A Fascination with Ancient Churches

I've been visiting Ancient Churches in the past few weeks. I find them interesting, the old graves, even with their short epitaphs, giving me information about the lives of past generations. There are always many young deaths. Life in the past was not privileged to the medicines we have now, and far more precarious, or so it seems to me. My own great aunt died at the age of 9 years, I only recently found her grave and now think of her often. I don't know how she died, there is no one left in my family who could tell me.

These ancient churches hold so many stories that I have yet to unfold. But its the atmosphere and spirituality of churches that attract me. I feel a connection to the past which holds my attention, and I always allow my imagination to be transported back to times past. I have always believed that our ancestors live on in us and that it is good to keep them alive through talking about them and trying to understand who they were, how they lived, the difficulties and challenges they faced and the happiness they felt in their lives.

In Nevern there is the church of St Brynach where there stands a Celtic Cross dated from the late 10th or early 11th century. The story goes that the community would surround the cross to await the beginning of spring; when a bird landed on the cross they accepted that spring had begun.

Nevern Cross

Interior of Nevern Church

Embroidery of St Brynach