St David at Glastonbury

1st March is St. Davids Day, and has been celebrated as the national day of Wales since the 12th Century. In Medieval tradition he was the nephew of King Arthur.

St David

In Caradoc of Llancarfan’s Life of St Gildas he tells us that Saint Gildas became the most celebrated preacher in Britain. However, there was one occasion when he was lost for words; Gildas was preaching in a church when he found himself unable to speak. He asked all to leave the church but found he was still unable to continue. He asked if anyone was hiding in the church when a woman pregnant with child called out to him “I, Nonnita, am staying here between the walls and the door, not wishing to mingle with the crowd.”

Gildas requested she left the church. After Nonnita had left he called the people back in to deliver his sermon. At the end the Angel of the Lord explained to Gildas that “Nonnita, a saintly woman, remains in the church, who is now with child, and is destined, with great grace, to give birth to a boy whom thou couldst not preach, the divine power withholding thy speech. The boy this is to come will be of greater grace: no one in your parts will equal him.”

The child in Nonnita’s (St Non) womb was Dewi (David); so moved by the experience Gildas bequeathed Wales to St David’s administrations.

According to the Life of St David written by Rhygyfarch c.1090, Glastonbury was the first of twelve monasteries founded by the Saint in the late 6th Century.

This of course conflicts with the Glastonbury legend that claims the church at Glastonbury had been in existence several hundred years before St David’s arrival. When William of Malmesbury produced his history of the Abbey he suggested that St David must have come to Glastonbury to rededicate the Old Church there.

According to William, the night before the rededication of the Old Church St David experienced a vision in which The Lord confirmed that he himself had dedicated the Old Church long ago. St David decided to build a smaller chapel on to the eastern end of the church. According to later tradition, the line of connection of the two chapels was marked by an external pyramid on the northside and a raised step inside. Extending a line on the southern side is where, it is claimed, Joseph of Arimathea lies.

St David is said to have received a wonderful altar stone, “the sapphire”, from the Patriarch of Jerusalem which he took to Wales. However, as with many contradictory claims, a Glastonbury tradition claimed that St David presented this marvellous jewel to the community at Glastonbury. It was apparently hidden during the turbulent Saxon times but rediscovered by Henry of Blois in the 12th Century. The sapphire was richly decorated and then hung in the church where it remained until the Dissolution, when the commissioners of Henry VIII noted “ a super altar… decorated with the great Saphire of Glastonbury.”

St David's Cathedral

Later, Glastonbury was to claim to posses the majority of St David’s physical remains. It wouldn't be the only time the Abbey would pull such a stunt. Glastonbury argued that much of St David’s diocese in South Wales had been devastated by English incursions and that a Holy woman named Aelswitha brought St David's relics to Glastonbury for safekeeping in the 10th century. According to John of Glastonbury the virgin St Aelswitha lies between the High Altar and the tomb of King Arthur. However, the Welsh disputed the Glastonbury claim and continued to display, they argued, the genuine relics at St David’s Cathedral.

See also:
The Empty Shrine of Saint David
Saint Non's Chapel


Source:
James P Carley, Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous, Gothic Image, 1996.

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St Brigid and the Blue Glass Bowl

St Brigid
Brigid personifies the remarkable survival of a pagan Goddess into the 21st century. Born in the mid-5th Century as daughter of a Druid she developed into a Goddess yet today, the 1st February, she is celebrated as Saint Brigid, patron to many including blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, held in such high esteem in Ireland She is second only to Saint Patrick. In the Celtic calendar it is Imbolc and marks the start of the light half of the year when days begins to lengthen and grow warmer. It is a favourite time of the year when nature awakes after the long dormant dark days of winter; bulbs are starting to come into flower, buds are ready to burst on trees and shrubs.

The night before, St Brigid's Eve, 31st January, corn dollies known as the Brideog (little Brigid) would be made by young girls and unmarried women, adorned with ribbons. They would all gather in one house and stay all night with the Brideog. The following day the Brideog would be carried through the neighbourhood, calling at house to house, where the girls would receive offerings such as food or coins. Households would leave a piece of cloth outside for Brigid to bless as she walked the earth. In the morning the cloths are brought inside and believed to possess powers of healing and protection recived from the Goddess. St Brigid Crosses would be manufactured from rushes and placed above the door on the outside of the house to provide protection from fire and evil.

We find Brigid sites predominantly in Ireland but also across the British Isles from the many churches dedicated to Her, but also ancient burial chambers such as the Bridestones on the Staffordshire-Cheshire border. But one of the most peculiar stories associated with a St Brigid site is at Bride’s Well near Glastonbury in Somerset.

This land between The River Brue and Wearyall is known as Beckery, granted to Glastonbury Abbey by the Saxon king Cenwealdh in 670AD. Debate continues to the origin of the name; it may be derived from the Old English name for ‘Bee-keeper’s Island’ (Beocere) or from the Gaelic for ‘Little Ireland’ (Becc-Eriu). The later explanation fits well with the story of St Brigid at Glastonbury a tradition that the Saint stayed at Beckery for a short period and left relics behind. A stone marks the site of Bride’s Well and  a gentle rise is named Bride’s Mound. 

Archaeological excavation has uncovered a Chapel at Beckery with evidence indicating a monastic community lived there. Arthurian legend claims King Arthur visited the chapel at Beckery after experiencing a recurring dream while staying at a nunnery on Wearyall. At the chapel he met the Virgin and Child, an encounter which led to the change of his coat of arms as described in the account of King Arthur’s eighth battle at Guinnion from the Historia Brittonum.

