Other Tombs of St. James

[Crawley, Jeffrey]

Interestingly in his TV programme Brian Sewell referred to the remains of St James being all there 'except the head and one hand'.

I can understand the head being missing - afterall he was beheaded - but why the hand?

Jeffrey (the Lesser)

-----Original Message-----
From: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage [mailto:GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU]On
Behalf Of Sally Haden
Sent: 11 August 2003 20:49
To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
Subject: Re: Other Tombs of St. James


Hi Jeff
How about one 'bit' of him?
I was recently reading "The Pilgrimage to Santiago" by Edwin Mullins,
written in the 1970s, and was very amused by his account of Reading Abbey in
England.  I live in England and had absolutely no idea that in medieval
times Reading had one of the finest, most visited and most wealthy Christian
churches in the country: "a bastion of monastic power in England throughout
the later Middle Ages", according to Mullins.  Alas it fell under the
unmerciful axe of Henry VIII.
A most important reason it was famous and wealthy was because it had one
HAND of St James.  Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor in the early
12th century, was given the hand when she visited Compostella.  Henry I of
England was her father and she gave it to him.  He put it into the abbey he
had founded - Reading.
Well, it is a fascinating tale... Tell me if you want to hear the rest of it
and I will paraphrase the three pages of Mullins' account. I would enjoy
that, but don't want to bore everyone.
The end of the tale is that during the ravages of the Reformation the relic
was hidden away and it ended up in a small, insignificant church in a town
called Marlow-on-Thames (which is, I suppose, somewhere between Reading and
London) where it was still being kept when Mullins wrote his book.  I wonder
if it is still there.
So, this isn't exactly a tomb, but it is, I suppose, a sort-of "verifiable"
piece.  I will see what else I can find out.
Sally

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