Celebrating all the inspirational women saints associated with the Norfolk Saints Way. In date order:
St. Bathilde (died 658 CE) – An East Anglian Slave who became a queen , the first person to introduce anti-slavery laws. Her seal matrix was found across the River Yare at Postwick.
Mother Julian of Norwich (Died 1416) – Anchorite, Theologian, the first woman to write a book in English.
Discover more about Mother Julian
Edith Cavell – ( Died 1915). Pioneer Nurse Educator
Earpwald, not long after he had embraced the Christian faith, was slain by one Ricbert, a pagan; and from that time the province was in error for three years, till Sigbert succeeded to the kingdom, brother to the same Earpwald, a most Christian and learned man, who was banished, and went to live in Gaul during his brother’s life, and was there initiated into the mysteries of the faith, whereof he made it his business to cause all his province to partake as soon as he came to the throne. His exertions were nobly promoted by Bishop Felix, who, coming to Honorius, the archbishop, from the parts of Burgundy, where he had been born and ordained, and having told him what he desired, was sent by him to preach the Word of life to the aforesaid nation of the Angles. Nor were his good wishes in vain; for the pious labourer in the spiritual field reaped therein a great harvest of believers, delivering all that province (according to the inner signification of his name) from long iniquity and unhappiness, and bringing it to the faith and works of righteousness, and the gifts of everlasting happiness. He had the see of his bishopric appointed him in the city Dommoc, and having presided over the same province with pontifical authority seventeen years, he ended his days there in peace.
Bede;History of the English Church Chapter Book 2 Chapter 15
From Project Gutenberg
At this time, the kingdom of the East Angles, after the death of Earpwald, the successor of Redwald, was [pg 172]governed by his brother Sigbert, a good and religious man, who some time before had been baptized in Gaul, whilst he lived in banishment, a fugitive from the enmity of Redwald. When he returned home, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous to imitate the good institutions which he had seen in Gaul, he founded a school wherein boys should be taught letters, and was assisted therein by Bishop Felix, who came to him from Kent, and who furnished them with masters and teachers after the manner of the people of Kent
Bede;History of the English Church Chapter Book 3 Chapter 18St. Edmudsbury’s, Liber Albus
“In the wall of Loddon church a certain inscription was found. Felix Bishop and Werned Abbot and Luthing Aethling. He maden the kirke at Lodne (Loddon) and the Kirke at Redeham (Reedham) and the halige Kirke at Babingley.”
When Herbert de Losinga became the first Bishop of Norwich and began building his new cathedral, he did so with an eye to history. Keen to demonstrate his succession in line from the first Bishop of East Anglia, he had a statue of St. Felix placed above the Bishop’s Entrance.
Herbert, a Norman, who had been prior of the Abbey of Fecamp, already had some experience of the English Church. William Rufus brought him to England to be Abbot of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire and to be a servant of the crown.
Nothing remains of the once mighty abbey. In its day, it was a great collector of relics; sadly, in that regard, Ramsey was overshadowed by other great abbeys of eastern England. Peterborough had the arm of St. Oswold; Ely, a whole phalanx of East Anglia’s sainted royal ladies; Crowland had the body of St.Guthlac; and St. Edmundsbury , had Edmund and several other male East Anglian royal saints. Ramsey could only rally St. Ivo, whose body was miraculously discovered, miles away from Cornwall, in the Fenland town that now bears his name! They also had the relics of St.Felix, whose body the monks had retrieved from the ruins of the Viking ravaged monastery of Soham.
Herbert was already well acquainted with St.Felix before he came to Norfolk.
It has been suggested that the Norwich statue is a copy of an original piece from St. Felix’s shrine. It certainly looks the part, but nothing remains of the abbey, save for the gatehouse, and we are left with no clues. Relief sculptures from the minster at Breedon on the Hill, have survived to find a place in the church that replaced it. They have similar Roman arches framing their saints.
Saints, framed by arches are also a common place in Anglo Saxon illuminated manuscripts. Here is a full page sketch from the 10th Century, “Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 389: Lives of the Hermits Paul and Guthlac”.
In many ways, the Burgundian, St. Felx, who had brought the Gospel over the sea to England, made a great patron for, the Norman, Herbert. He too had come over the sea to be a bishop. He too had been an adviser to the king. Continuing the theme of good things from abroad, the fine Caen stone for Herbert’s new cathedral also came from across the sea .
As if to emphasise his links to East Anglia’s past, the Bishop’s Entrance in the North Transept of the cathedral was deliberately built in an old fashioned Saxon style, with triangular headed arches, three beastly heads (reminiscent of the beasts at Deerhurst) jutting into the building; and a doorway with a plain, undecorated arch.
The statue of Felix, in the same Saxon style, was set on the outside of the cathedral above the door through which every future bishop would come and go.
