Category: church crawling

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church crawling

The Old Cathedral of St Michaels, Coventry

Coventry is blessed with cathedrals (Cathedra?) in that it has three of them. Of the first only a few ruins remain and of the third it stands but the third remains a ruin in memory of the Coventry Blitz of November 1940.

St Michaels was built in the between the 14th and 15th centuries in impressive red sandstone. The spire is the third highest in England and the choir sat on meisercords showing the famous Dance of Death. Nothing remains of these carvings beyond an account held by the city archives. It was an impressive Gothic church covered in carvings with wonderful stained glass windows. It was raised to Cathedral status in 1918 and served in that capacity till its destruction in the 1940s.

In 1940 it was destroyed during the Coventry Blitz by incendiary bombs. In an act of defiance against the Nazi hate Provest Richard Howard had the words “Father Forgive” inscribed behind the alter and used his Christmas address (Christmas Underfire), broadcast which was recorded in the bombed out ruins, to the world, to call for peace and reconciliation.

Housed in the ruins are the Coventry Blitz museum which I regard as one of the two second best museums in Coventry. A wonderful collection in an intimate space, well worth a visit.

The ruins of the Cathedral are a meditative and reflective space remaining holy ground and a national monument not to war or reprisal but to reconciliation and peace. If you’re visiting Coventry the Cathedral ruins are well worth a trip.

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church crawling

Doom Painting, Holy Trinity Coventry

Inside Holy Trinity church in the city centre of Coventry is an impressive Medieval Doom painting. Now, I think that Coventry first should be embarrassed by the amount and quality of Medieval remains there are so many and they are so impressive! The city is crawling with Green Men, wood woses and blood curdling gargoyles but Holy Trinity stands out as a church with everything.

The Doom painting is probably about three hundred years old and was ironically preserved by reformers who painted over it in white wash. It was rediscovered in the Victorian era and restored in the 1990s by specialist restorers who have made this wonderful example of Medieval art accessible for us today. It is moments like this that I live for. I love seeing things that people throughout the past have seen. This links us back to our ancestors who came to this church to practice their religion and be awed by the structure. Imagine living in a one story house outside Coventry in one of the villages. On market day coming into the city, trading, being entertained and then entering Holy Trinity. It is a huge structure made of stone and in the Medieval period reverberating to sung masses. The walls would not be bare but painted and like me, I imagine them staring at the dramatic Doom painting.

The Holy Trinity Doom painting is one of sixty known to exist in the country. It is an allegory of the last day known as Dooms day. This painting shows Christ front and centre, surrounded by the Apostles, raising his pierced hands in judgment, note the book of evidence and the orb symbolising Christs kingship over the world and over the living and the dead. The dead are being raised from their tombs in the left hand corner from which like the living they will have to give an account for their lives. Featured are two scrolls which issue an invitation to the righteous “Come you blessed of my Father” and a command to the damned “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into eternal fire!” Leading the redeemed into heaven is the Pope who enters by the door beside St Peter and Christ whilst Mary the virgin mother of Christ presents a scroll and bears her breast in intercession for the damned. These damned can be seen on the right hand side in chains being led to hells mouth. Some are already there, being licked by flames whilst a group of wealthy women carrying ale jugs are wandering oblivious to the danger hand in hand with the devils to hell.

This gem of the Medieval world can be seen in Holy Trinity Church which opens on a Saturday at 11am. Other sights of interest include a fabulous collection of Meisercords, Green Men and Victorian paintings. Well worth a visit and the evening service is sublime.