The "Little Church of Wattles" (dedicated to Our Lady) in Glastonbury, England is believed to date from very shortly after the Crucifixion. Eventually Glastonbury Abbey sprang up around it. It may predate this Jordanian find.
But its hard to believe that the English church would be that close to dating near this church when we think about the logics of distance from Jerusalem and the time it would have taken for an apostle to get out there- of course I may be wrong, but I would have to read more about both in detail. What do you think?
The legend is that Joseph of Arimathea was a tin trader and an uncle of Our Lord (he also provided the sepulcher in which Our Lord was lain and in which He Rose from the Dead – see:
Mark 15:43 Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
John 19:38 And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jєωs) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
Matthew 27:57 And when it was evening, there came a certain rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was a disciple of Jesus.),
and that he was involved with the tin trade in Cornwall and actually brought Jesus and possibly Mary with him to England on one or more of his visits.
There is another part of the same pious legend that after the Crucifixion he carried either the Chalice from the Last Supper or 2 cruets containing some of Our Savior's Precious Blood and some of His sweat (or alternatively water from His side), and that it was that Chalice or those cruets which were later the object of the Quest for the Holy Grail by knights (purported as part of the Arthurian lore – but the historical Arthur was a 5th century Celtic chieftain and bore no relation to the Arthur of Mallory's
Morte d'Arthur and the whole Grail thing was taken over by the occultists, and it is impossible to separate fact from fantasy in a lot of this stuff)... but that said, the Church of Wattles apparently was built in the First Century by pilgrims, and we know it was rededicated in 166 AD.
There's more – the legend says that Joseph of Arimathea carried with him a staff of thorn wood of the same type as the Crown of Thorns, and that he stuck it in the ground on Wirral (Weary-All) Hill, being weary, and it took root and blossomed, which he took as a sign to there build a small chapel and dedicate it to Our Lady. The Abbey eventually sprung up around the "Little Church of Wattles," and was later confiscated by the crown during the Deformation and the abbot hanged and drawn and quartered. A puritan zealot cut down the Holy Torn, and was blinded when a chip of wood from it flew into his eye. A scion hidden by recusants was planted on the original site, and grew, and retained a curious property of the original thorn, namely blooming on Christmas Day (which I once saw for myself).
Unfortunately, last year a vandal cut down the scion.
Fianally, do we know for certain that the Jordanian site is what it is claimed to be?
Topic: Archeologists find oldest Catholic church (Read 1582 times)