Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Consecration of Westminster Cathedral

The long vigil of fifteen years has ended. Fifteen years of strong endeavour have achieved a splendid triumph. The crowning act was the Consecration on Tuesday. The act was clothed with all the solemnity with which the Church, with its matchless heritage of ritual, knows how to surround its life and express its spirit. And now Westminster Cathedral takes its place among the great Cathedrals of the world, unique and original in design, itself alone, with its own message, and its own significance. The predilection of Bentley was for Gothic art ; he has produced a masterpiece which is old and new, individual and alone. In style it spans the centuries, finds its foundations in the years of early Christianity as it emerged in freedom from the catacombs, and now the great act of Consecration has set an eternal seal upon it.”

- From the July 2, 1910 edition of the Tablet. Click here to read the whole account of the ceremony, a really splendid piece of writing.

The dedication of the Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood took place over two days, June 28th and June 29th of 1910. The photograph above shows the part of the ceremony in which the bishop writes the letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets with his crook in the ashes which have been sprinkled over the floor of the nave.

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