The Pearl of Great Price
A short daily trip down the lane of Christian History. Looking at the fascinating people and events that have shaped a universal civilisation.
Episodes
369 episodes
Nov 28 The Night of the Confessor - Tomas Halik
Tomas Halik - A priest from the Czech Republic was ordained clandestinely under communism. Now he has been given many awards including an honorary doctorate from Oxford for his many writings.
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Season 11
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Episode 28
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8:20
Nov 27 Milan Cathedral - Il Duomo
Milan's Cathedral - the biggest in Italy is made up of pink-hued white marble. Canals were dug leading to the construction site, to bring the stone there, It has the most statues and spires in the world and houses the shrine of Charles B...
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Season 11
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Episode 27
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7:27
Nov 26 Paul VI Stabbed in Manila
This is the story of an assassination attempt on Pope Paul VI at Manila airport. The 'Pilgrim Pope' who was the first to travel on an aeroplane and visit the Holy Land
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Season 11
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Episode 26
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7:26
Nov 25 Biblical Encylopedias and their deaf author
The incredible story of John Kitto - who although he became deaf after an accident as a teenager, he became an avid traveller and observer of Eastern Culture. He used what he had experienced and observed to created very popular Biblical Encyclo...
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Season 11
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Episode 25
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7:24
Nov 24 Pius XI loses the Papal States & Infallibility
Pope Pius IX had to flee from Rome to escape Garibaldi and the Nationalists. He returned to become a prisoner of the Vatican and called Vatican I - the council that controversially defined infallibility
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Season 11
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Episode 24
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9:51
Nov 23 Thomas Tallis' Tapestry of Voices
One of the greatest composers of sacred music in English was Thomas Tallis. His greatest work composed when he was seventy years old is the 40 voice 'Spem in Alium'. A tapestry of voices about putting hope in God
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Season 11
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Episode 23
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9:15
Nov 22 The Knights Templar
The Templars are one of the most controversial orders in the history of the Church. Set up in poverty to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land their power and fortunes rose and fell with the success of the Crusades
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Season 11
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Episode 22
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8:13
Nov 21 Lumen Gentium - A light for the Peoples
Lumen Gentium was one of the most important documents of Vatican 2. The Churches understanding of itself... the first time ever written, dealing with such themes as the universal call to holiness and salvation outside the church
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Season 11
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Episode 21
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8:40
Nov 20 The Little Flower and Two Popes
Terese of Liseux is one of the most popular saints in the church - even though she died relatively unknown at 24. Her 'Little Way' to Holiness was made famous through her autobiography The Story of a Soul. Her modesty and 'littlenes...
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Season 11
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Episode 20
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10:27
Nov 19 A radical thinker from Uruguay
Alberto Methol Ferrer is one of the most influential thinkers you have never heard of. He was a great friend of the current pope, and used to cross the Rio Grande from Uruguay to see him regularly in Buenos Aires. His thoughts on theology...
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Season 11
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Episode 19
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7:37
Nov 18 A little piece of heaven as St Peters is consecrated
St Peters Basilica is world famous and today it was consecrated in 1626
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Season 11
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Episode 18
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8:33
Nov 17 Harald Bluetooth and Denmark's Baptismal Certificate, The Jelling Stones
Two remarkable stones tell us a lot of the beginning of Denmark as a nation state, brought together by Harald Bluetooth - the first Christian King. He united the feuding tribes which is why Bluetooth technology was named after him, unitin...
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Season 11
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Episode 17
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7:27
Nov 16 Hugh of Lincoln, Anglo-Norman culture
The Bishop of Lincoln, a French aristocrat called Hugh was much loved for standing up to corrupt kings, and for his holiness. He was declared a saint twenty years after his death
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Season 11
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Episode 15
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7:20
Nov 15 How to Read the Bible - Dei Verbum
One of the most consequential documents of Vatican 2 is also one of the shortest - Dei Verbum which deals with Divine Revelation
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Season 11
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Episode 15
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9:10
Nov 14 Blitzes, Bombs and Cathedrals
The Coventry Blitz on Nov 14 1940 was the most devestating in Britain during WW2. Its bombed out cathedral is now world famous
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Season 11
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Episode 14
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8:18
Nov 13 A Darwinist's description of religious experience
The Marine Biologist - Sir Alister Hardy - set up a centre to study religious experience. He claimed that 50% of people in the UK had a religious experience and saw this as an evolutionary response to some dimension of reality
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Season 11
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Episode 13
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7:18
Nov 12 King Canute and the tide
King Canute the King of Denmark, Norway and England built up an Empire of the North Sea. He also put a lot of money back into rebuilding churches and monasteries. Why did he attempt to turn back the sea?
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Season 11
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Episode 12
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8:01
Nov 11 Ordaining Women
Today we remember how the General Synod voted to accept women priests in 1992.
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Season 11
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Episode 11
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8:19
Nov 10 Stopping Clandestine Marriages
The Council of Trent is most famous for its counter reformation decrees - but perhaps of most significance in shaping civilisations is its decree 'Tametsi' which tried to counteract clandestine marriage
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Season 11
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Episode 10
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8:16
Nov 9 Satan and the Book of Enoch
We remember the death of William Morfill, the first professor of Russian and Slavonic languages in Britain, He translated the non-canonical Book of Enoch which had been preserved in Bulgarian texts and describes how Satan was cast out of ...
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Season 11
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Episode 9
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13:16
Nov 7 Pope Benedict consecrates Barcelona's Sagrada Famiiia
The Sagrada Familia was Anthony Gaudi's magnus opus and attracts more than 3 million visitors every year to Barcelona. Today we remember how Pope Benedict consecrated the unfinished basilica - and opened it to the public to worship ...
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Season 11
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Episode 7
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7:27
Nov 6 George Williams and the YMCA
George Williams inspired by the ideals of Muscular Christianity founded the YMCA to offer young men an alternative and healthy life to the urban malaise he saw in London, The movement spread around the world and invented basketball and volleyba...
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Season 11
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Episode 6
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8:06
Nov 5 Guy Fawkes and York Minster
Guy Fawkes was from York and to commemorate his failure to blow up the House of Lords a special light show was projected onto the beautiful and famous York Minster. Today we look at both the story of Guy Fawkes and the beautiful York Cathedral ...
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Season 11
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Episode 5
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9:43