Old Monmothian, Philip Chatfield is currently working at Pluscarden Abbey on many different carved stones and statues for a new St Joseph’s retreat being built there. He been carving stones and statues since 1978, having been taught by a craftsman who came from the arts and crafts workshop of well-known artist and sculptor Eric Gill.
Philip has created a unique ecclesiastical art carving of Saint Brendan the Navigator which is being installed in Birnie Kirk near Elgin in Moray.
The carving has been created to mark the home-coming of St Brendan the Navigator, the saint who established the first Christian community there in the 6th century.
Carved from a single block of golden coloured stone quarried near Hopeman on the coast north of Elgin, St Brendan is seen with two monks on a voyage in an open sailing boat, recalling his adventures on the high seas which eventually brought him to the Moray coast and to the sacred mound at Birnie, which dates from Celtic pagan days.
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