It was only in the 20th Century that the statue was brought inside to protect it from the elements. Today it is in the Ambulatory.
One can see a similar arrangement, contemporary with the cathedral, in situ, at the church of St.Mary, Haddiscoe.
As I read the iconography, it seems to say, “You cross this threshold, into this holy place, through the work/generosity/ kindness/ministry of the one whose image is above.” Only, in the case of Haddiscoe, it is not clear who the person might be. It is certainly not the church’s patron saint, St. Mary! Christ in majesty, perhaps? A bishop ?
Some have suggested, St. Peter, others Gregory the Great, but it might, equally, be St Felix.
Like the North Transept of Norwich Cathedral, Haddiscoe church has a mix of Norman and Saxon architecture. Its round tower is a typical Saxon tower, with triangular headed openings; but it is not, necessarily, older than the Norman doorway. At Haddiscoe they may have simply got one of them new fangled Norman masons to do their swanky door! And there are a lot of swanky Norman doors in neighbouring parishes.
Applying a similar interpretation to the figure of St.Felix above the Bishop’s Entrance, it says, “You come into this cathedral church, through the mission to the East Anglians, started by St. Felix in the 7th Century.” To every subsequent bishop the sub-text reads ” I , Herbert, built this cathedral, placed this statue above the door; and, as Bishop of Norwich, you follow in my footsteps!
The restored 2nd edition of Foxe’s ” Actes and Monuments” – The Book of Martyrs – is now back, in pride of place, in Norwich Cathedral’s Historic Library.
This woodcut depicts Thomas Bilney, sticking his finger in the candle flame on the night before he was burned at the stake , at Lollard’s Pit on 19th August 1531.
Find out more at the amazing www.johnfoxe.org Actes and Monuments Online website
The Loddon Lollard woodcuts are here
I’d left it until the day after the Feast of St.Fursey, planning to walk from Great Yarmouth. Then, I wimped out! There was snow in the air and the Queens Head was not serving food at lunchtime. When I arrived in the afternoon the weather had moderated but it was still cold enough to imagine the scene recorded by the Ven.Bede. Long before Dante’s other wordly journey had resulted in his famous Inferno, St. Fursey had visions of the hereafter and the Fires of Hell that would burn up Evil.
An ancient brother of our monastery is still living, who is wont to declare that a very sincere and religious man told him, that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard those visions from his mouth; adding, that though it was in most sharp winter weather, and a hard frost, and the man was sitting in a thin garment when he related it, yet he sweated as if it had been in the greatest heat of summer, either through excessive fear, or spiritual consolation. (Ecclesiastical History Bk. 3.19)
It was the visions led Fursey to become an evangelist. Yes, he would warn his hearers of the fires of hell, his repeated mantras were :-
The saints shall advance from one virtue to anotherand
The God of gods shall be seen in Sion
From Book 3. Chapter 6 of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation
An ancient brother of our monastery is still living, who is wont to declare that a very sincere and religious man told him, that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard those visions from his mouth; adding, that though it was in most sharp winter weather, and a hard frost, and the man was sitting in a thin garment when he related it, yet he sweated as if it had been in the greatest heat of summer, either through excessive fear, or spiritual consolation.
The saint, who is associated with Burgh Castle, was a 7th C evangelist and hermit and visionary in the Kingdom of East Anglia, who travelled on to France.
You can read Dr. Nick Groves translation of his Vita here .
Find more info at Fursey Pilgrims here
And bless yourself with his lorica prayer as you journey on:
The arms of God be around my shoulders
The touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head,
The sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead,
The sound of the Holy Spirit in my ears,
The fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils,
The vision of heaven’s company in my eyes,
The conversation of heaven’s company on my lips,
The work of God’s church in my hands,
The service of God and the neighbour in my feet,
A home for God in my heart,
And to God, the Father of all,
my…
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Great Yarmouth is the most easterly point on the Norfolk Saints Way. The place where the Angles and Wherryman’s Ways meet.
The Minster Church can be seen from afar.
St. Nicholas presides over the doorway. It is a warm place with open doors.
A church – this version replaces one destroyed by bombs in 1942 – has been on this site since a cell of Norwich Priory was established here in the year 1101. Since when it has been at the heart of this port/town/seaside place that grew up around it.
At the far end of the Acle Straight to modern travellers Great Yarmouth might seem to be the end of the world but for most of its history it has been Norfolk’s doorway to the world! In 1154 the Islamic geographer Al-Idrisi was acquainted with England and East Anglia. He writes it “is an island resembling the head of an ostrich, and contains flourishing cities, lofty mountains, flowing rivers, and level ground. There is abundant fertility in it. Its inhabitants are hardy, resolute, and prudent. The winter there is of long duration… ” And describes Great Yarmouth “Gernemutha is a handsome town beside the sea… From the town of Gernemutha to the town of Norwicca [Norwich] is ninety miles.” (Dr.Caitlin R Green).