The Blue Bowl
However, the strangest story associated with Beckery is a mysterious blue glass bowl found in Bride’s Well, which some have described as the true Grail of Glastonbury.

Dr. John Arthur Goodchild qualified as a medical practitioner in 1873 and started his practice in Cannes, France. In 1877 Goodchild moved his practice to Bordighera in Italy. It is here he purchased a blue glass bowl and platter in 1885. He took these to a glass specialist at the British Museum in London who was puzzled by the techniques used in the manufacture and their origin but thought it was indeed very ancient. He took them to his father’s house at Hampstead and locked them away in a cupboard where they remained for the next ten years.

Goodchild had a strong interest in spirituality and religion and believed that the Divine was feminine and the West would witness a spiritual revival led a woman, or group of women. This was published in his book “The Light of the West” (1898).

A year earlier in 1897 Goodchild had a psychic experience while in Paris. He found himself paralysed, unable to move he heard a voice which informed him that Jesus had actually owned the bowl, still in his father’s cupboard. The voice told Goodchild to take the blue bowl to Bride’s Hill, Glastonbury, but not until after his father’s death. The objective was, he was told, for the bowl to pass into the possession of a woman when new spiritual truths were to be revealed.

Shortly after, on his return to Bordighera, Goodchild received news that his father had died. He returned to England in 1898. The platter he passed on a family in Italy but kept the bowl which he duly took to Glastonbury. He followed the instructions received in the vision and placed the blue glass bowl in a muddy pond at Glastonbury. This was a lost well near the rising ground at Beckery known today at Bride’s Mound. He returned to Hampstead and told no one of what he had done.

Beckery (www.friendsofbridesmound.com)

Goodchild journeyed back to the pond at Glastonbury every year between 1899-1906, except 1905, and was convinced the blue bowl was no longer there but never checked the location where he had hid it in a hollow under a rock. He stayed in the town trying to pick up on any local news of such a discovery. He visited the pond to find the spring there had a reputation as a healing well and visitors had tied pieces of material to the nearby trees and bushes containing prayers. He noticed one tied to a Holy Thorn tree there was from one Katherine “Kitty” Tudor Pole.

In August 1906 Goodchild experienced a vision of a sword floating in the eastern sky. He didn’t understand its meaning and simply made a note of it. Then in early September he experienced a vision of a cup suspended in the western sky. He felt compelled to send a drawing of the sword to his friend Wellesley Tudor Pole, brother of Kitty, in Bristol and simply asked that it be passed on to the two pilgrims who had recently visited the well. It is not clear how Goodchild knew about the "two pilgrims" but his information was correct.

He received no further communications from the voice he had heard in Paris and was not aware that other people were starting to receive psychic messages about the blue glass bowl.

In 1902 Wellesley Tudor Pole, a young man from Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, experienced visions while ill in which he saw himself as a monk at Glastonbury. Believing that a pre-Christian culture from Ireland had spread to Glastonbury he became convinced, around 1904, that he needed to move to Glastonbury believing he would find a sacred object. He believed that the discovery would require the assistance of three maidens.

Wellesley duly passed on Goodchild’s message to Janet and Christine Allen, friends of the Tudor Poles, who had recently been to Glastonbury. Later in September they visited Goodchild in Bath and revealed how their friend  Wellesley had received a psychic message saying that they should go to a well at Glastonbury and search the waters for something. They had actually visited Glastonbury some two or three weeks before this meeting with Goodchild, around the same time he had received his visions of the sword and cup.  On the occasion of their visit to Glastonbury Janet and Christine had searched the well at Beckery and found the blue bowl in the well at Bride’s Mound, Beckery, but sensing the great sacredness of the object they placed it back in the muddy waters. On returning to Bristol they told Wellesley what had happened.

Wellesley and Kitty visited Goodchild in Bath later that month, 29th September, and he explained the whole story of the blue glass bowl. On 1st October Kitty went to Beckery and removed the bowl from the well, and with Goodchild’s consent, took it to a shrine in her family home in Bristol. They were convinced that they had found the Holy Grail.

Today at Beckery a stone showing the cross of St Brigid marks the place where the blue bowl was found at Bride’s Well. The blue glass bowl is now held by the Trustees of Chalice Well at Glastonbury, a charity founded by Wellesley Tudor Pole in 1959.




Further reading:
Brian Wright, Brigid: Goddess, Druidess, Saint, The History Press, 2009.
Steve Blamires, The Little Book of the Great Enchantment, Skylight Press, 2013.
Patrick Benham, Avalonians, Gothic Image Publications, 2nd Edition, 2006.

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Glastonbury Pilgrimages 2019

This weekend sees the annual Glastonbury Pilgrimages taking place when pilgrims will process down Glastonbury High Street and gather in the Abbey grounds to celebrate Mass.

The Broken Heart of Glastonbury 
During the Late Medieval Period, Glastonbury had become a centre of pilgrimage, with an annual pilgrimage held on the 8th of September, to celebrate the birth of Our Lady. The halcyon days came crashing to an end on 15th November 1539, when the last abbot, Richard Whiting was executed on Glastonbury Tor, the Abbey wrecked and the ancient Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury lost.

On 5th December 1926, after an absence of nearly 400 years, the first Roman Catholic Mass was held in a church in Glastonbury since the Dissolution of the Abbey and the cruel murder of its frail old Abbot.

