GC4D78D Saint Cedd (Traditional Cache) in Eastern England, United Kingdom created by Bean & Sprout

This cache has been archived.

Hanoosh: As the owner has not responded to my previous log requesting that they check this cache I am archiving it.

Regards

Brenda
Hanoosh - Volunteer UK Reviewer www.geocaching.com
Geocaching Guidelines
Geocaching Help Center
UK Geocaching Information

GC4D78D ▼

A cache by Bean & Sprout Message this owner

Hidden : 5/30/2013

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: micro (micro)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

The little that is known about Cedd comes mainly from the writing of Bede in his Ecclesiastical History Of The English People.

1300 years ago there were people working in Ireland and Scotland to spread the Christian faith. In Ireland, Patrick had established many monasteries and from there Columba had gone to Iona, a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, to establish a monastery and many other Christian centres.

From Columba's monastery, a man called Aidan was sent from Iona at the invitation of King Oswald of Northumbria to set up a monastery at Lindisfarne on the north-east coast. It was also to be a school where Anglo-Saxon boys could be trained to become priests and missionaries. It was in this school that Cedd and his brothers Caelin, Cynebil and Chad learnt to read and write in Latin, and learnt to teach the Christian faith.

The four brothers were all ordained as priests and two of them, Cedd and Chad, later became bishops. Cedd's first mission was to go to the midlands, then called Mercia, at the request of its ruler, King Paeda, who wanted his people to become Christians. Cedd was so successful that when King Sigbert of the East Saxons (Essex) asked for a similar mission, it was Cedd who was sent.

In 653 Cedd sailed down the east coast of England from Lindisfarne and landed at Bradwell. Here he found the ruins of an old deserted Roman fort, Othona. The first building was probably a small wooden church but as there was so much stone from the fort Cedd soon realised that would provide a much more permanent building, so he replaced it the next year with the chapel we see today. Cedd called it Ythancaestir.

Cedd modelled his church on the style of churches in Egypt and Syria. The Celtic Christians were greatly influenced by the churches in that part of the world and it is known that St Antony of Egypt had built his church from the ruins of a fort on the banks of a river, just as Cedd did on the banks of the River Blackwater in Essex (then known as the River Pant).

Cedd's mission to the East Saxons was so successful that the same year he was recalled to Lindisfarne and made Bishop of the East Saxons. His simple monastery at Bradwell would, like those at Iona and Lindisfarne, have been at the same time a church, a community of both men and women, a hospital, a library, a school, an arts centre, a farm, a guest house and a mission base. From there he established other Christian centres at Mersea, Tilbury, Prittlewell and Upminster.

Cedd often visited his northern childhood home and in 659 was introduced to King Ethelwald who asked him to establish a monastery in Northumbria. Cedd chose a site at Lastingham as it was wild and seemed fit only for wild beast, robbers and demons. Again this was exactly how St Antony of Egypt chose his sites. In 664, while at his monastery in Lastingham, Cedd caught the plague. As he lay dying 30 of his monks from Bradwell came to be with him. They too caught it but one young boy survived and returned to Bradwell.

The chapel was damaged during Viking raids although the structure remained intact. In medieval times it was still used as a chapel and a tower was added above the entrance to house two small bells and to act as a look out post and beacon.

During the 17th century St Peters ceased to be used as a chapel. The chancel was pulled down and the nave used as a barn. St Peters was reputed to have been used by smugglers on many occasions.

In 1795 for the duration of the Napoleonic wars the chapel was used as a signaling station and in 1811 was upgraded to use the new semaphore signaling as part of the coastal defences and administration to the armed forces quartered in the coastal area.

The de consecrated church was then used as a barn by a local farmer until in 1920 the building was re-consecrated and restored although by now the chancel, apse and tower had been demolished. The historic connection is recognised by an annual interdenominational pilgrimage on the first Saturday in July which attracts Christians from all over the world.