Worcester Cathedral, Worcester

One-day and two-day pilgrim routes converge here, starting from Great Malvern, Droitwich Spa, Pershore, and Evesham, and it is also visited by the Three Choirs Way

Highlights

• Former shrines of St Oswald and St Wulfstan

Two of Worcester’s bishops are recognized as saints. They might still be buried secretly in their cathedral – which would help explain its devout and inviting atmosphere. The two are St Oswald of Worcester and St Wulfstan, who served as bishops in the 10th and 11th centuries respectively. St Wulfstan was a very progressive Christian activist, successfully campaigning against the slave trade from Ireland to England.

Their relics were greatly venerated in the middle ages. The cathedral believes these saintly bones were encased in lead and then buried anonymously somewhere near the high altar at the Reformation, a similar tale to St Edward at Shaftesbury. When I visited a steward told me that recent attempts to scan for such a hidden burial had come to nothing. The cathedral had not recreated a shrine to either of the saints at the time of research, but makes up the deficit with a meticulous pilgrim exhibition in the crypt. The exhibition records the two saints’ miracles and organizational achievements in equal measure.

This crypt is directly linked to the second of the two saintly bishops, St Wulfstan, remaining intact from the time he rebuilt Worcester’s cathedral in 1084. This is the oldest fabric surviving in the building, the previous Saxon structures now lost beneath the foundations.

There were several Saxon buildings on the site of the cathedral, the first being a church dating from 680. St Oswald built a second church with monastery alongside in 983. He served as bishop here from 960 until 992, while also rather naughtily holding down the office of Archbishop of York. Such practice was called pluralism, and caused endless arguments in the later middle ages, but St Oswald appeared to pass it off without controversy. He is sometimes called St Oswald of York. Nothing remains from his time at Worcester, although the popularity of his shrine helped attract pilgrims and hence income to the later buildings. He died here on 28 February, now his saint’s day, during Lenten worship. It was his custom to perform a foot-washing ceremony on 12 poor men of the town every day during Lent, and he passed away during the recitation of psalms at the end of this loving act. He was buried in his cathedral, regarded as a saint within 10 years of his death, and translated into a shrine by St Wulfstan in 1086.

St Wulfstan is an intriguing figure. He was a Saxon bishop before the Norman Conquest, and managed to remain in office even though William the Conqueror had a policy of replacing all senior churchmen with French appointments. An early miracle tradition describes how he brazenly challenged the conqueror’s authority. On being told to resign, during a showdown in Westminster Abbey, the bishop refused and stuck his staff in St Edward the Confessor’s tomb. None of the French churchmen could budge it, so the bishop picked it up again and was told he could keep the title. A saintly version of the sword in the stone.

So he provided continuity at a time of great upheaval. He also joined forces with Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury to suppress trade in Irish slaves. St Wulfstan died on 20 February in 1095, though his festival is kept a day earlier, 19 February. He was canonised in 1203 thanks in part to numerous miracles at his shrine.

Were the saints’ relics to be recovered and placed in a shrine, they would not be the only noteworthy tombs. King John himself lies in state under a stone effigy, in front of the high altar. St Oswald’s and St Wulfstan’s shrines used to lie on either side of him. Although these have disappeared if you look closely at the effigy of King John there are miniature effigies of the two saints carved on either side of his head, the king’s royal authority in this instance preserving saintly images. They will have to serve as a sort of shrine in the absence of anything else for now. Compare and contrast with another tomb in the wall to the south of King John, containing the elder brother of King Henry VIII, Arthur Tudor. Its sculptures were defaced – literally, their heads smashed off – during the reign of his nephew King Edward VI.

In the Worcester area

Great Malvern is 6 miles to the south-west of Worcester and connected by a 9-mile pilgrimage route. It has a famous priory church, founded in 1085 after St Wulfstan encouraged a local hermit called Aldwyn to set up a monastery. Its stained glass is sometimes described as among England’s finest, though its charms are perhaps best appreciated by connoisseurs, since the colors are rather faded. The Malvern Hills loom over the town – a wild landscape made famous by the author William Langland, who lived here and wrote Piers Ploughman, an allegorical tale about the search for a true Christian life.

Two miles south of the town lies Holy Well, which is believed to be the first natural spring to be commercially bottled and sold for health giving properties, as recorded in 1622.

Its earlier sacred history is however unknown. The well can be seen in an alcove below the yellow-painted house on Holywell Rd, Malvern WR14 4LH.

Directions

Worcester Cathedral, College Yard, off College Street (A44), Worcester WR1 2LA

www.worcestercathedral.co.uk

W3W: ships.scale.lovely

GPS: 52.1889N 2.2213W F

Foregate Street railway station 600m to cathedral

The cathedral is open daily 7:30am–6pm. Entrance is free at the time of research, donations welcomed. It is on the south side of the city centre, 10 minutes’ walk from Worcester Foregate Street station.

Great Malvern Priory Church of St Mary and St Michael is open to visitors Monday to Saturday 9am–5pm. It is located on Church Street, Great Malvern WR14 2AY, and its website is at: www.greatmalvernpriory.org.uk.