The small temporary Church built in 1926 led to the foundations of a new Church being laid in 1939, dedicated once again to Our Lady as a successor to the ancient Shrine at Glastonbury. This new church, St Mary's, The Shrine of Our Lady, stands just across the road from the ancient Abbey gates.

The first organised mass pilgrimage to Glastonbury was held in 1895 to celebrate the beatification of Abbot Richard Whiting, on the anniversary of his martyrdom when thousands of pilgrims climbed the Tor where Mass was held.

The modern concept of the Glastonbury Pilgrimage started in 1924 and took place after both World Wars and has been an annual event ever since.

This year the Glastonbury Pilgrimage Association Annual Pilgrimage will be held on Saturday 13 July followed by the Clifton Diocese Annual Pilgrimage on Sunday 14 July.

Friday 12 July
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage Association Annual Pilgrimage starts on Friday 12th July in celebration of Mary, Disciple of the Lord when a Vigil Mass will be in the Undercroft of the Lady Chapel at 6.00 pm.

Saturday 13 July
On Saturday 13th July events start at 9.30 am with the Orthodox Liturgy, celebrated in the Undercroft followed by a Solemn Celebrated Mass sung in the Nave of the Abbey Church at 12.00 noon. After lunch at 2.00pm there will be various stations for the Sacrament of Anointing and the Sacrament of Confession will be heard in a suitable venue to be announced. This is followed by the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Abbey for Solemn Benediction in the Nave of the Abbey Church at 3.00pm.

Sunday 14 July
On Sunday 14 July The Clifton Diocese Pilgrimage starts in St Mary's church, the Shrine of Our Lady, at 11.30am.

A procession will be made around the abbey grounds, then out into the High Street and back to the Abbey via the main entrance, in Magdalene Street culminating in Mass in the Abbey grounds at 3.30pm.


Further Information:
Glastonbury Pilgrimage Association Annual Pilgrimage
Clifton Diocese Annual Glastonbury Pilgrimage
The Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury

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Glastonbury and the Myths of Avalon

Glastonbury and the Myths of Avalon
Yuri Leitch
(Self published 2019)

For those expecting yet another book on the Arthurian mysteries of Glastonbury, the back cover of Yuri Leitch’s latest publication makes it quite clear; this is not a book about the historical Arthur; this is a book about the history of Arthurian Romance and its significance to Glastonbury during medieval times. Leitch asserts that “the Arthur of Glastonbury is a myth created by the Benedictine Order of Glastonbury Abbey; motivated by the fascinating intrigues of their day; this is their story”.

This may come as a shock to many who have visited the little Somerset town and, on witnessing the site of Arthur and Guinevere’s grave, been caught up in the Glastonbury legend. Anyone who has fallen into this trap can be forgiven as Glastonbury is unique for its collection of tales; Joseph of Arimathea; Patrick; Brigid; King Arthur; Richard Whiting; the Tor; Chalice Well; the Michael Line; to list just a few. Coupled with the spiritual atmosphere of the place it is very easy to be drawn in and blinded to the facts; but that said, there is something here, although perhaps we can’t quite put our finger on it; Geoffrey Ashe referred to it as “someting else”.

I think it was at Andrew Collin’s Questing Conference at Glastonbury Assembly Rooms in 2007 that I first heard Yuri Leitch argue that Glastonbury was not Avalon. He had just published his first book ‘GWYN: Ancient God of Glastonbury and Key to the Glastonbury Zodiac’ (The Temple Publications, 2007) and delivered his presentation accordingly. At lunch we noted his Arthurian murals on the walls of the George and Pilgrims Inn across the road, embellishing the traditions of the town. Now, 12 years on, he expands the argument against an Arthurian Glastonbury in his latest book ‘Glastonbury and the Myths of Avalon’ (Self published 2019)

But this is not a negative book and Leitch cannot be categorised as an “Arthur assassin” as author’s Thomas Green and Nicholas Higham have been termed. Leitch clearly defines Glastonbury’s place in Arthurian Romance, perhaps the most popular part of the legend, that emerged in the 12th century.

Glastonbury’s part in the creation of the image of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Grail cannot be underestimated.

This a short work, the main content of the book is four chapters across 114 pages. The first chapter deals with the mysteries of St David who Leitch argues has a stronger claim to the foundation of Glastonbury than Joseph of Arimathea. The second chapter begins with discussion on Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury and critical analysis of the leaden burial cross. Leitch then reconstructs what he thinks really happened and the motive. The next chapter explores the arrival of the Grail and Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury; an event that occurred shortly after Robert de Boron wrote his account of the Grail, completing Chretien de Troyes unfinished Story of the Grail. Around this time saw the emergence of the Perlesvaus, author unknown but suspected of having been written at Glastonbury. Shortly after this, William of Malmesbury’s early 12th century text of the history of Glastonbury Abbey was altered with additions supporting the Joseph of Arimathea legend by an unknown hand, probably a monk from the Abbey.

The fourth and final chapter focuses on the Mysteries of Avallon with Leitch arguing that the real location is in the Avallonnais region of Burgundy, France. This claim has been made by Geoffrey Ashe (and developed by Marilyn Floyde) who identified the historical Arthur as the Romano-British military leader named Riothamus who was active in Gaul around 470 AD. Riothamus was betrayed by Arvandus, the Prefect of Gaul and then routed by the Goths. According to Ashe, Riothamus was last seen heading for Avallon in Burgundy and the healing sanctuary at Les Fontaines Salées.

