Rebuilding will be more solid than stone

By Michael de la BEDOYERE
GLASTONBURY TOR, Chalice Hill, Wearyall Hill, the Isle of Avalon — the names, no less than the unforgettable rich green contours rising above what once was marsh and sea, denote a hallowed spot.
King Arthur, the Holy Grail, St. not to speak of Joseph of Patrick, Arimathea and even Our Lord Himself during His hidden life, all these form part of the legendary background of a Catholic shrine which in its air of holy mystery yields to none In Northern Europe.
Legend, yes; but legend curiously harmonising with archaeologists' discoveries of Roman and even possibly apostolic remains.
But the solid basis of Glaston bury's fame and spiritual attraction is Our Lady. For the Wattle Church built in Our Lady's honour certainly goes back to the eighth century and probably to the sixth. thus giving it a claim to be the oldest Marian shrine north of the Alps. Among the ruins today, it is the Lady Chapel which retains most of the Abbey's first splendour — the Lady Chapel rebuilt in 1186 after the great fire of 1184 on the spot where had stood for so many years the Wattle Church of Our Lady.
The story of Glastonbury as a centre of prayer, especially to Our Lady; as St. Dunstan's centre for monastic revival in the tenth century; as one of the greatest medieval abbeys risen from the ashes of the 12th century fire; as finally dissolved under Henry VIII and slowly left to fall into ruins— (ES story, in which there is no admixture of legend, is the heritage today of every Catholic, English and also Irish, in this country.
It is the story, too, of the martyrdom of Glastonbury's last Abbot. Bl. Richard Whiting. dragged with his companions to the gallows on the summit of the Tor. and, as he died, contemplating what Dom David Knowles describes as a landscape carrying a greater weight of legend than any other in England.
"To the island valley at his feet the dying Arthur had been ferried. Through the sedges from the Parrett had come Joseph of Arimathea bearing the Grail. On the pleasant pastures of the Mendips had shone the countenance of the Child
Jesus. Below him lay now the majestic pile of his Abbey, desolate. solitary, and about to crumble into ruins."
It is those ruins which Catholics of this generation and future ones can rebuild in stuff more solid than stone. Opposite the ruins stands the large, well-built Catholic church dedicated to Our Lady —a pilgrim's church In it is the fine statue of Our Lady of Glastonbury linked spiritually with Our Lady's Wattle church, our oldest Marian shrine.
Surely this 1.500 years of Marian tradition in our land must lead to the spiritual restoration of Glastonbury as a centre of prayer and work for the restoration in our land of that Christian unity which flourished from the early days of legend until the Reformation.
Meanwhile next Sunday many more pilgrims than ever from the parishes of the West country will gather by St. Michael's tower on the Tor and wend their way down the slopes and along the streets to the foot of Our Lady of Glastonbury in the church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, as for so many years it was reserved in the great abbey. For those who want to know more about Glastonbury we recommend the C.T.S. pamphlet by Dom Aelred Watkin, "The Story of Glastonbury".