Orthodox Parables and Stories: Glastonbury monastery

Glastonbury, located in the county of Somerset in southwestern England, has been around 4,000 years. Its first inhabitants were farmers who populated modern Somerset as early as the fifth millennium BC. Glastonbury was originally an island called Avalon. It was surrounded on all sides by lakes and partly by swamps. The first inhabitants of Glastonbury built fairly primitive wooden buildings and manufactured simple products. In 1890, ten ancient huts were found underground by archaeologists in the vicinity of Glastonbury. Roman domination in England, which began in the 1st century AD, is hardly noticeable in this city. The Anglo-Saxons called Glastonbury "Glastenburg" because they believed that glastings, the ancient people of unknown origin, inhabited this place.


Although presently Glastonbury hosts annual rock festivals gathering thousands of fans, magical rituals of the occult-mystical New Age movement and pagans take root well in this city, you should not forget that for almost 2000 years Glastonbury is considered one of the holiest places in England. It was even called the "English Holy Land." Glastonbury Icon of the Mother of God The city of Glastonbury began to flourish after the abbey dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in it around 703 by the rightful king Ina of Wessex. And this was not the first abbey on Glastonbury land. Since ancient times, this place has been a place of special veneration for the Mother of God. Long before King Ina, according to legend, there was a church in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which preserved the ancient miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin. This icon was called the Virgin of Glastonbury.


Glastonbury image, according to numerous legends, was written back in the 1st century. It stayed in the abbey until the late Middle Ages. The church itself, which kept this marvelous and unique shrine, was built of twigs and straw. Numerous pilgrims flocked to Glastonbury from all over Britain and from other European countries. Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings were great benefactors of the abbey, and the population of the city grew. And kings, and noble people, and scholars, and merchants, and landowners, and peasants, and shepherds, and artisans, and warriors - all came to Glastonbury to ask for help and intercession from the Most Holy Theotokos in the days of peace and in the days of wars and disasters . And She always helped, and sometimes appeared to people in visions. Later, a sculptural image of the Mother of God appeared in the monastery of Glastonbury, called the Virgin of Glastonbury. It was also in the church in the name of the Mother of God, built from rods.


In 1184, a severe fire broke out in Glastonbury Monastery, in which the main monastery church and the Church of the Virgin completely burned, but the statue of the Virgin miraculously survived. The reconstruction of the monastery began immediately, under King Henry II, and ended after his death - in 1191. The Glastonbury Statue of the Mother of God was placed in the newly-built boundary of the Virgin. Particular veneration of the Glastonbury shrine continued until the sixteenth century, when this truly amazing monastery was completely destroyed during the Reformation. In 1539, by decree of Henry VIII, the monastery was dissolved, and the innocent abbot Richard Whiting was hanged and quartered. Together with the abbot several monks were executed. Beloved and revered by all the statue of the Virgin "Glastonbury" then disappeared without a trace.


Almost the ruins of the original Glastonbury Monastery now remain, and only some of the monastery buildings have partially survived, for example, the cuisine of the Abbots (XIV century). But even after the desecration and destruction of the shrines of Glastonbury land, the impressive ruins of this monastery (and the huge abbey church was no less than 550 feet in length), towering above the picturesque flood meadows of Somerset, never ceased to remind that this place was chosen by God and the Blessed Virgin Mary. And at the beginning of the 20th century, this holy place was again begun to be revered and revived. In 1939, 400 years after the barbaric destruction of the abbey by “reformers”, the construction of the Catholic Church in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos in Glastonbury began, and in 1955 a new long-awaited statue of the Beloved and Patroness of England, and especially Glastonbury - the Virgin was built and placed in this church. And about 30 years ago, several icon painters, including Father Mark of the Russian Church Abroad, painted the Orthodox icon of the Virgin, Glastonbury. A miracle happened, the Mother of God showed Her mercy, and Her former veneration on this earth is now being reborn. An Orthodox presence has appeared in Glastonbury, annual pilgrimages of Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans are performed here, services are held, including Orthodox.