Hello, my name is Liudmila. I was born in Lithuania, have family roots in Russia, but now I live in Norway:) I can't tell anything astonishing about myself... I'm not registered in the Guinness Book of Records, haven't invented the bicycle and wasn't elected as a president :D I'm an ordirary person with simple hobbies - love travelling, reading books, meeting my friends, I just love life as it is, with all advantages and disadvantages. I just have an interesting hobby - I collect bookmarks :) I'm a passionate bookmark collector and hope to find more collectors, exchange bookmarks with them, show my collection to others and have a look at other collections :) You can contact me, if you're interested in bookmark exchange :) Hope to find friends from all over the world :)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

St. Cross with St.Faith


The History of St Cross

Legend has it that the Hospital’s foundation originated in a walk that Henry de Blois, a grandson of William the Conqueror, took in the Itchen Meadows. He was supposedly stopped by a young peasant girl who begged de Blois to help her people, who were starving because of the civil war. The parallel with the Virgin Mary was not lost on de Blois, who was so moved by the girl’s plight that when, a little further along the river, he discovered the ruins of a religious house, he resolved to use the site to establish a new community to help the poor. How much of this is fact is unclear, but we do know that Henry de Blois was young, wealthy and powerful: a monk, knight and politician in one. Appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1129 at the age of 28, he founded the Hospital of St Cross between 1132 and 1136, creating what has become England’s oldest charitable institution.

The Hospital was founded to support thirteen poor men, so frail that they were unable to work, and to feed one hundred men at the gates each day. The thirteen men became the Brothers of St Cross. Then, as now, they were not monks. St Cross is not a monastery but a secular foundation. Medieval St Cross was endowed with land, mills and farms, providing food and drink for a large number of people – don’t forget the water was unfit for drinking so copious amounts of ale and beer were needed!

In the fifteenth century, Cardinal Beaufort added to the St Cross buildings and is widely regarded as giving St Cross the look it has today.

Thank you,Rick :)

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