Daniel the Lion.
Breathing seeds of hope
in Gloucester.
Come and visit Daniel.
Daniel takes pride of place outside our Church building on the corner of Cheltenham Road. He enjoys having his photo taken, so why not take a selfie with Daniel and share it with us on our social media. We love seeing and hearing about who Daniel has been speaking to.
Daniel’s Story.
Before being adopted into the St. Catharine’s Church family, Daniel began life as ‘Lion’s Breath’, a sculpture painted by Helen Naylor for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals ‘Lions at Large’ trail.
In October 2025, a number of these Lions were auctioned off for charity and St. Catharine’s Church successfully bid for Lion’s Breath. We are the church that has the hospital in our parish, and were delighted through our bid to raise money for the Big Space cancer appeal. Many are impacted by cancer and this is a way we can offer help and hope to others.
In January 2026, Lion’s Breath was officially unveiled as Daniel the Lion (or Dan-de-lion!) in pride of place outside St. Catharine’s Church.
We believe Daniel will spread seeds of hope, renewal and transformation to all who catch sight of him. As a church we want to hold out hope, for those who live here and those who are journeying past, and saying Gloucester is a place that God cares about and can be a place of beauty and creativity and aspiration.
Where do you find hope?
In the Bible, we see Jesus described as a lion. If you have read CS Lewis’ books about Narnia, he also uses a lion - Aslan - to paint a picture of who Jesus is, someone who holds his power with humility and enables people to become who they have been created to be.
As Christians, we believe that hope is found and anchored in Jesus, and we love to share about why that is. So do pop in if you would like to find out more, or click below for more resources about the Christian faith.
