael-le-Belfrey and the Commemoration of Thomas Becket in Late Medieval York
“Of all the discoveries and new knowledge during the course of the Great Reinsertion,” Dean of York Eric Milner-White enthused in 1959, “none has been larger, stranger and more unexpected than this.” Milner-White was writing about a discovery of a series of early sixteenth-century stained glass panels, “strange” and “unexpected” in part because its panels were split between two churches. Nine panels were in York Minster, where Milner-White was in…
Water mixed with the blood of Thomas’
Four remarkable stained glass panels in the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral (executed c.1185–1220) picture the mixing of Thomas Becket’s blood with water at Becket’s tomb. The ‘water of St Thomas’ was among the most widely renowned medieval water relics, reputed to have healed the sick throughout Latin Christendom. This article examines the glass images, comparing them with narratives in the glaziers’ source text, Benedict of Peterborough’…
Thomas Becket and the Royal Abbey of Reading
Drawing on a wide variety of evidence, including letters, charters, indulgences, poems, miracle stories, relic lists, and a stained-glass panel in Canterbury Cathedral, this essay examines how the monks of Reading Abbey reacted to the controversy between King Henry II and Thomas Becket in the late 1160s and the beginning of Becket’s cult in the 1170s and 1180s. Reading Abbey was founded and richly endowed by Henry II’s grandfather, Henry I. Willi…
The Royal Abbey of Reading, by Ron Baxter
This book was inspired by the author’s interest in Reading Abbey’s surviving carved stonework, much of which was unearthed in excavations and is now held in Reading Museum, and more generally by his sense, stated in the preface, that the abbey has had ‘a raw deal’. Founded and lavishly endowed by Henry I in 1121, Reading held a high ranking among English Benedictine abbeys throughout the medieval period, but it suffered particularly badly in the …
An admirable little book written by a lady
The preservation of the papers of Emily Williams (1835–1900) allows a close examination of the work of an important female antiquarian of the late Victorian period. Williams, the first known woman to write a book on English stained glass, published Notes on the Painted Glass in Canterbury Cathedral anonymously in 1897. The book formed the foundation for later studies of the cathedral's monumental glass and includes multiple illustrations based on…
Gifts of Thomas Becket’s Clothing Made by the Monks of Canterbury Cathedral
A close study of the gifts of Thomas Becket's clothing made by the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury in the late 12th century elucidates the major role played by clothing relics in Becket's early cult. Immediately after the martyrdom, the monks distributed some of Becket's clothing to the poor, and it is argued here that this event is the subject of a stained glass panel in Canterbury Cathedral. Dommartin Abbey in the Pas-de-Calais claimed to ha…
The smallest matters
Stories involving lost items, sick or missing birds and animals, and the strange behaviour of objects such as coins, candles and relic containers are frequently encountered in high medieval miracle collections, with the ‘jokes’ of St Foy of Conques being a well-known example. Such miracles, in which saints were thought to incongruously exercise their powers on ‘minor’ or ‘trifling’ matters, provoked a range of reactions, from laughing delight to …
Leprosy, Dropsy, a Head Injury, and a Shrine
In early 2020, one of the Thomas Becket stained glass “miracle windows” of Canterbury Cathedral, numbered nIII for its position on the north ambulatory aisle according to the Corpus Vitrearum numbering system, was removed for a British Museum exhibition. Close investigation of nIII’s glass led to a much-improved understanding of its original medieval content and how the window was restored by George Austin Jr. in 1857. This essay argues for new r…
The Life and Miracles of Saint Godric, Hermit of Finchale
Art (9 works) · History (9 works) · Art history (7 works) · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome (7 works) · Ancient history (6 works) · Medieval Literature and History (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Classics (5 works) · History (5 works) · Literature (5 works)