The book is completed by seven appendices including Glastonbury’s Arthurian Timeline, The Historical Arthur, concluding with Arthur the Deity taking the overall page count to 170.

In a short End Note, Leitch calls for Glastonbury to move forward and stop repeating the same, tired old claims of its Arthurian and Arimathean traditions and explore its medieval history and its very real connections with the Angevin Empire and the stories of the Grail.

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The Search for the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea

Where They Laid Him Down to Rest
Following the first known appearance of The Prophecy of Melkin in John of Glastonbury’s 'Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey' (Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, c.1342) John Blome of London wrote to King Edward III in 1345 requesting permission to search the abbey grounds for the remains of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who according to the Gospels buried Jesus.

Seemingly an esoteric message detailing the location of the tomb of Joseph, The Prophecy of Melkin claims he lies in everlasting sleep on a forked line close to the southern corner of a wattle chapel above the powerful Venerable Maiden on the Isle of Avalon.

St Joseph window in St John's Church, Glastonbury

Blome had a vision in which he received divine instruction to search for Joseph's tomb in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey. The King is reported as granting permission and issuing a writ on June 10th for Blome to search for Joseph’s body at Glastonbury provided he obtained the permission of the abbot and monks and caused no damage to the abbey.

In 1367 a report appeared in an East Anglian chronicle by a Lincolnshire monk named R. de Boston claiming that “The bodies of Joseph of Arimathaea and his companions were found in Glastonbury.” However, the abbey records make no mention of this search by Blome or indeed of such a significant find and we are forced to conclude that Boston's statement was incorrect.

Since 1247, when William of Malmesbury's history of Glastonbury Abbey was amended by a later copyist, about a hundred years after the original, to include the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury, the abbey seemed reluctant to promote their foundation by the man who buried Jesus. Perhaps Joseph was not necessary as a pilgrim attraction after the discovery of the grave of King Arthur and Guinevere there in 1191. The amendment to William's work appeared to be in direct response to the Grail stories of the late 12th - early 13th centuries, which, following Robert de Boron, claimed Joseph brought the Holy Grail to England.

A few years later in 1382, John Chinnock (abbot 1375-1420) restored a small chapel in the cemetery, rededicating it to St Michael and St Joseph of Arimathea. Its decoration included a life-size triptych featuring Joseph’s role in the deposition. It would appear the Cult of St Joseph at Glastonbury had begun.

However, it was not until the abbacy of Richard Bere (1494 - 1525) that Glastonbury began to seriously exploit St Joseph at Glastonbury.

Division in the West 
Glastonbury always seemed reluctant to accept the responsibility of owning Joseph's grave; they accepted that he was buried in the Abbey grounds but no one really seem to know where.

Lagorio (1971) asserts that the slow emergence of the Joseph of Arimathea tradition at Glastonbury can be attributed to the lack of crisis at the Abbey from the mid-13th century until the Dissolution in 1539. This period was a golden age of prosperity for the Abbey which had little need to further embellish its Arthurian tradition with that of St Joseph.

However, pressure to find Joseph's grave increased in the 15th century following several ecclesiastical councils attended by the Abbots of Glastonbury who were now using their foundation legend with Joseph of Arimathea in their claims for Apostolic authority.

The medieval church entered a forty-year crisis of authority, known as the Western Schism, or Papal Schism, when two popes, and later three, competed for supremacy from the period from 1378 to 1417.

The Schism started when Pope Gregory XI left Avignon to return to Italy and re-established the pontifical see in the Eternal City, where he died on 27 March, 1378, returning the papal residence to Rome following almost 70 years in Avignon. Shortly after Gregory's death the Roman populace were demanding “a Roman, or at least an Italian”, and elected the archbishop of Bari as pope Urban VI. The council of Pisa in 1409 added another claimant to the papal throne with the election of a third pope, Alexander V. The matter was finally resolved during a series of councils in the early 15th century, attended by the abbots of Glastonbury, now seen as chief among the churchmen of England.

In March 1417 at the council of Constance in which Abbot John Chinnock was head of the English delegation, the Frenchman Jean Campan produced a document attacking the nationhood of the English. On 31 March the English response called on the Glastonbury Legend:

“The greater antiquity of faith was proved by the fact that Joseph of Arimathea himself had come to England with 12 companions; and he converted the people to the Christian faith. The King of England gave him the diocese of Bath and the twelve hides of land, and the saint was buried at Glastonbury.”

Alphonso presented the Spanish claim of Apostolic foundation arguing that St James had preached throughout Spain and was a significantly greater authority than Glastonbury's claims as The man from Arimathea had only preached in the south-west of England. The English counter-argument was that St James was beheaded in the Holy Land by Herod and the only evidence for his evangelising in Spain was to be found in the Golden Legend.

To verify their claims to Apostolic authority from Joseph of Arimathea, the secret disciple of Christ, the onus was now on Glastonbury to produce evidence of his burial in the Abbey grounds and produce relics, as they had done previously with King Arthur in the 12th century.

Yet Another Search
Further searches for Joseph’s remains were seemingly made in the cemetery and in the Lady Chapel in 1419. The details are found in a letter of Abbot Frome of spring 1421 which was in response to an enquiry from Henry V who was aware of the excavation carried out in 1419. Frome informs the King that three coffins were discovered in the southern sector of the cemetery at a similar depth to Arthur's grave in 1191 (consistent with the raising of the level of the cemetery by Dunstan in the 10th century); two contained individual remains, but the third contained the full relics of twelve skeletons.

