York Minster

The Paulinus Way is a 65-mile walk from Todmorden to York Minster, while the Whitby Way runs over 66 miles from here to Whitby Abbey.

Highlights

• Coronation site of Constantine the Great
• Shrine of St. William of York

The world’s first Christian emperor was crowned where York Minster stands. It seems an unlikely place for such an epoch-changing event to take place, especially as Constantine the Great is so closely linked to Constantinople/Istanbul in Turkey. At the time, York was a small outpost in the far north of the Roman Empire. Constantine happened to be here when his father, Emperor Constantius, died in July 306.

The coronation of Constantine changed almost every aspect of Christianity. In a whirlwind few decades, it was transformed from a persecuted and underground movement into the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Ruins from the Roman palace can still be seen in the cathedral crypt, including sections of wall painting and several columns. There is also a Roman-era bust of the emperor himself and some interesting artefacts, including a tile scratched with a Chi-Rho Christian monogram. A modern statue of the saint, his hand resting imperiously on a sword, can be seen outside the cathedral, near the south transept steps.

There is also a medieval saint’s shrine in the crypt, containing the relics of St. William of York, the city’s archbishop who died in 1154. St. William is venerated by Catholics and Anglicans. Constantine is considered a saint by the Orthodox church. By lucky coincidence, therefore, York Minster is holy for everyone who respects saints.

The shrine of St. William is rather hidden away compared with other English cathedrals. When I first visited as a pilgrim, the stone sarcophagus stood in the middle of a thoroughfare, with a constant flow of sightseers walking past, many presumably unaware that it contained the relics of a saint, one of few to survive intact from the Middle Ages. A group of what appeared to be French pilgrims, led by a priest, walked past the shrine without glancing at it. The shrine has since been moved, and a large candle stand provided alongside. A mosaic image of the saint dressed as a bishop has also been installed in recent years, two creative touches which help to bring the saint’s presence closer for a modern-day pilgrim interested in shrines.

It is strange that England’s second most important cathedral has one of the least celebrated shrines in the country. The saint’s coffin was rediscovered during excavations and moved to its current site in the 1960s. The sarcophagus itself is a recycled Roman tomb. St. William never achieved the fame of other great bishop saints, but his tomb was greatly venerated at York, a famous site of miracles. Stone fragments of two of his medieval shrine structures had been put on display in the Yorkshire Museum in the city when I visited.

St. William was elected Archbishop of York in 1141 but faced intense opposition from the monks of Fountains Abbey, who had been excluded from the electoral process. They persuaded the Pope to remove St. William from office in 1147 and successfully lobbied for their abbot, Henry Murdac, to be given the title instead. St. William went to live in Winchester, but in a surprising twist of fate, was re-elected Archbishop of York in 1153 after Murdac died. He served for just one month before dying suddenly, perhaps poisoned by scheming rivals. His saint’s day is 8 June.

Constantine the Great

Constantine was not a Christian when proclaimed emperor, so far as we know, but he was sympathetic from the outset. One of his first acts was to end the execution of Christians in England, France, and Spain, the territories under his control. Centuries of persecution – which began under Nero with the deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, and culminated in Diocletian’s infamous bloodletting regime – were finally over.

Following Constantine’s coronation, some of the most important events in Christian history quickly began to unfold. The church became legal throughout the Roman Empire in the year 313 under the Edict of Milan. The Council of Nicea set out the fundamentals of all Christian doctrine in 325, most famously in the Nicene Creed, which is still recited by all the main churches. The True Cross was discovered in Jerusalem by Constantine’s mother, St. Helena. Even the Roman army, which had organized the death of Jesus just three centuries earlier, began to fight under the banner of Christ.

Constantine attributed a famous military victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 to Christ’s intervention, after seeing a cross in the sky and hearing the words “By this sign, conquer.” He pronounced himself a Christian soon after, though some think he might have been one secretly beforehand, perhaps converted by his mother, St. Helena.

Although St. Helena is considered a saint by all major churches, Constantine himself is a more complicated figure when it comes to Christian witness. He was sincere in his conversion but retained much imperial baggage when it came to exercising power, such as executing his own wife and son in 326 for reasons that are unclear. He later founded the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire that also became the capital of Orthodox Christianity. Though he legalized Christianity, it only later became the empire’s official religion, under Emperor Theodosius I in 380.

The Orthodox church celebrates St. Helena and St. Constantine in a joint festival on 21 May. Catholics celebrate St. Helena on 18 August, while the Anglican church celebrates her, but not Constantine, on the Orthodox date.

The Minster Building

While both the saints of York are best remembered in the crypt, it would be hard to ignore York Minster itself. In many ways, this is the most perfect of all English cathedrals. It took an astonishing 250 years to build and was finally consecrated in 1472. There is a window dedicated to St. William in the middle of the north choir aisle, showing scenes from his life. It was created in the 15th century and recently restored.

Even more overwhelming is the great east window, now gloriously restored after a 10-year operation. It is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world, showing scenes from Genesis and Revelations – the beginning and end of the world. The church guide calls it “the Sistine Chapel of stained glass.” I used to live a short walk from this cathedral and visited enough times to agree.

The Rose Window in the south transept was installed around 1500 to celebrate the union of the royal houses of York and Lancaster, symbolized by white and red roses, respectively. There is a plaque to William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner, on the south wall of the nave by the shop entrance. He was a Yorkshireman, a devout Christian who was largely responsible for the abolition of slavery in Britain in 1807.

Other famous Christians worshipped on this site, which had a church from the early Saxon period onwards. St. Edwin, King of Northumbria, was baptized here in 627 along with the 13-year-old St. Hilda of Whitby, his grandniece. Edwin’s head was later venerated in the cathedral as a relic. St. Oswald built the first stone church in 637, and St. Wilfrid enlarged it on becoming bishop of York in 670. The title ‘minster’ means an Anglo-Saxon cathedral or missionary centre, used in honour of the cathedral’s illustrious history.

York Minster, Chapter House Street, York YO1 7JH

www.yorkminster.org

W3W: tanks.clues.hired GPS: 53.9619N 1.0821W

Directions:

The minster is open to visitors Mon–Sat 9am–4:30pm, Sun 12:30pm–3:30pm. A joint ticket to the cathedral, treasury, and crypt costs £11.50 for adults, £10.50 for concessions, children free. The Yorkshire Museum is on Museum Street, York YO1 7FR; website: www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk.