Durham Cathedral is a Norman-era cathedral located in the city of Durham, England. It was built in 1093 to replace the previous ‘White Church’ and is the seat of the Bishop of Durham, the fourth-ranked bishop in the Church of England hierarchy. The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the Shrine of St Cuthbert, which contains relics such as Saint Cuthbert’s, Saint Oswald’s head and the Venerable Bede’s remains.
The See of Durham originates from the Diocese of Lindisfarne, founded by Saint Aidan at the behest of Oswald of Northumbria in about 635, which was translated to York in 664. The see was reinstated at Lindisfarne in 678 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Among the many saints who originated at Lindisfarne Priory was Saint Cuthbert, 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. The diocese of Lindisfarne remained itinerant until 882 when the monks resettled at Chester-le-Street. They then moved to Durham and the shrine of Saint Cuthbert was established on a peninsula formed by a loop in the River Wear.
Initially, a temporary structure was built from local timber to house the relics of Saint Cuthbert. The shrine was then transferred to a sturdier, probably still wooden, building known as the White Church. This church was itself replaced three years later in 998 by a stone building also known as the White Church, which, in 1018, was complete except for its tower. Durham soon became a site of pilgrimage, encouraged by the growing cult of Saint Cuthbert.
The present cathedral was designed and built under William de St-Calais (also known as William of St. Carilef) who in 1080 was appointed as the first Prince-Bishop by King William the Conqueror. In 1083 he founded the Benedictine Priory of St. Cuthbert at Durham and having ejected the secular canons who had been in charge of the church and shrine of St Cuthbert there, replaced them with monks from the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. The primary reason for the cathedral was to house the bodies of St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede. Construction of the cathedral began in 1093, at the eastern end. The choir was completed by 1096.
At the death of Bishop William of St. Calais on 2 January 1096, the Chapter House was ready enough to be used as his burial place. 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 (partially demolished in the 18th century).
William of St. Carilef died in 1096 before the building was complete and passed responsibility to his successor, Ranulf Flambard, who also built Framwellgate Bridge, the earliest crossing of the River Wear from the town. Three bishops, William of St. Carilef, Ranulf Flambard and Hugh de Puiset, are all buried in the now rebuilt chapter house. In the 1170s Hugh de Puiset added the Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral. The five-aisled building occupied the position of a porch and functioned as a Lady chapel with the great west door being blocked during the Medieval period by an altar to the Virgin Mary.
In 1228 Richard le Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, was translated to Durham, having just rebuilt Salisbury Cathedral in the Gothic style. At that moment the eastern end of Durham Cathedral was in urgent need of repair and the proposed eastern extension had failed. Le Poore employed the architect Richard Farnham to design an eastern terminal for the building in which many monks could say the Daily Office simultaneously. The resulting building was the Chapel of the Nine Altars.
The location of the inner wall of the apse is marked on the pavement and Saint Cuthbert’s tomb is covered by a simple slab. The Shrine of Saint Cuthbert was estimated to be one of the most sumptuous in all England, so great were the offerings and jewels bestowed upon it, and endless the miracles that were performed.
Today, the cathedral holds daily Church of England services with the Durham Cathedral Choir singing daily except Mondays and holidays. The cathedral received 727,367 visitors in 2019. The Durham Dean and Chapter Library contains sets of early printed books, some of the most complete in England, as well as the pre-Dissolution monastic accounts and three copies of Magna Carta.
Posted by millicand@rocketmail.com on 2022-10-09 23:17:37