Celtic Spirituality - 2

Hexham Abbey

The front of Hexham Abbey

On the last day before my wife joined me, I had the opportunity to visit Hexham Abbey in northern England. What a beautiful place! The Abbey is a thriving local church today that has gone to great lengths to make it's history and faith easy to understand. Excellent interactive displays and labeling/signage to help interpret the place added to the richness there.

The side of Hexham Abbey

The most interesting part of the abbey to me was a 7th century Bishop's chair. It is padded today, but I can imagine, back in history it might not have been. Notice the amazing scroll work on the arms. It reminds me a bit of Capt. Kirk's chair in the original Star Trek TV program.

Bishop Chair from the 7th century

Also in the Abbey is a relatively recent (1611) Breeches' Bible. It is relatively rare version of the Geneva Bible where the words in Genesis 3:7 were changed from the first English bibles which said; "sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" to read; "they sewed fig tree leaves together and made themselves breeches." Some day I plan to do an adult forum on early versions of English bibles and why certain things were kept, tossed, or changed.

Breeches Bible

Next to this very interesting bible there was an illustrated bible designed "for the amusement youth" first published about 1784. It is called "A CURIOUS HIEROGLYPHIC BIBLE".

Illustrated Bible

Another interesting part to this abbey is the "night stair". When monks would wake in the wee hours to come to pray, instead of walking the longer or sometime outdoor route to prayers they could directly access the church via the night stair which ran from their rooms to the church proper. This particular night stair is climbable and affords a lovely view back into the church proper. 

Night Stair