Another coffin was discovered which held the remains of a single individual “adorned most excellently beyond the others, with linen cloth inside all over” and which “excelled all others in delicacy of scent” under the southern corner of the altar in the chapel. As Carley (1994) notes, the ‘linen cloth’ seems to be taken from 'linea bifurcatea' in Melkin's Prophecy, which some understood as a reference to a linen burial shroud, rather than a ‘forked line’ in the cemetery. But surprisingly, there was no mention of Melkin's two cruets containing the blood and sweat of Jesus.

Carley (1994) suggests that this apparent discovery of Joseph and his companions, although Abbot Frome never said as much in his letter, was in preparation for a political propaganda exercise in which the discovery would be announced, perhaps by the King himself, to enhance the English Church’s Apostolic authority founded at Glastonbury, but was aborted because of Henry V’s death in 1422 and there was no major announcement of the discovery of Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.

The alleged search in 1419 was just part of a process that had started in earnest during the abbacy of John Chinnock (1375-1420) promoting the Cult of St Joseph who then become a major object of pilgrimage at Glastonbury; soon after the Abbey was venerating Joseph's relics.

By 1424 the English delegation at the Council of Sienna maintained that the body of Joseph had indeed been found and a leaden plaque identified it as such. However, by the time of the Council of Basel in 1434 the English were no longer claiming that his relics had been found and the Glastonbury delegation fell back on their former position relying on the written word of John of Glastonbury.

Chinnock also responsible for introducing the Glastonbury Tablets (Magna Tabula Glastoniensis), a large hollow wooden box with two hinged wooden leaves inside and located in a prominent position in the chapel, readily accessible to pilgrims. Pasted on these leaves was the history of the abbey, drawing heavily from the amended version of William of Malmesbury's early history of the Abbey and John of Glastonbury's Chronicle. The text begins with the mission of Joseph of Arimathea to Glastonbury in 63 AD, and includes excerpts from the Prophecy of Melkin, St Patrick's Charter, the translation of St Dunstan and the discovery of King Arthur's grave.

The Magna Tabula contains two small pieces not found in any other Glastonbury documents. One of these pieces, in the form of a short chapter, claims there was an ancient and ruinous chapel in the cemetery where numerous, unidentified relics, had been stored under the altar. Chinnock rebuilt this chapel in 1382 (as noted above) and rededicated to St Michael and the saints resting in the cemetery and chapel, the chief among these saints was Joseph of Arimathea, which thus made Glastonbury's cemetery the holiest earth in the land. The Magna Tabula asserts that St Joseph's remains had been buried in the cemetery but the exact place of his burial was unknown.

The penultimate abbot of Glastonbury Richard Bere (1494-1524) developed the cult further, devising the Glastonbury coat of arms, influenced by Melkin's Prophecy, featuring a cross formed by two tree trunks shorn of their branches (St Joseph's staff which became the Glastonbury Thorn), with two cruets in the lower corners and drops of blood (or is it heavenly dew) falling across the shield. Several stone representations of this device are known in Glastonbury, three on buildings erected by Abbot Bere.

The numbers of pilgrims had now grown so great that around 1500 Abbot Bere constructed a crypt, known as St. Joseph's Chapel, beneath the Lady Chapel, destroying any archaeological evidence of the vetusta ecclesia, where a stone image of the Saint was set up for veneration by pilgrims. Originally the crypt was reached by a staircase that passed the ancient well of Joseph.

The Tomb of 'JA'
Many years after Glastonbury Abbey was wrecked during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 a stone tomb said to be that of Joseph of Arimathea was reportedly seen in the crypt by John Ray in 1661. This stone tomb was apparently the same tomb that was placed in the original, smaller Joseph's Chapel before the crypt was made around 1500.

Inside this stone tomb was a step for a silver casket which it is claimed at one time contained the relics of Joseph of Arimathea. Fearing destruction by puritans during the Reformation, a year later, in 1662, the sarcophagus was relocated into the churchyard of St John's in Glastonbury High Street.

After some 250 years in the churchyard the sarcophagus, said to be the same that Ray saw in in 1661, was moved inside St John's church in the 1920's by the Reverend Lonel Smithett Lewis (late Vicar of Glastonbury) who was convinced the 'JA' initials, complete with caduceus, on the side of the sarcophagus stood for 'Joseph of Arimathea'. The tomb has been worn smooth on the top edges, perhaps by the weather, perhaps by the hands of many visiting pilgrims.

Today, the stone tomb, alternatively known as the 'John Allen' tomb, remains in St John's church Glastonbury, placed under stained glass windows depicting the story of Joseph's arrival in England, formerly known as St Katherine's Chapel in the north transept. On top of the tomb is a case containing the cope of the last Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting.

The JA tomb in St John's church, Glastonbury

If Joseph's relics had been recovered from the so-called 'JA' tomb many years ago by the faithful there is certainly no record of their whereabouts today and the silver casket, if it indeed it ever existed, has never been found.

A Green Hill Far Away?
William Malmesbury described Glastonbury as a house of 'saintly relics', but rather tellingly, Joseph's remains do not appear in any of the Glastonbury Abbey relic lists. We must remember that Joseph’s presence in England is by no means historical, however, it follows that if there are no known remains of St Joseph at Glastonbury, it does not necessarily disprove the legend: are we looking in the right place; do his bones lie somewhere else entirely?

