The church notably contains the shrine and relics of St Etheldreda, an Anglo-Saxon queen and abbess who died on 23 June AD 679 and went on to become one of the most popular of the medieval saints in England.[1] She has even been described as one of "the most significant of all native English Saints."[2]
History of the parish and church
By the middle of the nineteenth century the town of Ely had approximately 600 families[3] and there were some 30-40 Catholics living in the district.[4] but there was no resident priest. At that time there was a single missionary rector based in Cambridge, Canon Thomas Quinlivan. The opening of the London to Norwich railway line in July 1845 made it easier for Canon Quinlivan to travel to Ely and say occasional masses in a private house in the town.[5]
The parish of St Etheldreda began as a distinct and separate mission in 1890 when Fr John Francis Freeland was sent to Ely and opened the first place of worship by partitioning his lodging room to create a tiny chapel.[6] In 1891 the population of Ely numbered 8017[7] and the first Roman Catholic congregation numbered just 16 worshippers. With numbers rising, Fr Freeland purchased ground and opened a small corrugated-iron chapel in 1892 on part of the site upon which the later St Etheldreda's church would be built.[8]
The original iron church still exists at Thorney Toll as it was used as a chapel until about 1973, dedicated to St Patrick. It was then sold and used as a garage.[9]
When the parish church opened in 1892 the services offered were as follows:
daily mass 8 a.m., holidays of obligation, mass 9 a.m.[10]
The parish grew gradually, numbering about 100 by the early 1930s.[11] In the period around and after, the Second World War, there were up to 300,000 Italian and German Prisoners of War based in the Fens, a number of whom were based at a camp in Ely and worshipped at St Etheldreda's.[12]
Architecture and appearance of the church
The current church was opened on 17 October 1903, on the feast of the translation of St Etheldreda's relics.[13] Due to the finances at the time of opening, the church was not consecrated until 22 May 1987.[14]
The architect of the church was Simon Croot of Brampton and the builders were Messrs Howard of Huntingdon.[15] The church was built for a cost of £2,600 with the Presbytery costing a further £900[16]
The parish church was dedicated to St Etheldreda because she died in Ely.
The church is built in Decorated Gothic style, with a separate elevated sanctuary and two aisles. It contains a number of stained glass windows which depict:
The original stained glass was supplied by Messrs Jones & Willis of London and Birmingham.[18] The main window behind the Altar depicts St Wilfrid, Our Lady and St Etheldreda. The window is a conscious copy of a similar window to be found in York Minster.
Parish priests and clergy
The clergy resident in the parish have been as follows:[19]
The following table records the number of Baptisms (of children), Receptions (of adults) into the church, Marriages and the number attending Sunday Mass (as counted on the annual Census Sunday).
The main modern shrine of St Etheldreda is located within the Church of St Etheldreda in Ely. In medieval England the principal shrine of St Etheldreda was at the Abbey of Ely. St Etheldreda was one of the most popular Anglo-Saxon saints and her shrine was one of the five most visited in medieval England. An analysis of Shrine offerings during the medieval period, for example, shows her shrine to be a major centre of pilgrimage until the 1520s.[26]
At the heart of St Etheldreda's cult was the fact that her body was found to be incorrupt, remaining whole and lifelike in the grave, rather than decomposing. This was recorded initially by Bede in Bk 4, chp 19 of the History of the English Church thus helping her cult to become established and well known from an early date.[27]
During the medieval period the Abbeys or Cathedral churches of Durham, Glastonbury, Salisbury, Thetford, Waltham and York all claimed to have relics, or small parts of the body of St Etheldreda.[28] It cannot now be confirmed whether these were authentic relics or not, but the nineteenth-century discovery of a relic, recorded below, supports the idea that relics of St Etheldreda may well have been distributed wider than the main shrine.
