Bishop Herbert and St. Felix

Eight years have past since I last puzzled the Elmham Question
( See https://norfolkpilgrim.blogspot.com/2010/07/south-elmham.html and the matching https://norfolkpilgrim.blogspot.com/2010/07/north-elmham.html).  Bishop Herbert built two matching churches, each with the same ground plan at both North and South Elmham.

I had been puzzling the relief sculpture of St.Felix in Norwich Cathedral. It was part of the furniture around the Bishop's Entrance in the North Transept. Both the sculpture and the architecture of were antiqued to look old even when they were new! This round of puzzling was prompted some spade work along the Great Yarmouth to Norwich leg of the Walsingham Way that terminates in Norwich cathedral.  There are churches founded by Felix   at Reedham and Loddon.

Kneeling beside Bishop Herbert's grave at  8 a.m. Holy Communion service in Norwich Cathedral, the penny dropped. Bishop Herbert  had done something similar when he established a St.Edmund shrine at Hoxne.

Herbert has been the Abbot of Ramsey which housed the relics of St. Felix . Although there is no record he brought any relics with him he would have been keen to signal his and the Bishop of Norwich's continuity with the founding saint.

Only later in the day, while imagining Felix using Norfolk's river system to travel up to North Elmham close to the important Anglo-Saxon burial site at Spong Hill,  I wondered if he might have founded a church in Norwich on the way.  Perhaps he did - the cathedral replaced a Holy Trinity Church and kept the dedication., which is also the dedication of Loddon church. Was Holy Trinity the church Felix founded in Norwich?    Hmnnn..........

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

North Elmham

Image
I’d come to North Elmham pursuing a mystery. Did the Bishops of Elmham from Bedwinus in the 7th century to Herfast in the 11th have their cathedral in Norfolk or  Suffolk?  North or South Elmham? I’d followed a circular walk I’d found in the  Norfolk Health Heritage and Conservations Walks  leaflet (You can get hold of one from Norfolk County Council or on-line at www.countrysideaccess.norfolk.gov.uk .)  It took me through parkland,  along quiet lanes and ended up at the parish church  (Well worth a visit in its own right!) My final destination was indicated by a brown tourist sign. Uncompromisingly it asserts “Saxon Cathedral”! But when you get to the ruins and read English Heritage’s helpful interpretation boards there’s no certainty at all.  What you see are earthworks and  ruins of a castle built by Henry Despencer,  the fighting Bishop of Norwich. He was famous for putting down the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. A man not without enemies, Henry had obviously felt the need of
Read more

First Day of the Rest of My Life

Image
 I have not posted much of late. I have been struggling. Between completing the pioneering work on a possible Withburga Way between Holkham and Dereham in the summer of 2022 and today my health has gone downhill in alarming way. I'll never walk the route in a couple of days, nor yet in 3.  I'll never walk it.  The rapid onset Pulmonary Fibrosis has left me struggling for breath putting my boots on let alone walking.  Yesterday, I went to St. Benet's Abbey , ate my picnic lunch in the car park and set myself the challenge of walking from the car park to the Abbey ruins. It is 0.35 miles and uphill all the way from from the Gate House to the old rugged cross that marks the site of the high altar at the summit. The hill looked quite daunting -  "Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?" I sang under by breath. Stopping often to catch my breath, slowly one foot in front of the other, I got closer to the summit. There before the cross, wind in my hair, it felt as if the b
Read more

A Candlemas Pilgrimage

Image
 Turning left off the Hautbois Road  A path leads past Golden Gates Pond.  Ahead, the tower of  Great Hautbois Church is a silhouette glimpsed through winter trees. Beneath the tower  - Snowdrops,  Candlemas Bells.  We've come to St. Mary's Church to ponder  the Feast of the Presentation.  Did Mary travel to Jerusalem's temple to offer her own her flesh and blood, her baby Jesus to  his Heavenly Father?  Or was it to bring God to his Temple? Whatever was going on she is at the heart of the mystery. Simeon had it right.  The boy child is the light that enlightens the Gentiles but the 2 turtle doves were just a down-payment. More would be given.   Candlemas - one last look back to Christmas before turning our faces towards Passiontide and Good Friday.  And a sword certainly pieced Mary's soul when she stood by the cross.  In real time, fast military jets manoeuvre overhead and a war torn world comes into sharp focus.   "Where is God!"  We cry!   On his cross! A
Read more