A Jesuit exiled in Italy after the Dissolution, but born at Glastonbury in 1527 and serving as an altar boy at St Joseph's chapel at the Abbey, William Good recalls that although Joseph was buried in Somerset no one was exactly sure where; “the monks never knew for certain the place of the saint's burial, or pointed it out; they said the body was hidden most carefully either at Glastonbury or on a hill near Montacute, called Hamden Hill”.

The autobiography of another Jesuit, William Weston, who worked as a missionary in England from 1584 to his arrest in 1586, included a meeting with a man who also served at the Abbey before the Dissolution. Before the Royal Commissioners of Henry VIII arrived at Glastonbury and claimed all relics the man was able to save a richly decorated cross and a nail said to have come from the Crucifixion and brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea. The nail eventually came into the possession of the Bishop of Salisbury, but the man had kept the reliquary that contained it. Even after the Dissolution, he continued to journey to a high hill associated with Joseph as an act of pilgrimage.

In his home this man kept a lamp burning that faced this hill. However, this hill was was not Hamden Hill as William Good had stated, but Montacute Hill (Latin - Mons Acutus), fourteen miles south of Glastonbury, where the ruins of the medieval chapel of St Michael lay. In time the story became slightly confused and the nail of the Crucifixion was apparently found at the chapel and a tradition grew that Joseph of Arimathea was buried there. 



Copyright © 2017 Edward Watson
http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk



Sources:
J A Robinson, Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and St. Joseph of Arimathea. Cambridge University Press, 1926.
R F Treharne, The Glastonbury Legends, The Cresset Press, 1967.

William John Lyons, Joseph of Arimathea: A study in reception history. Oxford University Press, 2014.
James P Carley, Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous, Gothic Image, 1996.

James P Carley, A Grave Event: Henry V, Glastonbury Abbey, and Joseph of Arimathea's Bones, 1994, in Glastonbury and the Arthurian Tradition, edited by James P. Carley, 2001.
James P Carley, The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey: An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury's “Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesiae”. Translated by David Townsend. Boydell Press, 1985.
Valerie M Lagorio, The Evolving Legend of St Joseph of Glastonbury, in Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition, 1971, edited by James P. Carley, 2001
Emma Jung, ‎Marie-Luise von Franz, The Grail Legend, 1998
Richard Hayman, Holy Grail and Holy Thorn, Fonthill Media, 2014.


(Edited 10/04/17 - minor revision)

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Earliest known monastic life in UK uncovered at Beckery Chapel

The remains of seven individuals unearthed at Beckery Chapel, near Glastonbury in Somerset, during excavations in May by the South West Heritage Trust have been dated to the 5th or early 6th Century AD. Director of excavations Dr Richard Brunning hailed the discovery as the earliest archaeological evidence for monasticism in the UK, predating Iona Abbey in Scotland, founded in the late 6th Century, and nearby Glastonbury Abbey, which dates from the 7th Century.

Dr Brunning envisaged a small community of monks at Beckery, more like a large hermitage living  in a few basic buildings constructed of wattle and daub, nothing grand made of stone. The earliest monks died between 425 to 579 AD with burials continuing at Beckery until the early 9th Century AD. Further tests are planned to establish if the people buried in the cemetery were local or from distant areas.

Beckery Excavations May 2016 (South West Heritage Trust)

Excavations have revealed that a small Chapel or Oratory existed at Beckery on the western side of Glastonbury. It was first dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, but later known by the name of St. Brigid. Said to be in ruins by the late 18th century, today there is no visible indication of the site of this chapel above ground. St Bridget's chapel was situated on the highest part of Beckery Hill, or “island” in a field called Chamberlains Hill.

In the 12th century William of Malmesbury (De Antiquitate) and John of Glastonbury (Cronica), 14th century, claim that St Brigid visited Glastonbury in 488 AD. Significantly, this date is very close to the traditional date of the saint's founding of the Kildare Monastery in 490 AD. The interpolated edition of William's De Antiquitate states that St Brigid stayed at Beckery.  When she returned to Ireland she left behind some relics, her bell, wallet and weaving instruments that were apparently kept at the chapel. However, the earliest Lives of St. Brigid make no mention of her coming to Glastonbury.

The site at Beckery has been investigated twice before, once by the local antiquarian John Morland in the 1880’s and then in the late 1960's by Philip Rahtz.

Morland exposed two phases of stone foundations of the chapel and the adjacent priest's house. The foundations were explored in 1887-8 and proved to be those of two chapels, one within the other. Finds of tiles and two silver coins suggest a 13th century date for the outer and later chapel, and although nothing was found to test the age of the inner foundations, the extremely massive walls of this tiny chapel would be comparable with Saxon work. One inhumation burial orientated with head to the west and without a coffin, appeared to predate both chapels. About 20ft to the north-east are the foundations of an apparently later building.

Beckery Excavations May 2016 (South West Heritage Trust)

Beckery Chapel and a small part of the neighbouring priest's house were excavated by Philip Rahtz in 1967-1968, unearthing around 60 skeletons. Some prehistoric flints and pottery, together with a few Roman artefacts were found, but Rahtz identified three main phases of settlement:

The first phase consisted of post-Roman or Anglo-Saxon activity. A possible timber structure, which contained a cist grave, (HB18) could have been either a chapel or merely a tomb-shrine. No definite plan could be defined, but there were three areas where post-holes concentrated. A cemetery was found containing at least 63 skeletons, all male apart from one woman and two children, some graves being cut by a ditch, together with wattle and daub structure, dated tentatively to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. Carbon-dating of HB18 returned a range of between 765 AD - 730 AD.

