Old, old story

Boot worn and mudded after six thrilling days of Orkney exploration, we forwent Easter morning services at St. Magnus Cathedral.  The decision hinged more upon humility, being unfit for decent company, beggared and tired.  

We did visit the open cathedral later that afternoon, however.  A remarkable edifice.  Its timeline is difficult to wrap one's head around; after all, St. Magnus has been home of Kirkwall's faithful for some 900 years.  It gave Kirkwall its name.  

Further, being constructed by Vikings in penance of a murder it is said, St. Magnus Cathedral does not neatly "fit" stereotypes of the war like Norse...their long-ships (lang skip), raiding and bloodletting, death to monks and all manner of hurt.  

As ancient cathedrals go, St. Magnus is something.  Perhaps, when compared to Italian Renaissance cathedrals on the Continent, the hewn sandstone of St. Magnus may seem rough, rustic.  But we are unqualified to make such a critical distinction.       

St. Magnus' hewn sandstone is said to have been quarried on the Isle of Eday.  An aside, we attempted to find this quarry while we were on Eday, but were not successful.  The main reason was that the single track near where the quarry is apparently located, had no obvious parking anywhere along it. 

We mentioned this to a local lady who was out walking on south Eday.  She sought out conversation, curious as to our nationality.  She mentioned that it would have been okay to just park "anywhere".  But we were reticent to block the roadway since a few homesteads were served by the track, to say nothing of traipsing through fenced ground around those houses.    

Built of hewn sandstone or no, as the most northerly cathedral in the British Isles (and thus on the edge of the world in its day), St. Magnus has its share of ornateness, of finery.  Rest assured.

Its stained glass is certainly the equal of continental houses of worship.  

From the ethereal stained glass above to the ornate inlaid floors below, St. Magnus Cathedral does what it was doubtlessly intended to do by the Viking Lords who built it so many centuries ago--it conveys majesty and projects might.

It also yields a pensiveness, quiet reflection.  The cathedral's congregants (and simply visitors as we were) doubtless wonder at the lives long past, and yet still monumentalized in the commemorative burial stones in its walls.  

In an island realm that is literally filled with Neolithic cairns, St. Magnus lends perspective on resurrection, a poignant reminder of mortality and yet eternal life as well.  From Matthew 13:17, "For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see."...Matthew referred to the ancient ones, those of the Neolithic, who longed to see eternal life.  

And similarly those in our own present modern day who equally long to see. 

As the old Gospel hymn (published 1879; lyrics by Katherine Hankey and put to music by William Doane) goes: 

"Tell me the old, old story,
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love"

Unseen things.  Magnus himself was also interred in the walls of the cathedral. For centuries long forgotten, an ancient and truly humble pine box was uncovered during cathedral preservation work in the 1930s.

The box, found within one of the hewn sandstone columns, was the reliquary of St. Magnus.  Far from ornate, the ancient reliquary is truly humble.  His bones were re-interred in the cathedral.

St. Magnus' simple reliquary box is presently preserved and exhibited in the Kirkwall Museum in the shadow of the cathedral.