Worcester Pilgrim

I recently visited Worcester Cathedral and was surprised to find that there is the grave of a 15^th Century Pilgrim there – it was found in 1987 during excavations on the Cathedral floor and is the first discovery of a Pilgrim burial in England.

 

Within the grave was found a skeleton wearing the remains of knee-length boots and woollen garments. He had with him a small wooden staff that was painted purple and topped with a horn peg and with a tip of an iron double-prong. A scallop shell, pierced so that it could be hung by a cord was to one side of him. His head (on which may have been his pilgrim hat) was lost in 19^th century works.

Looking at the boots I cannot help to compare them to my own that I wear on Pilgrimage – the soles of his are thin and the shoes leather, these are far from the ‘technical’ shoes that modern pilgrims wear. Similarly you would not find many pilgrims at all now who would wear any wool clothes. Things have changed a lot since this Pilgrim walked to Santiago.

The man was well-fed and in his 60s who was placed with his arms crossed over his chest and was buried as near to the altar as was possible for one of his status.

He had a muscular right arm and wear and tear to his joints indicating a lot of walking possibly done whilst leaning on a staff. He also had arthritis in his legs, toes, spine, ribs and pelvis and fusion in some of his bones of his spine, coccyx, ribs and sternum. At some point he had also gained two scars from arrowheads on his left thigh.

Reasearch has suggested that the Pilgrim may be Robert Sutton who died in 1454. He was a Dyer and one-time Baliff in Worcester and so would have had access and funds to use the rare purple pigment that was used for the paint on his staff.

Sutton was a member of the Fraternity of Saint James and as a Pilgrim he would have earned the right to be buried in the manner seen although there was no mention of a wish to be buried in this manner in his will Sutton did pay for a new ceiling in the tower of Saint Andrew’s Church and chose to be shown as a Pilgrim in one of the carved roof bosses.

I did ask one of the guides at the Cathedral and he did confirm that the Pilgrim had been reburied in his original position but did not know whether he had been buried with his scallop shell and nor did he know if the Cathedral has a sello of some sort to stamp a credential.

 

Worcester Cathedral had shrines to Saint Oswald and Saint Wulfston and so was a popular place for Pilgrims both as a place of Pilgrimage in its own right and as somewhere to visit on their way to Santiago.
 

In 1218 the remains of both Saints were enshrined in the present Cathedral (which was built 1084-1504). Saint Wulfston’s tomb was canopied and protected by metal grills and had a large crucifix and precious jewels adorning it. Off to one side there was an image of him that Pilgrims could kiss and they could leave the Cathedral with a small bottle of Holy Water.
 

The Pilgrim’s shoes and staff can be seen in the Cathedral Crypt (entry to the Cathedral and Crypt are free but a donation is requested).