23/05/2024
Today, Rochester Cathedral celebrates a man who lay in a shrine in the cathedral for over 300 years - ST WILLIAM OF PERTH (or Rochester), the patron saint of adopted children.
William, a baker from Perth in Scotland, was on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and possibly all the way to the Holy Land, with his adopted son David, who he'd found as a baby on the steps of his local kirk many years earlier. He took this as a sign that he needed to turn his life around, and he took the baby into his home and raised him as his own son.
He also gave his life to charity, giving every tenth loaf he baked to the poor and needed.
When David was thought to be aged between 18 & 21, William felt compelled to embark on a lifetime's pilgrimage, taking his son along with him.
En route, the pair knocked on the door of St Andrews Priory in Rochester one day in the spring of the year 1200. They stayed at the priory for a few days receiving the generous charity of the order.
Then, they departed... on what was to be William's last journey, He was found in undergrowth not far from the road a few days later having been murdered.
His murder was never solved, although David (who was never seen again) was an easy scapegoat. Other theories about William's demise follow a theme you'll find in the novel, TV series and movie The Name of the Rose, which I cover on my Rochester Heritage tours.
The local woman who found him wove a garland of Honeysuckle and placed it on his head. When his body was collected, the garland slipped off and the woman placed it on her own head. At that moment, she was 'miraculously' cured of mental illness - the great dread of the middle ages.
His body was retuned to the priory and, on learning of the miracle, the monks proclaimed him a Saint and Martyr, and placed his body in a makeshift shrine.
Pilgrims coming through Rochester on their way to Canterbury were encouraged to pray and make an offering at William's shrine. News of further miracles and cures attributed to him were recorded over the next 56 years and, in 1256 the Bishop of Rochester petitioned the Pope to request William be canonised - created a Saint - and the request was granted.
This made William's shrine the second-highest ranking in the country, only exceeded in status by that of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury.
In 1300, William was venerated even more after the pilgrimage of King Edward I, who prayed on his knees for a day and a night at his shrine. Before the King departed, he left an astonishingly generous offering - fourteen shillings! That's just 70p in today's currency, but worth over £300,000 in property terms today!
That offering set the bar for anyone 'of status' in the day, and they would vie to match or exceed the King's generosity.
But there was another financial spin-off for Rochester: TOURISM!
Shrines attract pilgrims. And, then as now, pilgrims want a souvenir of their visit - the British Museum has a large collection of Pilgrim Souvenirs. Artisans making pilgrim souvenirs - from simple wooden figures to gold figurines! - moved into Rochester to satisfy the demand.
They prospered - at least until the shrine was destroyed in the Reformation - and put down roots in the city.
They gave Rochester a financial prosperity that led directly to the heritage town you see around you every time you visit.
POINT OF INTEREST: When you visit the Cathedral, enter by the north door and just inside and to your left, you can see the steps pilgrims climbed - on their KNEES! - to pray at William's shrine. They're covered over with modern oak stair treads today to preserve them, but you can clearly see the degree of wear caused over those 300+ years of pilgrimages to the shrine.
