Canterbury Cathedral Part 2

The Gothic Bit

Last week we looked at the Norman crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, with its carved pillars and patches of stunning medieval painting, including the Ezekiel angel. This is the oldest part of the church so today we’re going to go forward a bit in time.

What’s interesting is that modern day pilgrims take the same path as their medieval predecessors; along the nave, round the north transept where St Thomas Becket was murdered (the transept is the horizontal cross part of the cross shaped church), then into the crypt.

As we saw last week, there are lots of chapels in the crypt; these were for priests of the Cathedral and visiting priests to say masses for the various pilgrimage groups. The monk in charge of the schedule must have had his hands full; even today, lots of tour groups arrive in Canterbury. In the medieval period it was the most visited part of England, with pilgrims arriving all the time, and so the crypt would have been full of priests saying masses with small congregations.

The pilgrims walked down the crypt and towards the end they reached the site of St Thomas Becket’s tomb and first shrine.