Thursday, 13 September 2012

Archangels at Canterbury Cathedral

This will probably be my last Archangel hunt as I'm running out of places in the UK that I know contain images of Archangels rather than just Gabriel or chubby cherubs. If you know anywhere else please let me know! I love going on Archangel hunts!

Canterbury Cathedral is in Cantebury, Kent, UK and is famous for being where the Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) hangs out, where Thomas Becket was stabbed in the head by four of Henry II's knights and where the pilgrims are headed in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It is also one of the few churches in the UK whose stained glass windows survived the bombings of World War II.

Archangel Gabriel


 
This piece is by Valerie Dean and is actually for sale as part of an exhibition at the cathedral.
 
The Christopher Whall Window (1902)
 
The Christopher Whall window in the south west of the cathedral has to be my favourite stained glass window ever! It contains images of the archangels Gabiel, Michael, Uriel and Phanuel or Raphael (I can't remember which it is!) and is generally a beautiful piece of artwork. Unfortunately at the moment the cathedral is having a lot of work done in the area of this window so it difficult to get a good view of.


Archangel (Saint) Michael

Uriel

 
This is two thirds of the main part of the window. You can view the whole of the window and other pieces by Christopher Whall at the Christopher Whall Flickr group.
 
Here is another window featuring Uriel, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael which is not accessible to the public.

The altar below has absolutely nothing to do with angels...I just like it!

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yay! First comment! Thanks!

      I've been to so many churchs that have lost their stained glass it was a real delight to see that the cathedral still has so many! Especailly such a lovely one of Uriel - Uriel is such an obscure angel you never see him / her! I'd love some stained glass at home - it looks like such a hard art form! Actually I'm really lucky, my local church still has its stained glass.

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