Tales of English Minsters: St. Paul's

St Paul’s Cathedral looms over London’s skyline, a landmark that feels as much a part of the city as its streets. Its story is told alongside the Tower and Westminster Abbey, yet it belongs to the people rather than the crown, earning the nickname ‘the Church of the Citizens.’ Unlike many great cathedrals that grew from humble monasteries, St Paul’s was imagined as a cathedral from the start, its accompanying abbey set on the marshy Thorney Island that once lay in the Thames.

The narration begins in Roman London, where a modest church on Ludgate Hill marked the first Christian foothold. After the Roman legions withdrew, the island endured the onslaught of Jutes, Angles and Saxons, and faith faded until Augustine’s mission revived it two centuries later. With the conversion of King Ethelbert of Kent and his nephew, the East Saxon ruler Sievert, the idea of a new cathedral for the capital took shape, and the first Bishop Milletus was appointed to lead the new community.