This painting is the third of only three canvas studies for the 'St Ethelflaeda Diptych’, purchased by and permanently installed in the Grade I listed Romsey Abbey in 2018. The diptych was a major public acquisition after the artist’s untimely death, and depicts the Abbey’s tenth century abbess, Saint Ethelflaeda.

Visiting Romsey Abbey a first time, whilst being given a guided tour, Chris Gollon learned that the Abbey had no painted image of St Ethelflaeda and that there were several legends about the tenth century Abbess. One legend said that Ethelflaeda would stoically walk naked into a tributary of the River Test in winter to read the Bible; another that she would empty the Abbey’s chest of coins to give alms to the poor, but miraculously the chest would refill with coins. A third, upon which Gollon decided to focus, was the story that one night a gust of wind blew out the candles out in the Abbey, yet Ethelflaeda was able to continue reading the Bible through light emanating from her fingers.

"There were two recesses in the Abbey, formerly the entrance (now filled in) from the adjacent Benedictine nunnery. In these, Gollon decided to paint a site-specific diptych that might show her re-entering Romsey Abbey from the Abbess’s door, at the moment the candles blew out. It was a great privilege to be there that autumn evening the diptych was first installed. Among all those present there was a frisson, as though St Ethelflaeda’s presence could be felt again in the Abbey." David Tregunna, Curator & Director, IAP Fine Art