Besides the principal relic of the body of St Etheldreda, the cult of St Etheldreda seems to have also involved the distribution of lace necklaces and other objects which were claimed to have been associated with St Etheldreda. Records of the visitation of Dr Layton and Dr Leigh in 1536 make reference to cloths for women with sore throats and sore breasts, a comb of St Etheldreda for women with headaches and a ring of St Etheldreda for women seeking relief when 'lying-in' in childbirth.[28]
At the English Reformation, in the sixteenth century, the shrine of St Etheldreda was destroyed and the cult ended. Fragments of the shrine are thought to have survived in various locations around the town of Ely. Painted panels with scenes from the Saint's life were found being used as a cupboard door in an Ely house in the 1780s.[29] There is also a small eighth-century carved frieze found in a barn wall at St John's Farm near Ely, which is thought to come from the shrine.[30] Parts of the canopy of Bishop Hotham's tomb, within the Cathedral of Ely, have also been claimed as parts of the shrine.[31] The fact that so little of the original shrine survives is probably due to the fact that Prior Robert Wells and the 23 monks who signed the deed of surrender on 18 Nov 1539 seem to have been largely sympathetic to the ideas of the Reformation and so many of them took positions in the new church or drew pensions from the Crown.[32]
The exact date of the destruction of the medieval shrine cannot be pinpointed with accuracy, but it probably took place following Thomas Goodrich's instruction to the clergy of Ely diocese on 21 October 1541, commanding that "all images, relicks, table monuments of miracles and shrines" should be demolished and obliterated.[33] Reference to the actual destruction of the shrine was made by Dr John Caius (later to found Caius College, Cambridge) as he records his surprise at finding that it was built out of stone, not marble, as might have been expected.[34] Nevertheless, official records show that some 361 ounces of gold and 5,040 ounces of gold and white plate were taken from the shrine into the royal treasury.[35]
The modern relic of Saint Etheldreda, consisting of her left hand, was found preserved in a separate reliquary, hidden in a priest's hiding hole in a house in Sussex in about 1811.[36] It was presented to the Duke of Norfolk and passed down to the community of Dominican Sisters at Stone. The hand was found on an engraved silver plate on which was written 'Manus Sanctae Etheldredae DCLXXIII.' The plate itself was of a tenth-century style, suggesting that the hand had been separated from the rest of St Etheldreda's body at around the time of the tenth century.[37] It was reported in 1876 that when the hand was found it was "perfectly entire and quite white (but) exposure to the air has now changed it to a dark brown and the skin has cracked and disappeared in several places"[38]
The shrine and relics of St Etheldreda (2012)
A small part of the hand of St Etheldreda was returned to the parish in 1950, given from St Etheldreda's Church in London where it had been honoured. But the main relic had remained with the Dominican sisters at Stone and they donated it to the parish in June 1953, where it has remained ever since.[39]
The modern day shrine is a relatively simple construction, displaying St Etheldreda's hand in a glass reliquary. Until the late 1960s there was a small altar dedicated to St Etheldreda, immediately in front of where the relics are displayed,[40] but the liturgical changes which followed the Second Vatican Council led to the altar being removed, to be replaced by the parish font in 1975, which was moved from the back of the church where it had previously been.[41]
Pilgrims continue to visit the shrine of St Etheldreda at the small Roman Catholic church, often combining it with a visit to Ely Cathedral, where the medieval shrine was located before the Reformation.
↑ Virginia Blanton, Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. Aethelthryth in Medieval England 695-1615, Pennsylvania State Univ Press, 2007, ISBN978-0-271-02984-9, p.3
↑ Alexander Wood, St. Etheldreda and her Churches in Ely and London: A Preliminary Notice of the Catholic Memorials and Missions in the Vicinity of the Latter and a Supplementary Account of Ely House, (A lecture Read at St. Etheldreda's Ely Place, 2 March 1876), Papers in the Cambridgeshire Collection C52 p.14
↑ See the 30 March 1851 Ecclesiastical Census, cited in Tim Glasswell, 'The Rectorship of Canon Quinlivan 1843-1883, p.81-96 in Nicholas Rogers, Catholics in Cambridge, Gracewing 2003, p.85
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.1
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.1
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.1-2. The date given for the opening of the church is 1891 in the town records Cambridgeshire History on the Net (The Cambridgeshire Collection)
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.5
↑ R Douglas Brown, East Anglia 1945, Terence Dalton Ltd, 1994, ISBN0-86138-102-5 p.94. See also P Bright, Op. Cit p.7
↑ Pamela Blakemon & Mike Petty, The Archive Photographs Series: Ely, Chalford Publishing Company, 1997, ISBN0-7524-1007-5 p.81
↑ The Catholic Directory, (ed. John Danson), Gabriel Communications Ltd, 1998, ISBN0-949005-95-9, p.275
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.2
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.3
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.B1
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.B1
↑ This list is based on the information contained in Patrick Bright (Op Cit) for the period 1890-1987. The details thereafter are taken from The Catholic Directory which is published annually and details for East Anglia can be found online at http://www.catholiceastanglia.org/
↑ Data taken from Gary Dowsey (Ed), East Anglia Diocesan Year Book 1987, Universe Publications Company Ltd, 1987, ISBN0-949005-04-5, p.62-63
↑ Data taken from Gary Dowsey (Ed), East Anglia Diocesan Year Book 1992, Gabriel Communications Ltd, 1992, ISBN0-949005-58-4, p.36-7
↑ Data taken from Paul Maddison (Ed), East Anglia Diocesan Year Book 1997, Mersey Mirror Ltd, 1997, ISBN0-949005-58-4, p.44-45
↑ Data taken from John Warrington (Ed), Diocese of East Anglia 2002 Year Book and Ordo, Mersey Mirror Ltd, 2002, ISBN0-949005-58-4, p.46-47
↑ Data taken from Mark Hackeson (Ed), Diocese of East Anglia 2007 Year Book and Ordo, Mersey Mirror Ltd, 2007, p.80-81
↑ Data taken from Mark Hackeson (Ed), Diocese of East Anglia 2012 Year Book and Ordo, Mersey Mirror Ltd, 2012, p.80-81
↑ Virginia Blanton, Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St Aethelthryth in Medieval England 695-1615, Pennsylvania State Univ Press, 2007, ISBN978-0-271-02984-9, p.248. See also Ben Nicholson, Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England, Boydell Press, 2001, ISBN978-0-85115-808-2. The popularity of St Etheldreda in medieval literature is also attested for by the number and type of depictions of her. For images from the Benedictional of St Aethelwold, in the 10th century, see Peter Meadows & Nigel Ramsey (ed) A History of Ely Cathedral, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2003, p.20 and Plate 17A. The parish church of Willingham has also been recently found to have medieval pictures of St Etheldreda, on which see Rosalind C Love (ed & trans), Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, The Hagiography of the Female Saints of Ely, Clarendon Press, 2004, ISBN978-0-19-820815-0, p.xlvii.
