Editing Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (section)

===Veneration===
{{multiple image
|header=The shrine of Little St Hugh, at the south choir aisle of Lincoln Cathedral.
|image1=Drawing of the Shrine of Little St Hugh, Lincoln Cathedral, William Dugdale, 1641.png
|caption1=Drawing of the shrine by [[William Dugdale]] (1641){{sfn|Hillaby|1994|p=96}}
|image2=The shrine of Little St.Hugh - geograph.org.uk - 276275.jpg
|caption2=Remains of the shrine in 2006
|total_width=450
}}
After news spread of his death, miracles were attributed to Hugh; and he became one of the youngest individual candidates for sainthood, with 27 July unofficially made his feast day. Many local 'saints' of the medieval period were not canonised but were locally dubbed saints and venerated. 'Little Saint Hugh' was for a while [[Folk saint|acclaimed as a saint]] by local people but never officially recognised as one.<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/1474225X.2017.1406278?scroll=top&needAccess=true Sagovsky, Nicholas. "What makes a saint? A Lincoln case study in the communion of the local and the universal Church", ''International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church'', Volume 17, 2017 - Issue 3]</ref> Over time, the issue of the rush to sainthood was raised, and Hugh was never canonised<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/AUTH233565 "Hugh of Lincoln", The British Museum]</ref> and was never a part of the official Catholic [[calendar of saints]]. The Vatican never included the child Hugh in Catholic [[martyrology]] and his traditional English feast day is not celebrated.<ref>{{harvnb|Editors, Catholic Saints|2013}}, {{harvnb|Butler|1910}}</ref>

[[Lincoln Cathedral]] benefited from the episode; Hugh was regarded as a [[Christian martyr]], and sites associated with his life became objects of pilgrimage.<ref name = "brit"/>

The [[shrine]] dated to the period immediately after the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, partly funded by [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], as a propaganda tool helping to justify his actions by emphasising the danger that Jews supposedly posed to Christians. The royal coat of arms was prominently displayed.<ref>{{harvnb| David Stocker|1986}}</ref> As Stacey notes: "A more explicit identification of the crown with the ritual crucifixion charge can hardly be imagined."<ref>{{harvnb|Stacey|2001}}</ref> The design included decoration commemorating Edward I's wife [[Eleanor of Castile]], who had been widely disliked for large-scale buying and selling of Jewish bonds, with the aim of requisitioning the lands and properties of those indebted;{{sfn|Hillaby|Hillaby|2013|p=658}} it may have deliberately echoed that of the [[Eleanor crosses]], also commemorating her.<ref>{{harvnb|David Stocker|1986}}</ref> This intervention was a major "propaganda coup" rehabilitating Edward and Eleanor's image and claiming credit for the [[Edict of Expulsion|Expulsion]].{{sfn|Hillaby|1994|p=94-98}}

While popular into the 1360s, the cult seems to have declined in the next half century, as it was raising just 10½d. in 1420–21.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1948|pp=228–29}}</ref> The shrine was largely destroyed after the [[English Reformation]]. During the Cathedral restoration of 1790 a stone coffin, 3 feet 3 inches (1 metre) long, was found containing the skeleton of a boy; this was drawn by [[Samuel Hieronymus Grimm]].