The magnificent Westminster Cathedral, discretely hidden from view behind the 1970’s facade of Victoria Street, is the Mother Church and the most important of all the Roman Catholic Churches in England. And although its style might make you think it is old, it is actually a relatively recent addition to our city.
To understand how it came to be built, we have to go back in time.
Here is the story
After Henry Vlll’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, and the subsequent Protestant Reformation of the English Church, the Catholic faith was repressed for the next 300 years.
During this time, no Catholic Churches were built, and Catholics were banned from entering public life and forbidden from sitting in Parliament.
In 1801, the Act of Union established the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland : the Irish Parliament was moved from Dublin to London, where the ban left Ireland’s Catholic majority unrepresented.
This caused much resentment and by the 1820’s a movement for Irish Reform had gained pace. It was lead by a man named :
Daniel O’Connell
Known as “The Liberator”, he was an Irish Catholic lawyer and the leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority. Dublin City’s principal thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, is named after him.
In 1828 he won a by-election in Ireland’s County Clare, defeating a member of the British Cabinet. But he was forbidden from taking his seat at Westminster…
The Duke of Wellington
The Prime Minister at the time was the Duke of Wellington (The Victor at the Battle of Waterloo)
It was an era of much civil and social unrest. People were demanding change and reform in all areas of life, and the shadow of the French Revolution cast heavily over Britain. The risk that revolution would reach our shores was very real.
Wellington was born into an Anglo-Irish Aristocratic family in Dublin, Ireland. He understood the Catholic grievances at the discrimination, and in 1829, he passed the Catholic Relief Act, finally emancipating the Catholics and allowing them to sit in Parliament.
This paved the way for the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in Britain, sparking the start of a wave of construction of Catholic Churches, culminating with the building of Westminster Cathedral, consecrated in 1903.
Architecture
Considered his finest work, it was built by the ecclesiastical architect John Francis Bentley, in the Byzantine style.
This style was chosen to set the Cathedral apart from nearby Westminster Abbey, in contrast with the Gothic style of the latter.
Though steel frame buildings were becoming common at the start of the 20th century, it was decided to build the Cathedral using old traditional methods, with alternating bands of load baring red brickwork and white Portland Stone. A style typical around the Victoria era known as the Queen Anne Style.
Francis Bentley spent time studying the architecture of Italian cities and the tower, known as a Campanile, was influenced by the bell tower of St Marks Basilica in Venice.
Tympanum
In architecture this feature, below the round stone arch, is called a Tympanum. It is usually decorated with stone carvings, but this one features a Byzantine style Mosaic.
Jesus Christ is seated in the middle with his Mother Mary and his father Joseph to his sides. But two important Westminster figures are also depicted : to the far left, holding a key, is St Peter, the custodian of the keys to the gates of Heaven. The nearby Westminster Abbey, formally known as the Collegiate Church of St Peter, is dedicated to Him.
Out to the far right is an image of England’s last King of the House of Wessex, the pious St Edward the Confessor. He is the one who rebuilt Westminster Abbey in 1042. He is holding a ring which, according to the legend, he gave to a poor pilgrim asking him for alms.
Two English Saints
Beneath this Mosaic, half way up the columns flanking the sides of the doorway, are depictions of twelve early English Saints carved in stone. Among them :
Saint Dunstan
He was a 10th century Saxon monk, who later became Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, and he is the one who re-established the Monastic system in England after a century of destruction at the hands of the heathen Viking raiders.
St Dunstan was a metal worker by trade ; he is the patron Saint of Gold, Silver and Blacksmiths. A legend grew up around him and how he defeated the Devil on several occasions
‘’St Dunstan, as the story goes,
Once pull’d the devil by the nose
With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
That he was heard three miles or more.’’
Another time, Dunstan is said to have nailed a horseshoe onto the Devil’s cloven hoof, which caused him such pain that he begged Dunstan to remove it. Dunstan only agreed once the Devil promised never to enter a house with a horseshoe above its doorway.
And this story, my friends, is the origin of the Lucky Horseshoe !
Dunstan was a popular Saint. He had two churches dedicated to him in the City of London, one in the East, one in the West, and for 200 years he remained the favourite Saint of the English people until his fame was eclipsed by the cult of…
Saint Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket, born in London in 1118, was at one time good friend and Chancellor to King Henry ll. But when he joined the priesthood and became Archbishop of Canterbury, the two friends fell out over a dispute about the authority of the Church (Cannon law) over the King (Crown Law).
The Church at that time offered sanctuary to criminals, and it was actually possible to get away with murder if you said enough prayers (Penance). Henry obviously wanted Crown Law to have precedence, but Becket refused.
King Henry, who was renown for his bad temper, was once heard shouting :
“Who will rid me of this troublesome priest !?”
Hearing this, four of his Knights took it upon themselves to travel to Canterbury Cathedral and on the 29th December 1170, they gruesomely murdered Becket while he was praying at the altar. They cut off the top of his head with a sword and removed his brains.
I would normally spare you the graphic details, but this is the reason for the sword that you can see behind his head on the medallion.
The murder sent shockwaves through Mediaeval Europe and Becket was quickly Canonised. A cult grew up around him and he became the patron Saint of the sick, and pilgrims would travel from far and wide to touch his shrine at Canterbury, looking to be healed.
Adam
