Bury St. Edmund's Cathedral

I went on a bus tour yesterday of the city of Bury St. Edmunds. Here's your history lesson for the day.

St. Edmund was the King of East Anglia (England), killed in 869 by the Great Heathen Army (Vikings) who captured him and would allow him to live if he gave up Christianity. He refused and the rest, as they say, is history. He was buried elsewhere, but when miracles started to happen at his graveside, they moved his relics to the town of Beadoriceworth (Now Bury St. Edmunds) and created a shrine. It was a place of pilgrimage for many years after. He was given sainthood for being a martyr. "Bury" does not mean that he was buried there, but that it is a borough, city of St. Edmunds.
In Medieval Times an Abbey was constructed and, by looking at the models they had there, it was pretty impressive. Below is the picture of the present Cathedral. There was a much bigger one during the time before King Henry the eighth. But for some reason, King Henry dismantled it. The present Cathedral was built in the early 1500's. This is the back view of the cathedral. Surprisingly, the big tower and all of the back was built recently and finished in 2005. The church had received a 5 million pound grant and matched the grant with another 5 million pounds (Total $10 million dollars) and finished the cathedral.

This is the front of the cathedral and part of the original build.
There are a lot of ruins that I'll share in the next blog, but this building is made of the old abbey walls. They have renovated it into townhouses. For a mere 2 million dollars you can live in an old abbey.
The square footage is minimal at best! And think of all those visitors gaping and taking pictures of your house!

The tour guide in the Cathedral was very interesting. She explained a few "American" connections with the cathedral and the United States. In a nutshell: One of their residents, Bartholomew Gosnold, sailed to the new land in 1602 (Columbus sailed in 1592) and named Cape Cod (for the tons of fish he found there) and Martha's Vineyard (after his daughter who died at 2 years of age and because the island was covered in vines). He went back in 1604 and named the proposed settlement of Jamestown to honor King James (who allowed him to go!)
The Magna Carta was signed here too. (To refresh your memory, as I had to do) the Magna Carta had two important ideas that our constitution is based on: The right by everybody to be tried by their peers and the principle of no taxation without representation.
Also, the Treasury room containing the treasures of the church was paid by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the people of Virginia. Thus ends your history lesson for the day. Wake up now!