Walk & Talk: Relics and Pilgrims at Glastonbury Abbey

Join Dr Tim Hopkinson-Ball for a walk and talk about Relics and Pilgrims in the late middle ages. Much modern writing, both popular and scholarly, has given undue emphasis to the ‘legendary’ at Glastonbury Abbey, focusing on King Arthur, Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail. In so doing, it has unwittingly upheld a distorted and largely romantic view of the abbey’s spiritual role in the Middle Ages and thus prevented its positioning in the medieval Catholic mainstream.

In this talk and tour of the abbey ruins, Dr Tim Hopkinson-Ball will address common misconceptions concerning relics, consider Glastonbury's shrines and explain how they were experienced by pilgrims. Join Tim as he presents a new perspective on the saints venerated at Glastonbury Abbey and takes you on a tour of the great church as it was experienced by the laity shortly before the Dissolution in 1539.

Dr Tim Hopkinson-Ball is an independent scholar and Chair of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. He has lectured widely on Glastonbury’s history and traditions. Tim is also the author of numerous papers, including the only academic study of the cultus of Our Lady at Glastonbury. He is also author of The Rediscovery of Glastonbury, a biography of Frederick Bligh Bond, the first Director of Excavations at the abbey, and Glastonbury: Origins of the Sacred, a study of the evolution of the abbey's foundation story.

Tickets cost £15 and include entry to the Abbey.

This is a Glastonbury Abbey fundraising event.

You may also like the following events from Glastonbury Abbey:

• This Saturday, 30th August, 10:00 am, Late Summer Yoga Mini Retreat in Glastonbury
• This Saturday, 30th August, 11:00 am, Glastonbury Abbey & Town Guided Tour in Glastonbury
• Next Saturday, 6th September, 12:00 pm, Glastonbury Pilgrimage - Pilgrims of Hope Day One: Anglican in Glastonbury

Also check out other Arts events in Glastonbury, Literary Art events in Glastonbury.