Tapestry of the Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury

Bl Richard Whiting, Last Abbot of Glastonbury, martyred on the Tor 1539; beatified 1895 Glastonbury Abbey monks ; Roger James and John Thorne, tortured and hanged with the Abbot. Beatified 1895 St Dunstan (d. 988), born near Glastonbury, introduced Benedictine Rule to the Abbey community when he was Abbot. Later he was made Archbishop of Canterbury. He is traditionally depicted catching the Devil by the nose with pincers Blessed Richard Bere, nephew of Abbot Bere, Abbot Whiting's immediate predecessor. One of a group of nine Carthusians who were martyred at Newgate Prison 1536 St Joseph of Arimathea, mentioned in all four Gospels. Local legend says that the Glastonbury Thorn grew from his staff, and that he brought the chalice of the Last Supper of our Lord to England. William Blake's poem 'Jersualem' refers to another legend that St Joseph had earlier brought the child Jesus on a visit to England St David, patron of Wales, who visited Glastonbury in AD 530. Once when he was preaching, a white dove descended, and his voice became as a trumpet St Patrick, patron of Ireland (d. 461), according to legend the first abbot of Glastonbury, and a formative influence on the monastic community that was later led by St Dunstan St Brigid (453-524) another Irish Saint, said to have visited Glastonbury in 488 and stayed nearby in Beckery (trans. 'little Eire'). Foundress of religious houses and patroness of the home, she is often depicted with her cow and milking stool The statue of Our Lady of Glastonbury, likeness taken from an early seal of Glastonbury Abbey, was designed and sculpted by Mr Philip Lindsey Clark, FRBS, in 1955. The Tapestry, designed by Brother Louis Barlow, OSB, Prinknash Abbey, Gloucs., was made by Edinburgh Weavers and completed in 1965

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