8 Comments CherryPie on Feb 18th 2012
18 Comments CherryPie on Feb 17th 2012
From the Cathedral guidebook:
The pilgrim steps, their stone treads worn down by countless pilgrims over the centuries, are now protected by wooden boards. The shrine these pilgrims had come to visit was that of a an called William. Little is know about, him except that he was probably a baker from Perth in Scotland making his own pilgrimage to Canterbury and perhaps on to Rome and the Holy Land. On his way out of Rochester he was murdered. His body was found by a local woman who appeared to by cured of her madness as a result.
Monks gathered up his body and buried it in the cathedral. Further miracles were reported and a shrine developed, with William reputedly canonised as a saint in 1256. Pilgrims gave money as shrine offerings and this contributed to the rebuilding work of the early 1200s. William’s shrine and the shrines of the other saints here were destroyed at the Reformation.
12 Comments CherryPie on Feb 17th 2012
This doorway was originally the night time entrance from the Monk’s dormitory, it currently leads to the chapter library. The Gothic style doorway contrasts Christianity with Judaism. On the left is Ecclesia represents Christianity and on the right Synagoga represents Judaism.
Synagoga is depicted as a blindfolded woman with a broken staff, the Tablets of the Law slipping from her hand, in contrast to Ecclesia who holds a cross and a chalice.
The doorway shows the intolerance to Jews at that time depicting the view that Jews had turned away and were blinded from God’s true path.
18 Comments CherryPie on Feb 15th 2012
22 Comments CherryPie on Feb 15th 2012
Happy Valentine’s day to all my friends 
4 Comments CherryPie on Feb 14th 2012
