Bijou Album Containing the Photogrphs of the Passionist Fathers connected with the building of the Memorial Church of Leo xiii on Highgate Hill, London N.

10 parchment pages. Manuscript title page in neat contemporary ink hand, followed by nine leaves of contemporary miniature portrait photographs (8 portraits) mounted on hand painted garlands of flowers, each differerent, with hand-penned descriptions below each image, on verso only. Circa 1890. All edges gilt. 54 x 70 mm. Original brown floral blind-stamped cloth with double blind fillet borders (very slightly rubbed); "Bijou Album" in gilt across front cover. Constitutes images of the church itself and portays Pope Leo xiii, the rectors past & current, the Provincials past and current, a Passionist author, the vicar and the Brother in charge of the building works. Paul of the Cross had talked about seeing the cross of Christ on the forehead of the poor . His Rule arrived in England only in 1841. After the potato famine started in Ireland in 1847, there was a massive flow of Irish Catholics into the poorest parts of cities like Liverpool, Birmingham and London. St. Joseph's Retreat, Highgate Hill was the first Catholic church in that area of north London and the chief house of the Order of Passionists in England. The Passionists built a chapel there in 1858, on the site of the Black Dog Inn; the present church buildings were designed by Albert Vicars and opened in 1885. In 1888, the first church was demolished and temporarily replaced by a tin church, in order to make way for the present church. The corner stone was laid on 24 May 1888 and the building opened on 21 November 1889. The church is in the Italian Romanesque style and was built to commemorate the Jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. The architect was Albert Vicars (usually a Gothic architect), with Brother Alphonsus superintending the work. This miniature bound and hand-painted memorial appears to be unrecorded and may be unique.