Day 6: Prime Shrine Day
Today, I ended up driving a lot, hence the tie-in to a car wash company in the Central Valley. We put in a lot of miles from Maidstone to Canterbury to Ramsgate and back again in order to see two historical shrines: one for the first Archbishop of Canterbury and the other for his successor, who was martyred for insisting that only he, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, had the right to ordain the King.
Driving in England continues to be interesting. I am used to shifting on the left side, but my mind continues to play tricks as to which lane to turn into when turning right (all the way across to the left-hand side), watching the traffic on the other side of the freeway, and then all of the fun with the never ending roundabouts. Luckily, I had Nico to be the navigator to watch Google to determine which “exit” to take off of the roundabout. Multiple times he has said in the journey, “I’m so glad that it is you driving and not me.” Even some of the tiny streets was a challenge, one or two way? The photo below is a two way street with parked cars on either side!
We got a relatively late start as the first thing we really wanted to do was mass in Canterbury. We drove the 40 minutes from Maidstone to Canterbury and arrived at the historical, walled city. The traffic was bad, but once we parked and walked to the church, we were fine. We entered the old city past the massive walls. We were a little early for mass, so we walked to some of the stores. It reminded us of many other ancient cities with small, cobbled stoned streets and lots of “cute” shops. Maria found one with a hand cream that she hasn’t been able to find for quite a while, so was very happy.
We were blessed that it was not just a regular, daily mass. It ended up being a requiem mass for a 92-year-old who had past away at the end of July. It was nice to see how full the church was, and we had the presence of two Franciscan friars, as one was related to Katy, the deceased. They had an interesting way of carrying in the whicker casket on the shoulders of the pall bearers. Maria learned from a woman after mass that both the whicker casket and the carrying on the shoulders was a Protestant tradition, not a Catholic one. Katy was part of the charismatic renewal, so felt an attraction to a lot of Protestant things. It’s a good thing that she had the conversation, so we didn’t leave thinking that all English funerals were like that.
The church was quite beautiful and contained relics of St Thomas of Canterbury and Bl Oscar Romero. In spite of the high heat and the profuse sweat we all had, we were all happy to have mass to start the day.
The church was quite beautiful and contained relics of St Thomas of Canterbury and Bl Oscar Romero. In spite of the high heat and the profuse sweat we all had, we were all happy to have mass to start the day.
Next, we entered the cathedral to view the history and majesty of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It seemed like an expensive entry fee, especially when there was an additional fee for a guided tour, either in person or via an audio recording. The cathedral is majestic, but it didn’t have the same feeling as the ones we have visited before, and that is not just because it is Anglican instead of Catholic. It had the feel more of a museum with modern art in multiple places throughout. Even Westminster Cathedral had a spiritual feeling that Cantebury did not, in spite of being the seat of the spiritual head of the Anglicans. We left feeling a little disappointed.
Our last real stop was at the Catholic Shrine to St Augustine of Canterbury, the legate of the Pope in the sixth century to convert the British Isles. Because the drive from Canterbury to Ramsgate was another hour, we arrived a little late. As we were about to park, I saw the Open sign being rolled inside. We entered anyway, and Maria used her “mad skills” to convince the guide to “give us just five minutes, since we have come from California.” We thought that he was just going to let us explore, but as we entered to church, he came to give us the historical overview of everything. It was very refreshing, and the interior was nice and cool. We were very appreciative of learning what he shared. I recommend making the trip and making a donation, as there are many needed repairs to the church, one of the first post Reformation Catholic Churches in England, located as close as possible to where St Augustine had landed.
Tomorrow we leave England and head to Ireland. Nico and I are happy as the weather forecast is much better, nothing over the low 60s. There is a couple of long drives and a flight, but we are looking forward with great anticipation.