The second phase Rahtz dated to the Anglo-Saxon period and early medieval to 13th century when the first stone chapel was constructed. This chapel continued in use until the 13th century. A wall parallel to the south wall of the nave may be connected with the dedication of a “penitent's crawl” into the chapel. John of Glastonbury wrote of a hole in the south wall of the chapel through which people would crawl for forgiveness of their sins.

The final phase in which activity spanned from the late 13th century to the 15th century. The chapel was rebuilt of blue lias with mortared course masonry with deep foundations, enclosing the earlier chapel almost completely.

Rahtz concluded that Beckery was a minor monastic site, possibly with a holy shrine, in existence from Anglo-Saxon times until the Dissolution. He found no evidence that there was any activity on the site in the 5th or 6th centuries, when according to legend, the site was visited by St Brigid who reputedly left some of her relics there, which subsequently became a place of pilgrimage. Hence, the Irish name for Beckery (Bec-Eriu) means ‘Little Ireland’.

The effect of this new discovery by South West Heritage Trust on the Glastonbury Legend, which claims that Joseph of Arimathea founded the first Christian church in England, is yet to be realised. Tradition claims Joseph founded a Christian community at the site of Glastonbury Abbey. However, no archaeological evidence of a 1st century early Christian community has ever been found at the site.

This new dating evidence places the first Christian community at Beckery firmly in the days of the legendary King Arthur who Medieval Glastonbury sources claim witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus at the chapel. And isotope studies will reveal these first monks came from Ireland. It seems a re-write is due.



Beckery Chapel near Glastonbury 'earliest known UK monastic life' - BBC Somerset 5 December 2016


Edited 06/12/16

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Footsteps of King Arthur Conference

Chaired by Professor Roberta Gilchrist 

(University of Reading and Glastonbury Abbey Trustee)

Conference Itinerary:
09:30 - 10.30 Registration and coffee
10.30 – 10.35 Welcome
10.35 – 10.45 Introduction
10.45 – 11.15 Professor Elizabeth Archibald (Durham University) - ‘King Arthur through Modern Eyes’
11.15 – 11.45 Dr Cheryl Green (University of Reading) - ‘Antiquarian Excavations and the legacy of Arthur’
11.45 – 12.30 Break
12.30 – 1.00 Johnny McFadyen (PhD Student, University of Bristol) - ‘Arthur in the Medieval West'
1.00 – 1.30 An audience with Geoffrey Ashe M.B.E. - Question and answer session
1.30 – 2.30 Buffet Lunch
2.30 – 3.00 Professor Ad Putter (University of Bristol) - ‘Medieval Arthurian literature on British soil.’
3.00 – 3.30 Rhianedd Smith (University of Reading) - “We don’t want Disney'
3.30 – 4.00 Break
4.00 – 4.30 Professor Ronald Hutton (University of Bristol) - ‘The Historical Arthur’
4.30 – 5.00 Discussion & Questions to the panel from delegates
5.00 – 5.15 Summary
5.15 – 5.30 Closing

Speakers:

Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English at Durham University and Principal of St Cuthbert's Society. Her interest in Arthur began when she was an undergraduate at Cambridge.
Her publications include 'A Companion to Malory' (1996), 'Incest and the Medieval Imagination' (2001), and 'The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend' (2009).
Elizabeth is the President of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society.

Cheryl Green was Research Assistant for the project led by Professor Roberta Gilchrist, University of Reading, assessing the archives from the 1908 – 1979 excavations at Glastonbury Abbey. This informed a major four-year research project culminating in a Monograph (forthcoming Gilchrist and Green 2014) publishing exciting new evidence resulting from the re-analysis of the historic excavations, extensive new geophysical survey and specialist assessments of the finds assemblages.

Johnny Macfayden is just finishing his PhD on Latin Arthurian literature at the University of Bristol. His research interests are primarily to do with the socio-politcal and ideological utility of the Arthurian Legend, Medieval Romance and Latin Arthurian Historiography.

Geoffrey Ashe is the author of 26 books and needs no introduction to Arthurian scholars.
Geoffrey has a special interest in Glastonbury which is reflected in King Arthur's Avalon (1957) and its fiftieth anniversary edition. He was co-founder and secretary of the Camelot Research Committee which, under the presidency of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, conducted the excavation of the South Cadbury hill-fort.

Ad Putter is the General Editor of Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, and has published widely in the area of medieval literature. His books include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance (1995), An Introduction to the Gawain Poet (1996), and Studies in the Metre of Alliterative Verse (2007).

Rhianedd Smith has recently completed an AHRC funded doctoral research project examining the interpretation of Glastonbury Abbey's legends and archaeology.

Ronald Hutton has published fourteen books on different aspects of history and prehistory, mostly with reference to Britain, including Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (2011) and Witches, Druids and King Arthur (1993).