Until the railway came to Great Yarmouth in 1844, the easiest way to get to London from Norfolk was by passenger ferry from Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth and Norwich were connected by a passenger ferry too. In recent memory Thames Barges and other coastal vessels were regular visitors to Great Yarmouth and Norwich beyond.
A graffito on a pillar in Norwich Cathedral – a wife or a merchant’s prayer for ship overdue perhaps – depicts a 16th Century cargo ship.
St.Nicholas is patron saint of sailors and has had a ministry to seamen of all nations many of whom are buried in the churchyard. He is also patron of children. In the stories told about him he rescued 3 poor lads from a nasty situation and three poor young women from a life of prostitution. Great Yarmouth’s sandy beaches cannot be bettered, but in a, sometimes gritty, port/town/ seaside place like Great Yarmouth , there are similar challenges to be faced.
After the Lollard Trials of 1428-1430, the arguments around the value of ordained ministers and the sacraments of the Church went underground. Only to emerge again with the various events of the Reformation culminating in the removal of religious statues, stained glass and images of every sort.
The process seems to have been completed in Loddon in 1642 at the beginning of the Civil War when a glazier was employed to deface the images in church. The relief images from around the font were chiselled off and plastered over. In Victorian times, when the plaster was removed the rich colouring was revealed.
The font was relatively new, bought with a bequest from William Berrys in 1428. It was the latest
The sight of a respectable middle class town’s woman stripped to her underwear, bare footed and head uncovered, humiliated and from time to time flogged as she processed around church and market place was meant to be an example to the population. It was a common sight in Loddon during the years 1428-1430!
Certain town’s men and women and, on market days, others from the surrounding villages, were forced to undertake these rituals of public penance: the price of their heresy.
However much like punishment it appeared, penance is what the Church called it! It was harsh but preferable to being burnt at the stake! The penitents, who had all appeared before William Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich were Lollards whose beliefs were more radical than those of John Wycliffe and the earlier Lollards! They were disciples of Hugh Pye and William White preachers who had their base in Loddon.
The heresy of which they were accused, and freely admitted, had little or no respect for the authority of ordained ministers, nor for the sacraments of the Church. To the 21st Century mind Bishop William’s decisions to burn Hugh Pye and William White at the stake (in Lollards’ Pit in Norwich) and to impose harsh punishment/penance on their disciples, is a clear admission of the weakness of his arguments!
Burning heretics, in practice those who opposed church rulers, had begun long before Pye and White were executed and continued for years after. Catholics burned Protestants and Protestants, Catholics and both burned witches! I disagree with the Loddon Lollards about the value of ordained ministry and the sacraments, but still revere them as martyrs for the free speech and the freedoms we enjoy today.
Of course, the argument about orders and sacraments has not gone away! It is current still, but after the trials of 1428-1430 it went underground, where it already enjoyed a long history. Bare footed friars, such as those who supported John Wycliffe (alongside John of Gaunt and Henry Percy) when he was called to appear before the Bishop of London in 1377, had long challenged the opulence of prince bishops by their radical poverty. Mother Julian, writing in Norwich a generation earlier, stressed the courtesy of Christ. This was an image at odds with that presented by Henry Despencer, the Fighting Bishop of Norwich, whose army routed the peasants army at the Battle of North Walsham in 1381. None of this went unnoticed .
In the St.Luke’s Chapel of Norwich Cathedral there is a rare survival from the pre-Reformation Church, an altar piece known as Despencer Retable. Said to be commissioned to celebrate Henry Despenser’s North Walsham victory, it shows Christ’s public humiliation and flogging, dozy soldiers and military types join in the humiliation and then totally miss the Resurrection! No prizes for guessing where the artist’s sympathy lay.
News of John Ball’s sermon at Blackheath and his subsequent death would had travelled up the east coast from London and all the way up the Norwich river! John Ball had been in Norwich during the time of Black Death. People knew about him.
Like Pye and White, John Ball was labelled and then executed as a Lollard. The same fate awaited the leaders of the Norfolk uprising. As Langley Abbey was among those places attacked by the mob, it would have included folk Lodden in its ranks. Unlike the Lollards of 1428-1430 these Lollards had little interested in religion. They simply wanted to burn the legal documents that proved they were serfs and tied to the land.
In spite of his death, or perhaps because of it, John Ball’s sermon lives on and would have been known by those who took part in the Norfolk uprising and painted the Despenser Retable. The coastal trade took ships and sailors up and down the east coast and its rivers and by those who painted the Despenser Retable ! John Ball’s words still echo down the ages and retain the the power to challenge and inspire – “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman.”
The Walsingham Way 