THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY
Prefixed to "The Short Life," etc., of the Blessed Wilfrid, in the British Museum,[1] is the letter of Archbishop Odo concerning the translation of the relics to within the ambit of the Metropolitical Church.
St. Wilfrid was well known at Canterbury. His life was written by Eddius Stephanus, the Precentor of the Cathedral Church, before Bede wrote his; and a life was written by Edmer also. This Bishop and Confessor was of Northumbria; he had been educated at Lindisfarne, and had also studied at Canterbury, where he learnt the Roman version of the Psalter, before which time, in the north, he had been accustomed to that of St. Jerome. He had travelled in France and Italy. He was Bishop of York from 669 to 678, and again from 686 to 692, Bishop of Leicester 692 to 705, and of Hexham in 705. He had been consecrated at Compiègne, by Agilbert of Paris, assisted by eleven other bishops[2]; and died April 24, 709, at Oundle in Northamptonshire, and was buried in the Church of St. Peter at Ripon, which, with the monastery, was afterwards destroyed by Edred's army in the wars.
When the Saxon Church at Canterbury was destroyed by fire in 1067, and the old High Altar taken down, the body of St. Wilfrid was found and placed in a coffer (scrinium), but after some years the brethren became of opinion that it ought to have a more permanent resting-place, and accordingly a sepulchre was prepared for it on the north side of an altar in which it was reverently enclosed on the Fourth Ides of October (October 12), above the vault of the north transept.[3] On the completion of the New Choir by Ernulf, the tomb was transferred to the north side of the altar of the Holy Trinity in the rectangular chapel at the extreme east end of St. Anselm's Church; and after the fire of 1174 it was again transferred to the north side of the altar of the Holy Trinity, in the newly built round chapel called the Corona, where the Crown or tonsure of St. Thomas was kept in a silver reliquary. The site of the tomb of St. Wilfrid is still marked by a step beneath the window with sunk quatrefoils on its face within this chapel.
- ↑ Cotton MS. Claudius A.r.
- ↑ Stubbs, Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, 1897.
- ↑ Willis, Arch. Hist. Cant. Cath., p. 16.
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