The body of St. Peter



Church in Rome

in the First Century 

George Edmundson(1849-1930)

"The body of St. Peter then was buried in a small cemetery on the Vatican hill close to the place where he was crucified. Over this tomb Anencletus erected his memoria, and in the immediate vicinity the first twelve bishops of Rome, with the exception of Clement and Alexander, were according to the ‘Liber Pontificalis’ laid to rest—in each case the phrase recurs ‘sepultus est iuxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticanum.’ In time the entire space available was filled up. Zephyrinus was the first to be buried in 217 A.D. on the Appian Way, and his successor Calixtus created the crypt in the great subterranean cemetery called after his name, where he himself and a number of his successors were interred".

All Saints - Beachamwell

All Saints - Beechamwell

The ruined Church of All Saints - Beachamwell, is the sort of site that I really like. It is romantic, fragile and away from the crowds. The Church is also ruined and the sort of place that would be included in a 'lost graveyard' report.

The site is dramatic and out of the way down a footpath and on a slight rise in the land. All Saints is ruined, vulnerable and momentarily dramatic as it finally falls into the same ground from which it arose. The flints that forms the remaining walls are seperating from each other and on a hot day in June 2012 it was hard to see where the walls began and ended. The wind blew through the site and the wild grasses rustled in an evocative sort of way.

The outline of the Church was evident from walking the site and the lumps and bumps of the field were noticed underfoot. There were no burials evident amongst the grasses and I'm sure that even if there were stone memorials they have long gone as the locals robbed the site of building materials for the world of the living. The remaining walls have plants colonising the mortar and the the wild flowers help the final stages of dissolution.




All Saints - Beachamwell
Crumbling walls in a sea of grass

© Godric Godricson



All Saints - Beachamwell
"Big sky country"

© Godric Godricson



All Saints - Beachamwell

© Godric Godricson





Saint John -Beachamwell

Saint John -Beechamwell

The village of Beachamwell is blessed by the presence of the two ruined Churches of All Saints and Saint John. Both Churches are in the process of being swallowed by the Earth that provided the materials for their construction. Saint John has a tower that speaks to the traveller across the fields even if the voice is now ever so quiet with the passing of time.

There is no obvious graveyard at this site with any memorials having disappeared years ago as is the way with such things

Saint John -Beachamwell
Crumbling walls in a sea of sheep

© Godric Godricson



© Godric Godricson


 

Saint John -Beachamwell
© Godric Godricson





Princess Diana’s great-great uncle

Robert Cavendish Spencer
Died 1830

"The tomb of Princess Diana’s great-great uncle, now completely neglected in the middle of a dusty car park in Valletta, will be restored as part of a ‘horse deal’ to allow Bank of Valletta to get permission to restore the nearby House of the Four Winds as its new chairman’s office".

For the full story take this link to "The Malta Independent On line".

Veneration of relics





Hymns

of the Holy Eastern Church 

John Brownlie

 (1857-1925)

"The veneration of saints and relics took its rise on the overthrow of paganism at the time of Constantine. It was very natural that those who had suffered martyrdom at the hands of pagan persecutors should at that time be remembered; and so it came to pass that churches were considered honoured above all others which contained the relics of those martyrs. The bones of Christ's witnesses were removed from their lonely graves, where they had lain long neglected, and were deposited under Christian altars. Saint's days were appointed upon which their deeds were rehearsed and their lives commemorated. From a veneration of the saints it was a short step to their invocation, and what helped the Church to take that step was the difficulty felt by men in regarding Jesus Christ as being at once God, and the Mediator between God and man".