Dear Wendy,
If my memory serves me correctly the dove is depicted in images of
the martyrdom of St Margaret, probably as a symbol of her innocent
soul. The fourteenth-century wall paintings at Limpenhoe spring to
mind, but I have no pictures with me so I cannot check if the dove is
shown in the St Margaret or the St Catherine cycle (I believe both
saints are shown). St Kenelm has a premonitory dream of his
martyrdom in which the flight of a dove from a felled tree prefigures
the flight of his soul to paradise. I suspect that this dove motif was
very widespread.
With Best Wishes
Miriam Gill
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