HIGHLIGHT: Bury St Edmunds
At the heart of Bury St Edmunds I am enfolded by a holy town.
When Anselm, a 12th century abbot, was unable to go on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, he honoured St James the Great in another way: by building a church within the abbey precincts and dedicating it to that patron saint of pilgrims. In 1914 the church became a cathedral.
I approach as medieval pilgrims will have done, entering the abbey precincts via the 12th century Norman Tower. It was known in medieval times as the Church Gate, was built as a campanile or bell tower, and is now the cathedral’s belfry.
Today the tower stands in splendid isolation behind iron railings, the pathway several feet below the present ground level.
I am at the half-way point on the London to Walsingham Camino: 90 miles into my pilgrim journey from London. This is a rest day, welcome after seven days walking, and I have plenty of time to explore.
Medieval pilgrims would have walked on to the abbey church, and the shrine of St Edmund, but neither survived the Reformation, so I go first to the cathedral, alongside the tower.
St Edmund was king of East Anglia, martyred in 870 by pagan Danish invaders for refusing to renounce his faith. Where his martyrdom occurred is not known, but in 903 his body was brought to Bury.
Just over a thousand years ago, in 1020, King Canute built a shrine for him in the town. When, in 1095, the great abbey church was built, St Edmund’s relics were moved to a bejewelled, gold- and silver-embellished shrine within it.
The Cathedral’s dedication to St James and St Edmund neatly honours both the pilgrim saint and the saintly king, and places pilgrimage at the heart of veneration here.
Pilgrims have been coming to Bury’s abbey for a thousand years, and millennial celebrations take place throughout 2022, having been delayed two years by Covid.
The cathedral is a simple space, clean and cool, but with some spectacular modern painted ceilings.
They are so splendid that I wish I could lie on my back on a trolley and be towed around beneath them.
The Millennium Tower, with the loveliest, jewel-like ceiling, was completed only in 2005, powerful evidence that this is a place where faith and veneration are still very much alive.
Such was the abiding power and legacy of St Edmund that, in the Middle Ages, Bury St Edmunds was itself one of the most important pilgrim destinations in England. But for many of those pilgrims it was also a key staging post on the way to their ultimate goal: the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
The ruins of the abbey church stand on a 14-acre riverside site that is now a wonderfully peaceful park enclosed by 13th century abbey walls: the green heart of this pilgrim town, and a perfect place for exploration and reflection.
Find out more
For all you need to know in order to follow the London to Walsingham Camino, check out the guidebook
For highlights on each stage of the route, click on the links in the drop-down menu