Candlemas present for Simeon

Light up the world

Candlemas celebrates the presentation of Christ in the temple by Mary and Joseph.

As the elderly priest Simeon held the baby in his arms he knew that it was the Messiah, the one he had longed to see all his life.

He said: ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel’.

John Sutherland Valentine, a pupil at Coleshill Grammar School who became a railway surveyor and engineer. dedicated the window of Simeon and Jesus in the lady chapel (right) to the memory of Martha, his mother.

Martha died aged 29 on 2 November 1813 when her son was just two months old.