Christchurch Cathedral/Chapel and the Patron Saint of Oxford

Built in the 12th century, the Christchurch Cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in Oxford. It is the only building in the world to be both a cathedral and a college chapel.


The picture above is the window of Saint Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford. Frideswide was a princess to the king of Oxford. Her mother died so she was raised by nuns. As she grew older, many suitors came to seek her hand in marriage, most notably King Algar. She runs away but he follows her, searching everywhere. The bottom of the second panel of this window shows her hiding from Algar in a pigsty. She escaped, became a nun and healed people of blindness and other ailments to the end of her holy days.


Here's her tomb, however her body was removed during the Reformation raids on Catholic churches:


The chapel also has a window dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, one of Frideswide's saintly advisors from beyond the grave.


Saint Catherine of Alexandria is also the namesake of my college, not to be confused with Saint Catherine of Siena. The wheel on our college crest is her symbol for she was tortured on the wheel which miraculously broke and shot splinters into hundreds of pagan onlookers.

Since I wrote an entire paper about her last semester at Mac, I feel compelled to regale you with the rest of Catherine's story (the short version, I promise) but feel free to skip it and save your precious blog-reading attention for when I post more pictures.

Catherine of Alexandria was a noble/princess who was incredibly smart and beautiful. A hermit told her about Jesus and she decided she wanted him and no mortal husband as he was the only one who matched her in beauty and intelligence. The emperor Maxentius wasn't very happy about this because he wanted to marry her so he sent 50 philosophers to try to convert her back to paganism but she converted them instead. This is why she is the patron saint of philosophers.

Catherine dreams of Christ and he gives her a ring to as proof of her marriage to him. Many nuns are depicted in hagiography as brides of Christ but Catherine's relationship with him was extra-special. Her supernatural marriage to Christ is one of the important aspects of her story.

Enraged, Maxentius ordered her to be tortured and killed. She was beaten and bloodied and put on the wheel which broke killing pagan onlookers. Maxentius then beheaded her himself but instead of blood, miraculous healing milk poured forth from her wounds. Ah, saints.

Here's me wearing my Catz sweatshirt with the crest: