James Miller (2020, DPhil History)

James Miller (2020, DPhil History) has won the Sir John Rhŷs Prize for the academic year 2020-2021, for an essay entitled “The Treatment of Relics from Brittany at Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Fleury.”

The prize is awarded by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages for an essay in any subject relating to Celtic Languages, Literature, History, and Antiquities. Professor Catherine Holmes, A D M Cox Old Members’ Tutorial Fellow in Medieval History, is James’s College advisor. He is working with Professor Julia Smith at All Souls College.

James commented, “In my essay, I explored the fate of the relics of two Breton saints at Fleury abbey, a major medieval monastery in Northern France. As a result of Viking raids on Brittany in the 900s many religious communities fled to northern France, carrying their saints into exile with them, and I examined what happened to these saintly relics once they had reached a new home and how they were incorporated into Fleury’s religious customs. It was very exciting to win and made for a satisfying end to a challenging academic year.”

You can read a profile of James here.

Published: 8 September 2021

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