Ely Cathedral, St Etheldreda's RC Church, Ely

A one-day pilgrimage to this sumptuous cathedral has been launched, a seven-mile walking route starting at St. George’s Church in Littleport, to the north of Ely

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Highlights

• Cathedral: former shrine of St. Etheldreda and other family saints, grave marker from St. Owin’s shrine
• RC church: St. Etheldreda’s relic hand

Ely’s cathedral will reduce any visitor to awe-struck admiration. The building is one of England’s oldest cathedrals and among its most elegant. Work began as long ago as 1083, and much of the fabric dates from the 12th century. It's very old – but not quite old enough to link directly to its famous Saxon founder, St. Etheldreda. A member of the royalty, she became a nun and built a monastery here in the 7th century, serving as abbess until her death in 679. She was part of a large family of Saxon saints: two of her sisters were also canonized. The relics of all three were venerated here from the 7th century up to the Reformation. 

In 1953, her shrine was reinstated elsewhere in Ely, with a relic of her hand placed in a Catholic church 500m from the cathedral. A black marble stone is now all that marks the site of St. Etheldreda’s tomb in the cathedral. It is in the centre of the presbytery floor – the area between the high altar and the choir. Its inscription reads: “Here stood the shrine of Etheldreda saint and queen who founded this house AD 673”. It usually has candles and flowers around it. There is one small monument remaining from the original Christian community at Ely. A stone pillar marking the grave of St. Owin can be seen in the south aisle of the nave. He died in 670, having served as St. Etheldreda’s priest. The Venerable Bede writes about St. Owin in his History (iv.3). A practical man, he turned up at a monastery carrying an axe, saying that he was determined not to waste time in idle contemplation. “Whenever he found himself unable to meditate usefully on the scriptures, he undertook a large amount of manual labor,” Bede writes. The Latin inscription on his gravestone in the cathedral says: “Give, o God, your light and rest to Owin.” He earned them the hard way.

Other more recent monuments to Ely’s saints include a chapel and a modern statue dedicated to St. Etheldreda, at the far end of the building beneath the east window. There is a place to light candles here. Ely must have had a Saxon church of some sort, but it was obviously demolished when the new monastic cathedral was built in the 11th century, and nothing remains. St. Etheldreda’s shrine was transferred into the replacement building with great honour. 

Ely’s monastery was closed in 1539 during the Dissolution. Fortunately, the building itself was spared and reopened as a separate cathedral two years later without monastic links. The saints were not so lucky, and their shrines were destroyed. 

By an ironic quirk of history, the grave of Bishop Thomas Goodrich can still be seen in the south choir aisle. Ironic, because he was the man who issued the Reformation decree of 1541: “All images, relics, table monuments of miracles, shrines etc be so totally demolished… that no remains or memory of them might be found for the future.” Thanks to him, we have no trace of St. Etheldreda’s shrine, or indeed most other saints in England and Wales. His grave and effigy remain unmolested.

Relic hand of St. Etheldreda

Goodrich’s attempt to stamp out veneration of the saints in Ely has proved unsuccessful. The Catholic church of St. Etheldreda in Ely displays the hand of this great saint in a glass safe in the north nave aisle. It had been removed from the saint’s body sometime in the Middle Ages and kept in a separate reliquary. This relic was discovered in 1810, carefully hidden by a recusant Catholic family in a farmhouse near Arundel in Sussex, a famous centre of Catholic resistance. The hand was returned to Ely in 1953 and has been displayed in the church ever since. A modern statue of St. Etheldreda stands alongside. The church is in Ely town centre, a short walk from the cathedral, and was open to pilgrims when I visited on a weekday. A second surviving fragment of St. Etheldreda’s hand is venerated in St. Etheldreda’s RC Church in London (page 69). 

The life and times of St. Etheldreda

St. Etheldreda led an unusual life to say the least, elements of which sound bizarre to modern ears. She was married twice but kept true to her vow of chastity throughout. Her first husband was happy to go along with it, but in the middle of her second marriage, she decided to become a nun. Exasperated, her husband King Ecgfrith then tried to ‘claim full marital rights’, as most guides put it. In 673, she fled to Coldingham in Scotland to take the veil (page 584) and then back south to Ely, the island in the fens. She took shelter in the ruins of an old church, which became her monastery. It was a double house, with monks and nuns living in separate quarters under her leadership as abbess. After a life of struggle, she found great favour as a saint following her death in 679. Her incorrupt body was translated into a re-used Roman sarcophagus 17 years after she died. Thanks to the growing number of pilgrims seeking her shrine, the monastery’s wealth was rivalled only by Glastonbury in the 10th Century.

St. Etheldreda had a family of saints, including two who are said to be her sisters: St. Sexburga, who succeeded her as abbess, and St. Withburga of East Dereham (page 146). There may be other saintly sisters too, such as St. Wendreda of March (page 125), but historical records are unclear and give conflicting names. Other known family saints include her niece St. Ermengild, third abbess of Ely, who died around 700, and her aunt St. Ebbe who took her in during her trip to Coldingham. She was also the great-aunt of St. Werburg, whose shrine is in Chester Cathedral.

St. Etheldreda died from a tumour on her neck on 23 June, now her saint's day. She convinced herself that the cancer was a punishment from God for having worn necklaces and other finery in her youth. She is the patron saint of those suffering from throat complaints. Her name was rendered colloquially as St. Audrey, which by a further twist of wordplay gives us the word 'tawdry'. On the anniversary of her death, a fair used to be held, at which merchants would attempt to flog pieces of embroidery and needlework. Such tacky souvenirs became indelibly linked to her saint's day, and were referred to as 'tawdry'. She'd probably be gently amused by the way her name came to be associated with cheap tat, given her later abhorrence for dressing up.

Ely's breathtaking cathedral is a more respectful legacy, although it is dedicated to the Trinity rather than its founding saint. Ely's architectural ambitions stretched the technology of its day to breaking point. Its central tower collapsed in 1322 and was replaced with an ingenious 'lantern' tower. This shorter structure has windows on all sides and allows light to flood in and bask the heart of the cathedral with a glow of daylight.

The cathedral's vast lady chapel is also flooded with light from its huge windows. Much defaced at the Reformation, it still contains dozens of fine statues from 1349. Other artworks worth finding include the prior's door in the south wall of the nave. It has a famous stone carving of Christ in Majesty from 1150 on the far side, in the arch above the doorway. It is just along from St. Owin's grave marker.

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Directions

Ely Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, High Street, Ely CB7 4DL

www.elycathedral.org

W3W: televise.woke.observes

GPS: 52.3988N 0.2624E

St. Etheldreda's Catholic Church, 19 Egremont Street, Ely CB6 1AE

W3W: consults.taxi.curious

GPS: 52.4018N 0.2610E

Ely railway station 800m

The Cathedral is on High Street in the city centre. It is open daily in the summer 7am–7pm; in winter 7:30am–6pm Mon–Sat, 7:30am–5pm Sun. The entrance charge is £8 for adults, more if you want to visit the neighbouring stained glass museum or climb the tower; children under 16 in family groups enter for free. To reach the Catholic church, leave the cathedral's main door and turn right, along The Gallery road into town. Keep walking straight ahead, past the Lamb Inn. After 300m, turn left down Egremont Street (the B1411) and the church is on the left after 200m.

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