Enhanced image
Description
An angel with pale face and red garment holds a carved group of three bearded faces. First revealed in the 2019 restoration project, this is a “tricephalous trinity”, a popular but controversial medieval art form. Appearing first in 13th-century Italy, the figure spread across Catholic Europe in frescoes, panels, prints and sculpture. St Thomas’s now sits among the very few English survivals.
Post-medieval theologians worried that it looked monstrous or theologically misleading (too close to pagan three-faced deities, or to “one person with three masks”). In 1628, Pope Urban VIII issued a prohibition against depicting the Trinity as “one body with three mouths, three noses and four eyes.” In 1745 Benedict XIV reconfirmed the policy, declaring three-faced/three-headed forms as “monsters” and prohibited them.
Heraldry
Blazon: No heraldic blazon is present.
Condition
This figure has been restored. The face, wings and unusual group of heads are visible; the lower carving and some wing detail are still softened by the photograph.