The art of mysticism: Evelyn Underhill’s visual art and journeys in Europe - Dec 2025

[The images referred to in this talk can be found at https://www.stpauls.co.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/2025%20-%207%20Dec%20St%20Pauls%20UNDERHILL%20SLIDES.pdf] Evelyn Underhill is best known as a theologian, mystic, and spiritual director – remembered by the Church each year on the 15th June. In the 1900s, long before her fame, she travelled extensively in Italy and France, painting, drawing and writing as she journeyed to glorious cathedrals, rural churches, and historic museums. Marking the 150th anniversary year of her birth, this event explores her lesser-known art and writing. The Revd Ayla Lepine will guide us on a pilgrimage with Underhill as a companion through the sacred art and architecture of Chartres, Amiens, Assisi, Siena, Venice, and beyond. The Revd Dr Ayla Lepine is Associate Rector at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, before which she was Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion at the National Gallery. She has a PhD in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and her book 'Women, Art, God' will be published in 2026. She is a trustee of Art and Christianity, a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College in Spirituality and the Imagination, and a member of the St Paul’s Cathedral Visual Arts Committee.