Basic HTML Version
BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
18th annual edition
39
Sacred Space
Liturgy and architecture at Durham Cathedral
Allan Doig
M
edieval liturgies
in the English
church were often very mobile.
Processions would move through
a sequence of interconnecting spaces in and
around the church or cathedral. On great
occasions they ranged further still, visiting
parts of the town, other churches and even
surrounding fields, which were blessed on
Rogation Days prior to the harvest. The example
of Durham Cathedral demonstrates that the
local saint and the liturgy as it was adapted
to his cult, were determining factors of the
architecture that developed around his shrine.
Durham Cathedral was built as the final
resting place for the relics of St Cuthbert. It
is hardly surprising then that the reputation
of the saint and aspects of the cult that
was established around his relics, defined
the cathedral’s architecture and patterns
of spatial organisation and use. The Rites
of Durham
1 is an essential source for
exploring the origin and development of
the cult, its geographical location and the
sequential architectural response to its
ceremonial, liturgy and social structure.
The Rites of Durham survives in a number
of variant manuscripts, the oldest of which
seems to have been written just before 1600. It
has every mark of being a first-hand account
in great detail by someone who knew the
fabric of the cathedral intimately and was close
to the ceremonial, the official structure, and
the individuals involved. He looks back with
great sympathy and fondness, but without
theological or political comment. By the time
it was written, the world it described had been
swept away. The author records some of the
early losses to the fabric as a result of reforming
zeal, but the overall architectural arrangement
has survived remarkably intact. The use of
and relationships between the spaces and the
sacred precincts have changed radically: a point
demonstrated by the fittings and furnishings,
and the treatment of the patron, St Cuthbert.
Cuthbert died on 20 March 687 and was
buried on Holy Island in St Peter’s Church in
a feretory (a shrine holding the saint’s relics)
a little above the pavement on the left side of
the altar. He had great powers of discernment
and healing in life, and his body remained
an existential connection with the saint,
now among the whole company of heaven.
Continuing miracles, described by Reginald of
Durham in his Libellius de admirandis beati
‘The Interior of Durham Abbey; with a Procession of Monks on one of their Grand Festivals Previous to the
Reformation’, E Nash, 1828 (Cathedral Library, Durham)