A new exhibition at Stonyhurst College called “Hot Holy Ladies” is not as racy as it sounds. For those with a salacious interest in “women of the night”, or in lurid RSE programmes taught to primary school children behind their parents’ backs, this is not for you. On the contrary, it is something infinitely more edifying.
It takes its title from a sarcastic insult from 1602 aimed by the secular priest William Watson at the fervent and brave English Catholic women who often risked everything – including their lives – to keep the fires of faith aflame during the darkest years of persecution.
