Salisbury Cathedral

A member from Plymouth has been in touch to tell us that she recently visited the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Salisbury to recite the SSIM prayers.


The Cathedral and See moved from Old Sarum to Salisbury in the early 13thC under Bishop Richard Poore.  The Cathedral was built between the years 1220 and 1258 in the Early English Gothic Style.


The Cathedral houses the tomb of St Osmund of Salisbury, who was Bishop of Old Sarum from 1078-99.  He was an Norman nobleman with the title Count of Sees and was also for a time Lord Chancellor (1070-78).  Osmund was noted for building the Cathedral at Old Sarum, establishing a Cathedral governing body based on the Norman system, comprising a dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, 32 canons, a sub-dean and subcenter and thirdly for the formation of the 'Sarum Use' in the liturgy.


William of Malmesbury said of Osmund: "so eminent for chastity that common fame would itself blush to speak otherwise than truthfully concerning his virtue. Stern he might appear to penitents, but not more severe to them than to himself. Free from ambition, he neither imprudently wasted his own substance, nor sought the wealth of others".  He was canonised on 1 January 1457.


In 1472 Pope Sixtus IV granted an indugence to those who visit his Cathedral on his festival (4 December)