Monday, 23rd September, 2019.
The Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering, has "one of the most complete series of wall paintings in English churches, and they give one a vivid idea of what ecclesiastical interiors were really like". (Nicholas Pevsner, The Buildings of England.)
This is a Saxon Church, rebuilt by the Normans in the 11th century. The paintings were discovered in 1851, covered over again then restored in the 1870s.
St George slaying the dragon.
Very little is known about St Edmund. By tradition he met his death after he refused the Danes' demand that he renounce Christ: the Danes beat him, shot him with arrows and then beheaded him.
The wall paintings were mainly very graphic and bloodthirsty. You wouldn't have gone to church for peaceful meditation. All pictures except for the unfortunate St Edmund are Paul's.
The Parish of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering, has "one of the most complete series of wall paintings in English churches, and they give one a vivid idea of what ecclesiastical interiors were really like". (Nicholas Pevsner, The Buildings of England.)
The beheading of St John the Baptist. Just in case you miss the significance of
this event, his head is shown twice – once on the floor beside his kneeling
headless body (a bit hard to see in this shot) and again on the platter being
presented to Herod at the table.
The wall paintings were mainly very graphic and bloodthirsty. You wouldn't have gone to church for peaceful meditation. All pictures except for the unfortunate St Edmund are Paul's.
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