The view of the West Front of Westminster Abbey is one of the
best known in the world. The gothic lower part was completed in
the fifteenth century; the towers, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor
in a more classical style, were added at the beginning of the
eighteenth century.
Both parts of this imposing facade had niches which were
evidently intended for statues but were never filled. The
comprehensive restoration of the exterior of the Abbey (a
twenty-five-year programme completed in 1995) provided the
opportunity for their original purpose to be fulfilled. In 1992
the six niches high up on the towers were filled with
conventional figures of saints. In 1995 four allegorical figures
were placed in the niches on either side of the Great West Door:
Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Peace. These traditional virtues
(from Psalm 85 verse 10) represent the values for which countless
innocent men and women have been prepared to give their
lives.
There remained the row of ten niches immediately over the
door. It was decided to use these, not just to commemorate
saintly or worthy figures from the past (as is the case with most
of the AbbeyÂ’s statuary), but to proclaim a message of which too
few people are aware: the twentieth century has been a century of
Christian martyrdom. The cost of Christian witness, and the
number of Christians willing to die for what they believed
(alongside others of different religious faiths or none), has
been greater in this century than in any previous period in the
history of the church.
These ten statues are of individual martyrs; but they are
intended to represent all those others who have died (and
continue to die) in similar circumstances of oppression and
persecution. They are drawn from every continent and many
Christian denominations. They include victims of the struggle for
human rights in North and South America, of the Soviet and Nazi
persecutions in Europe, of religious prejudice and dictatorial
rule in Africa, of fanaticism in the Indian subcontinent, of the
brutalities of the Second World War in Asia and of the Cultural
Revolution in China. In these and other similar circumstances
during this most violent of centuries thousands of men and women
have paid with their lives for their faith and their convictions.
Those represented here have left their testimony to the ultimate
cost of Christian witness and to its enduring significance.
Models for the statues were carefully designed by Tim Crawley
from such records and photographs as exist of each of the martyrs
and the figures have been carved from French Richemont limestone
by him and, under his general direction, by Neil Simmons, John
Roberts and Andrew Tanser. Two of these sculptors had already
worked on some 300 pieces of stone carving which needed
replacement during the restoration of Henry VII Chapel in
1990-95. With these ten statues of modern figures in gothic
niches they have now fulfilled one of the most demanding and
important sculptural commissions of our time.
The statues were unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in
the presence of H.M. The Queen, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh and
church leaders and representatives from many parts of the world
on 9 July 1998.
A full account of each of the martyrs may be found in The
Terrible Alternative, edited by Andrew Chandler (Cassell, 1998),
available at the Westminster Abbey shop and other
booksellers.
Anthony Harvey
Sub-Dean of Westminster
July 1998