In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:4
6 Comments CherryPie on Dec 24th 2016
Expectancy is the atmosphere for miracles.
Edwin Louis Cole
2 Comments CherryPie on Dec 23rd 2016
The Lady Chapel is one of the finest late 12th century buildings in Europe. It stands on the site of an earlier timber church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and claimed to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea. The ‘Old Church’ was burnt in a great fire in 1184, along with many of the abbey’s buildings. The site was so sacred to the monastery and its pilgrims that rebuilding started immediately.
King Henry II’s chamberlain Ralph Fitzstephen oversaw the building work while no abbot was in post. He “completed the church of St Mary in the place where from the beginning the vetusta ecclesia [old church] had stood, building it of squared stone fo the most beautiful workmanship, omitting no possible ornament” (Adam of Domerham, 13th century).
The new chapel was deliberately constructed in a conservative Norman style to emphasise the antiquity of the site. The ornate building with four corner turrets was perhaps designed to resemble a precious reliquary or shrine.
This impressive doorway is carve with detailed sculptures illustrating the Life of the Virgin. Highly skilled stone carvers undertook the work on site. A similar grand entrance lies on the south side of the chapel. There the sculptures were never completed, perhaps because royal funding suddenly ended with the death of Henry II in 1189.
Click on the picture below for an explanation of some of the doorway carvings.
10 Comments CherryPie on Dec 22nd 2016
In the year 1191 the bodies of King Arthur and his Queen were said to have been found on the south side of the Lady Chapel. On 19th April 1278 their remains were removed in the presence of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor to a black marble tomb on this site. This tomb survived until the dissolution of the Abbey in 1539.
11 Comments CherryPie on Dec 21st 2016
The symbol of our Faith, the gift of Queen Elizabeth II marks a Christian Sanctuary. So ancient that only legend, can record its origin.
6 Comments CherryPie on Dec 20th 2016
The Saxons, who had been converted to Christianity, conquered the ancient county of Somerset in the 7th Century. Their King was Ine of Wessex, who was widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the abbey. He was a local man who boosted the status and income of the abbey, and it is said that he put up a stone church, the base of which forms the west end of the nave.
This church was enlarged in the 10th century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, St. Dunstan, who became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 960.
In 1066, the wealth of the abbey could not cushion the Saxon monks from the disruption caused by the foreign invasion and subsequent conquest of England by the Normans.
Skilled Norman craftspeople contributed much to the abbey by adding magnificent buildings to the existing Saxon Church. These were built to the east of the older church and away from the ancient cemetery.
The Norman betterment of the abbey was extensive. In 1086, when the Domesday Book was commissioned to provide records and a census of life in England, Glastonbury Abbey was the richest monastery in the country.
The great Norman structures were consumed by fire in 1184 when many of the ancient treasures were destroyed.
14 Comments CherryPie on Dec 19th 2016
Filed under Faith Foundations, Holidays, Piran & Ljubljana 2015, Science & Nature
Cherie’s Place – Thought for the Week
Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
C. S. Lewis
12 Comments CherryPie on Dec 18th 2016
