england began to see a revival of religious beliefs and practices starting in 1833 and moving onward to about 1845. the oxford movement, also known as the tractarian movement, had recently begun a push toward the restoration of christian traditions that had been lost in the church. rossetti and his family had been attending christ church, albany street since 1843. his brother, william michael rossetti recorded that services had begun changing in the church since the start of the "high anglican movement". rev. william dodsworth was responsible for these changes, including the addition of the catholic practice of placing flowers and candles by the altar. rossetti and his family, along with two of his colleagues (one of which cofounded the pre-raphaelite brotherhood) had also attended st. andrew's on wells street, a high anglican church. it is noted that the anglo-catholic revival very much affected rossetti in the late 1840s and early 1850s. the spiritual expressions of his painting "the girlhood of mary virgin," finished in 1849, are evident of this claim. the painting's altar is decorated very similarly to that of a catholic altar, proving his familiarity with the anglo-catholic revival. the subject of the painting, the blessed virgin, is sewing a red cloth, a significant part of the oxford movement that emphasized the embroidering of altar cloths by women. oxford reformers identified two major aspects to their movement, that "the end of all religion must be communion with god," and "that the church was divinely instituted for the very purpose of bringing about this consummation."