Tickets cost £20 adults and £18 concessions, to include a buffet lunch and are on sale from the Abbey Shop or via the online shop

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Glastonbury and the Grail

Next month sees the publication of a new book on Glastonbury and the Grail, Justin E. Griffin's third book in his investigations of the Grail legend:

Glastonbury and the Grail
Did Joseph of Arimathea Bring the Sacred Relic to Britain?
Justin E Griffin
ISBN: 978-0-7864-6582-8
Paperback, photos, bibliography, index
McFarland, due publication1st September 2012

From the publisher: “Glastonbury, a small town in Somerset, England, stands at the epicentre of a longstanding tradition placing the Holy Grail in Britain. Legend holds that Joseph of Arimathea travelled to Britain, bringing with him both a gathering of followers and the cup that Jesus used at the last supper. He is said to have buried the Grail at Glastonbury, where some claim he founded the first church in England. This volume chronicles one man’s personal quest to find historical evidence supporting the traditional beliefs surrounding Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail in southern England. Bolstered by an abundance of evidence supporting the presence of Joseph in 1st Century Britain, he separates his findings from the fantasy of the Grail Romances, answering questions about the Grail and the origins and progressions of its legend.”

Griffin's first two books, The Holy Grail (McFarland 2001) and The Grail Procession (McFarland, 2004) received mixed reviews, with Griffin, who professes to quest for the 'Historical Grail', accused of stretching possibility and conjecture, representing it as fact. Griffin appears to accept that all written sources provide historically factual evidence, and ultimately he combines the grail texts with the history of the Pelagian heresy in Britain which he argues is a factual retelling of the legend of the Fisher King, claiming it is the actual life of Pelagius on whom King Pelles of the Grail Legend is based.

In his first book, The Holy Grail: the Legend, the History, the Evidence, Griffin examines the legitimacy of the claims of several modern day claimants with chapters on The Spear of Destiny, The Historical Grail Candidates, The Santo Caliz of Valencia, The Nanteos cup,  and comes up with a theory of multiple grails.

In Griffin's second book, The Grail Procession: The Legend, the Artifacts, and the Possible Sources of the Story, in addition to the sacred artefacts tied to the Passion of Christ, the Holy Grail, the Holy Lance, that pierced Christ’s side, the sword that was used to behead John the Baptist, and the dish from the Last Supper, he examines the forgotten relics of the Grail Procession using material omitted from his first book. Griffin comes to the conclusion that the Grail Hallows did exist as archaeological relics and the legends surrounding the Grail Hallows are reputed to uphold the theory that the blood of Christ was taken west by Joseph of Arimathea following the crucifixion.

Now, in his third outing, Glastonbury and the Grail: Did Joseph of Arimathea Bring the Sacred Relic to Britain? Griffin follows the trail of Joseph of Arimathea to Britain, Griffin inevitably arrives at the Mysteries of Glastonbury, the enigmatic Somerset town, site of the Abbey and King Arthur's grave. There was certainly a cult of St Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury, instigated by Abbot Chinnock, in the late fourteenth century. But it wasn't until Abbot Bere constructed the crypt, known as St. Joseph's Chapel, beneath the Lady Chapel, c.1500 AD, that the cult became a major attraction.

Traditionally, the twelve Hides of Land of the Church of Glastonbury, descend from an original grant given to Joseph of Arimathaea, by King Arviragus (10 -74 AD). The Glastonbury tradition claims that, after arriving in Britain in 63 AD, Joseph pushed his staff into the ground on Wearyall Hill and this grew into the Glastonbury Thorn, flowering every Christmas.

Hopefully Griffin will delve into the Prophecy of Melkin the bard which appears for the first time in John of Glastonbury's fourteenth century "Chronicle". According to the prophecy, Joseph of Armimathea established the first Christian church at Glastonbury and carried with him 2 cruets of Christ's blood and sweat which are buried with him at Glastonbury, “linea bifurcata”; yet the jury is still out as to whether this is a reference to a linen shirt or a forked line.

The early thirteenth century Perlesvaus, or The High History of the Holy Grail, puts the Grail firmly at Glastonbury. Katherine Maltwood, commissioned to illustrate Perlesvaus,  became convinced that the adventures of the knights of the Round Table corresponded to places in the Vale of Avalon. A fragment of the Perlesvaus manuscript found at Wells cathedral lends support to the claims that it was written at Glastonbury Abbey.

But the Glastonbury tradition of Joseph of Arimathea really starts when Robert de Boron, wrote his "Joseph d'Arimathie", in the late twelfth century, thus Christianising Chretien's pagan "graal" and transforming it into the vessel of the Last Supper, a theme continued in the Vulgate's "Estoire del Saint Graal,” that produced "The Holy Grail" for the first time.

 Robert is the first author to give the Holy Grail myth an explicitly Christian dimension. According to him, Joseph of Arimathea used the vessel of the Last Supper vessel to catch the blood from Jesus's body as he hung on the cross. Joseph is imprisoned by angry Jews and sustained for forty years solely by the Grail.  Following his release he leaves for foreign lands in the west, presumed to be Britain, with a party of Christians. Eventually the party arrive at vaus d'Avaron, the valleys of Avaron (Avalon?) although Joseph is not recorded as travelling on this last part of the journey, where the Grail is entrusted to a succession of keepers. And a legend was born.

However, we must bear in mind that the Grail texts cannot be considered historical accounts. For this we are limited to the letter of  St. Augustine (d. 604 AD) to Pope Gregory which states that there was a church in the west of Britain that was divinely constructed for the salvation of His people. This has been interpreted as evidence that Christ himself built the first church at Glastonbury, inevitably accompanied by his uncle Joseph of Arimathea.  Added to which we have the statement from Gildas that Britain “received the beams of light, that is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true Sun” during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, (Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD). It should be interesting reading.

This is the book of thy descent, here begins the book of the Holy Grail,
here begin the terrors, here begin the marvels.

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