Romsey Abbey Church of St Mary and St Ethelflaeda, Romsey

Romsey Abbey Church with two of the best Saxon sculptures in existence

Romsey cultural treasures sit as an optional, but highly recommended, detour on the 38-mile pilgrimage route between Salisbury and Winchester cathedrals

Highlights

• Two Saxon rood carvings
• Saintly abbesses
• Possible hair relic

Romsey Abbey seems almost dreamlike. It has two of the best Saxon sculptures in existence, one of them a life-size statue of Christ that hangs in the memory long after visiting. It is on the outside wall under a canopy roof, battered by the centuries but full of energy: this is Christ alive on the cross, arms spread in victory as much as sacrifice.

And the abbey’s patron saint is the equally memorable St Ethelfleda, an early abbess celebrated for bathing naked in the River Test to say her prayers. The river still runs nearby, now divided into a series of mill races. St Ethelfleda’s Saxon abbey was replaced by a Norman building, a cavernous structure in the centre of Romsey, saved at the Reformation when the citizens clubbed together to buy it for £100.

The Saxon artwork alone is of incomparable beauty, a depiction of the ‘rood’ or cross that now sits outside the building. It apparently survived the reformers, and the rather slower damaging effects of the weather, by being reused as building material for a wall.It is protected from rain by a canopy roof.

The figure is near life-size, wearing a simple loincloth that seems to bear traces of ancient pigment. The hand of God emerges from a cloud above Christ’s head. Enough remains intact to indicate how it originally looked in its original glory. It probably stood above the chancel arch, as at the nearby churches of Headbourne Worthy and Breamore.

Some crucifixes, such as this one, gain more power from being battered. Perhaps it underlines the function of the cross, a lighting rod for human failings.Romsey’s second Crucifixion panel is even better preserved, but much smaller. It stands behind the altar in the far right-hand (or south- east) corner of the church, St Anne’s Chapel. It will look familiar to anyone used to Orthodox depictions of the Crucifixion.

On either side of the cross are St Longinus, the centurion with the spear who converted on witnessing Christ’s death, and another soldier offering him a sponge of vinegar. The Blessed Virgin and St John the Evangelist appear above the Romans, and two angels hover by the arms of the cross. It was once painted, and now the background is helpfully coated with gold paint making it easier to discern the figures.

Next to this chapel is a place to remember Romsey’s other Saxon marvel, a side chapel dedicated to St Ethelfleda, the bathing nun. As recorded in her medieval life story, one winter night the queen, who was staying at the abbey, followed St Ethelfleda to the river out of curiosity to witness her devotions – and ended up catching a cold simply from standing on the bank. The saint cured her with a touch.

There is an elaborate tombstone on the floor to the left of the altar, clearly marking an important grave. It has an ornate cross along its length and a crozier on one side, indicating an abbess. A hand reaches up along the side of the slab to clutch the crook, as if unable to relinquish pastoral duties even in death.

Could it be St Ethelfleda? Nothing in the chapel mentions her grave, and the stone is clearly a later carving, whether or not it was made for her shrine. But this part of the church is actually a blocked passageway that once led to a chapel containing the abbess’s relics. It would have been easy to shift the tombstone back into the main building when the side chapel was demolished in the 16th century.

There is a second abbess’s grave slab at the back of the nave dating from Saxon times – another possible candidate for the saint’s tomb. It too depicts a hand clutching a crozier.

The parish is rightly proud of such a strong female church leader and holds an annual festival in October, with a talk by a leading female theologian. It has also begun to embrace the nun’s more unconventional role as something of a patron saint for skinny dippers, thanks to her nightly nude bathing regime. She certainly adds another dimension to the usual perception of Christians, let alone nuns, and her miraculous life has inspired a number of modern artworks. In any case, St Ethelfleda’s nakedness makes best sense when viewed as a spiritual as well as physical sign of holiness. She wasn’t just naked to pray in private: humanity itself was laid bare by her pure soul.

One miracle story ascribed to the saint stands out. One day, while still a nun at the abbey, the walls of the building suddenly became as clear as glass. She saw the abbess cutting some switches by the riverbank with which to lash her disciples. St Ethelfleda met the abbess when she returned, and tearfully begged her not to chastise the nuns. The astonished abbess asked how she knew, and St Ethelfleda explained she could even see underneath the abbess’s clothes to the hidden switches.

Such saintliness was contagious. The abbess in question was St Merwenna, who refounded the abbey in 967. She became close to her younger counterpart and the two were buried alongside each other, Romsey Abbey’s first and second abbesses. Their relics were translated together on 29 October, a joint festival date. St Ethelfleda’s own saint’s day is 23 October. The church launched an annual Ethelflaeda Festival in 2009, held in late October.

Her bathing habits did the saint no harm, and she died in old age some time in the early 11th century. It’s a pity William Blake or Michelangelo never helped interpret such a soul for us.

At the back of the abbey one final relic of Saxon spirituality might well link us directly to the saintly nun herself, a plait of hair discovered buried near the likely site of her shrine and scientifically dated to her era. Tantalising to find her or one of the sisters physically present in a building so alive with the spirit of their age.

Directions

Romsey Abbey Church of St Mary and St Ethelflaeda, Church Road, Romsey SO51 8EY

www.romseyabbey.org.uk

W3W: airliners.poets.gears

GPS: 50.9898N 1.5017W

Romsey railway station 700m Directions: Romsey Abbey is in the middle of Romsey town, just off the B3398. It is usually open 8am–6pm, with stewards on duty. The River Test is a short walk to the west, away from the town centre, but not alas fit for devotional bathing today.