A PRIEST in Devon, the Revd Stuart Huntley, has raised awareness of the impact of suicide by completing the Royal Kentish Camino in memory of a friend and fellow historical re-enactor. Mr Huntley did the 24-mile walk in full medieval dress, conducting services for remembrance, prayer, and healing in nine of ten medieval churches en route.
Mr Huntley was raising money for the charity Pete’s Dragons, which supports families and individuals affected by suicide, and for the maintenance of the ten churches. He was jubilant on Monday after completing a two-day walk with “a lot history in only one weekend . . . and never a single blister”. He wore hose, jacket, hood and cloak, with shoes that he had made himself, and slept overnight within the church at Elham.
‘He’s bringing light to the Dark Ages’
Three Anglo-Saxon royals — Queen Ethelburga, St Eanswythe, and St Eadburg — were the inspiration for the Camino. It begins at St Martin’s, Canterbury, recognised because the oldest church within the English-speaking world, and ends at St Mary and St Eanswythe, Folkestone, where the Kentish St Eanswythe’s relics are preserved and venerated.
Services over the 2 days began included holy communion and evening prayer. The terrain was familiar from Mr Huntley’s childhood, as were most of the churches. He had been christened in a single and confirmed in one other. Sometimes, he walked on his own, but he was joined at different stages by others, a lot of whom told their very own stories of bereavement through suicide.
“It affects generations, not only the immediate family and friends, but children and even grandchildren,” he said. In his address at his friend Will’s funeral, he had told the mourners: “What makes suicide so far more difficult to process than we could have imagined is that none of us know what torment they were battling at the top: why they did what they did and and why we couldn’t have stopped this tragedy from happening.”
He describes the experience of ending up at St Eanswythe’s as inspiring. “I’d been talking about her and realised I used to be pointing at her bones that were just two yards from where I used to be speaking,” he said. “Disparate things — the sense of authenticity, the sense of loss, the sense of community — all got here together. It was just good.
“Will was captivated with history and loved historic churches. The walk really celebrated his life.”
By Tuesday this week, Mr Huntley’s efforts had raised £1260.