↑ The incorruptibility of the saint's body was attested long after the translation of the relics in 695, on which cf: J. Bentham, The History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely from the Foundation of the Monastery AD 673 to the Year 1771, (2nd Ed) Stevenson, Matchell and Stevenson, 1812, p.61
1 2 Rosalind C Love (ed & trans), Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, The Hagiography of the Female Saints of Ely, Clarendon Press, 2004, ISBN978-0-19-820815-0, p.xlvii
↑ Dorothy Owen, 'Ely 1109-1539, Priory, Community and Town' p.59-75 in Peter Meadows & Nigel Ramsey (ed) A History of Ely Cathedral, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2003, ISBN0-85115-945-1, p.68
↑ Isabel Henderson, Anglo Saxon Sculpture p.216-232 in Carola Hicks, Cambridgeshire Churches, Paul Watkins Publ, 1997, ISBN1-871615-27-5, p.217
↑ S Inskip Ladds, "Bishop Hothams Monument and The Shrine of St. Etheldreda at Ely" in E.H. Vigers (ed) Transactions of the Cambridge & Huntingdonshire Archaeological Society, Vol.6, W Jefferson and Sons Ltd, Ely, 1947, p.111-5, p.115.
↑ J. Bentham, The History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely from the Foundation of the Monastery AD673 to the Year 1771, (2nd Ed) Stevenson, Matchell and Stevenson, 1812, p.190. See also C.W. Stubbs, Historical Memorials of Ely Cathedral, JM Dent & Co., London, 1897 p.42 and Robert Beddow, "Medieval Stained Glass", p.275-288 in Carola Hicks, Cambridgeshire Churches, Paul Watkins Publ, 1997, ISBN1-871615-27-5 p.275. The date is disputed, some authors date destruction of the shrine to 1539, i.e. Lynne Turner, In the Shadow of the Cathedral, Elean Publications, 2003, ISBN0-9545799-0-9, p.24.
↑ John Maddison, Ely Cathedral: Design and Meaning, Ely Cathedral Publication, 2000, ISBN1-873027-06-0 p.102
↑ Thomas Dinham Atkinson, An Architectural History of the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Etheldreda at Ely, Cambridge University Press, 1933, p.177. Note also the records from Sir John Williams, Henry VIII's treasurer, in John Maddison, Ely Cathedral: Design and Meaning, Ely Cathedral Publication, 2000, ISBN1-873027-06-0 p.102
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.A2
↑ Alexander Wood, St. Etheldreda and her Churches in Ely and London: A Preliminary Notice of the Catholic Memorials and Missions in the Vicinity of the Latter and a Supplementary Account of Ely House, (A lecture Read at St. Etheldreda's Ely Place, 2 March 1876), Papers in the Cambridgeshire Collection C52 p.16
↑ Alexander Wood, St. Etheldreda and her Churches in Ely and London: A Preliminary Notice of the Catholic Memorials and Missions in the Vicinity of the Latter and a Supplementary Account of Ely House, (A lecture Read at St. Etheldreda's Ely Place, 2 March 1876), Papers in the Cambridgeshire Collection C52 p.16
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.9
↑ See the Photograph of the interior of St. Etheldreda's Church taken in the 1930s which is preserved in Pamela Blakemon and Mike Petty, The Archive Photographs Series: Ely, Chalford Publishing Company, 1997, ISBN0-7524-1007-5, p.81
↑ Patrick Bright, A History of the Catholic Church of Saint Etheldreda in the City of Ely (Private Publication, 1987, held in the Cambridgeshire Collection) p.11
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