St. Nicholas Church
Dereham, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Image Courtesy: Norfolk Churches
This is not only a very beautiful St. Nicholas Church but a very old and historic one. It was founded in the year 654 when St. Withburga - the daughter of King Anna - laid the foundation for a church and convent.
St. Withburga
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Photo by: Evelyn Simak (Copyrighted)
This image of the beloved saint is found on the medieval rood screen of the church. There are the images of five other saints upon it as well - St. John the Baptist, the container holding St. Mary Magdala's myrrh, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and St. John the Evangelist (the sixth one is in fragments).
St. Nicholas Church with it's two Bell Towers and that which is known as the Well of St. Withburger.
(According to my source the water in this well was said to be holy and able to miraculously heal those who drink it)
Image courtesy: Geograph
Photo by: Evelyn Simak (Copyrighted)
There is so much more to this church's history but that which quite struck me is that it is the resting place of the man who gave us one of the most quoted verses today. In fact, when I included the verse in one of my novels many wrote to me how surprised they were to learn that it was from the pen of this "modern" man and not from the Bible itself! The man is William Cowper...
William Cowper
(Poet and Hymnodist)
(1731-1800)
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Artist: Lemuel Abbott
And his most famous words:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
(Olney Hymns (1779)--"Light Shining out of Darkness")
In light of this verse it is so fitting that William Cowper should be buried in a church dedicated to St. Nicholas; a saint whose wonder-working association with the sea is so great.
I'd like to extend many thanks to Angela Almond at Tracing Rainbows for not only telling me about this lovely church but for giving me such a lovely run down on its history too! Please visit her blog - it's all about "Experiencing God's Grace In The Everyday!" Something she manages so well!
30 comments:
Gotta love the old pommy churches. In Oxfordshire there is a lovely one I love in the village of Chadlington where I was born.
What a lovely posting -- beautiful church and beautiful quote!
I think this place has charm.
Oh Ann, this is so beautiful, truly, your dedication to this influential individual of God's mercy is remarkable. Enjoy a blessed weekend with all those you love....and give kitty Edward a pat for me....Anita
What a lovely church. I love following your series of St. Nicholas churches.
While in England and Belgium my oldest son and I visited a great number of churches. We found the history of countries wrapped up in the history of those churches.
Ann - thank you so much for posting this about 'My' St Nicholas' Church. It does have a great history, as you say - the early links with St Withburga, and the later ones with William Cowper the great hymnwriter.
May you have a truly blessed Easter x
I never knew where that qote came from , how intersting! and such a beautiful church!
Well you're getting ever closer to me Ann. Dereham is only about 20 miles from here and I have actually been inside this church.
Love xx
What a beautiful Church, this series is turning into being a masterpiece. Diane
This Church is a bit closer to home! It looks very pretty. You do really well to find all these lovely Churches for us to look at.
Hi Hi Hi to you.
Another interesting post.
Where is Edward?
How is he doing?
Have a fun weekend.
Hugs, Dogwood
Such beautiful churches. I love looking at old buildings!
So interesting to find out where that saying or quote came from. Thanks for sharing :-) xo
teeeeheeee! Sweet Penny has one of her characters, BEBE going to Hawaii; she also made a little Bear named Lily who wears an Easter bonnet. Well, I started Tea Rat wearing an bonnet himself, and all that caused some fun banter between us. So we egged on Rattus, who is very conservative, to SHAKE HIS BUM once and a while and have some fun! Sooooo...there he is sporting a grass skirt...I hope you heard the silly hula music. It was giving me a hard time this morning!!! THANKS FOR COMING TO NOWHERE!!! Anita
P.S., Ruben is in the process of writing the text to go with my drawing; I did it, as you can probably tell, in a HURRY!!!
Hi Ann! Lovely church and pictures. You are doing a beautiful job here!
Lovely church.. my husband's grandmother comes from Dereham! Its a small world, indeed :) xx
Beautiful church and interesting history!
this is a lovely church
i'm loving this series Ann
BEAR and I wish you and
EDWARD a blessed week~
the holiest week of the year~
~victoria~
Hi Ann! It was lovely to see you again, and my apologies also for my infrequent visits! I've been so busy lately that just getting a few posts up on the blog has seemed a mammoth task.
Such a lovely church, and certainly steeped in history. It's still utterly amazing to me that such magnificent buildings could be built in such early and primitive times without all the building technology we have today. Truly divine and blessed places.
Linda. xox
I knew I had read that name before. And there is was in "mysterious ways." :)
Hi Ann, beautiful story and an intersting story..did you know we have a St Nicolas church in Amsterdam?
Erna x
What a beautiful church and it appears to be a large one. I love the design.
Madi and Mom
very beautiful! and i shall visit the God's grace blog right away! xo
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing! Love your blogs!
Simply breathtaking Ann.. The verse from the pen of William Cowper is so powerful to me..
Holy blessings to you this week. Thank you for your most welcome visit.
fondly,
Penny
Those churches are wonderful! Such details and elegance!
Interesting, been there too, have relies in Brandon, not too far from Dereham.
Having trouble with my net connections at the moment, keeps popping on and off a lot.
Got Virgin coming out thurs, hoping to have it fixed and working all the time.
nice
good job
xoxo
Really beautiful Ann! Thanks for sharing:-). Hope you're having a wonderful week.
What a task you set yourself with all these churches.
I'll have to try and visit this one in Norfolk.
God bless.
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