Hundreds of Catholics crowded into the Cathedral of St Paul – in St Paul, Minnesota – to venerate the relics of two English saints who are known as icons of religious liberty because of the circumstances of their martyrdom.

Relics of St Thomas More and St John Fisher, whose lives spanned the 15th and 16th centuries, were viewed at the cathedral on Sunday as part of a national tour coinciding with the Fortnight for Freedom.

A prayer service was part of the event and included eucharistic adoration, a Gospel reading and presentations on the martyrs from John Boyle, professor of theology and Catholic studies at the University of St Thomas in St Paul, and Jan Graffius, curator at Stonyhurst College in England, which holds the relics.