Durham Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, is a cathedral located in the city of Durham, England. It was built in 1093 to replace the previous ‘White Church’, and is the fourth-ranked bishop in the Church of England hierarchy. The Cathedral was designed and built by William de St-Calais and the monks continued at their own expense to build the monastic buildings while the bishop took responsibility for completing the building of the cathedral. Stone for the new buildings was cut from the cliffs below the walls and moved up using winches.
The See of Durham takes its origins from the Diocese of Lindisfarne, which was founded by Saint Aidan at the behest of Oswald of Northumbria in about 635. Saint Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne from 685 until his death in 687, who is central to the development of Durham Cathedral. After repeated Viking raids, the monks fled from Lindisfarne in 875, carrying Saint Cuthbert’s relics with them. According to the local legend of the Dun Cow and the saint’s hagiography, the monks followed two milk maids who were searching for a dun-coloured cow and found themselves on a peninsula formed by a loop in the River Wear.
Initially, a very simple temporary structure was built from local timber to house the relics of Saint Cuthbert. This church was itself replaced three years later in 998 by a stone building also known as the White Church. Durham soon became a site of pilgrimage, encouraged by the growing cult of Saint Cuthbert. King Canute was one of the early pilgrims, and granted many privileges and estates to the Durham monks. The greater part of the structure remains the original Norman structure.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1093, at the eastern end. The choir was completed by 1096. In 1104 the remains of St. Cuthbert were translated with great ceremony to the new shrine in the new cathedral. The monks continued to look after the Shrine of St Cuthbert until the dissolution of the monasteries. Work proceeded on the nave, the walls of which were finished by 1128, and the high vault by 1135. The chapter house was built between 1133 and 1140.
Bishop William of St. Calais demolished the old Saxon church, and on 11 August 1093, together with Prior Turgot of Durham, laid the foundation stone of the great new cathedral. The monks continued at their own expense to build the monastic buildings while the bishop took responsibility for completing the building of the cathedral.
The Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral was built in the 1170s by Hugh de Puiset. The Chapel of the Nine Altars was built as an eastern extension to the building in 1228 by Richard le Poore, who employed the architect Richard Farnham to design an eastern terminal for the building in which many monks could say the Daily Office simultaneously.
Today, the cathedral and Durham Castle are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Durham Cathedral’s relics include Saint Cuthbert’s, transported to Durham by Lindisfarne monks in the 800s; Saint Oswald’s head and the Venerable Bede’s remains. The Durham Dean and Chapter Library contains early printed books, some of the most complete in England; the pre-Dissolution monastic accounts and three copies of Magna Carta.
Posted by millicand@rocketmail.com on 2022-07-19 14:56:03