A daylight self-tour to record some important relics in photographic form. I begin in the crypt, the farthest eastern chapel being the Chapel of Jesus.
Up the stairs, so wonderfully worn down by pilgrims across the ages,
is the chapel of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1093-1109). The new Aosta marble altar hewn from the hillsides of his hometown in Italy, was created by Stephen Cox and consecrated by Archbishop Rowan Williams in 2006.
The Stone Boat, made by the cathedral’s stonemasons’ workshop from Caen stone like the cathedrals walls, has a double helix carved within it – a sign of early people’s search for meaning, echoing St Anselm’s aphorism ‘fides quaerens intellectu’ – faith seeking understanding. The double helix also mirrors the molecular form of DNA – of life itself.
Other more recent Archbishops are remembered nearby.
Even the first Australian bishop, William Grant Broughton (1834-1853) has a tomb in the cathedral (below).
The Warriors’ Chapel is particularly elaborate.
Father M 