Home from Home

Shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a man from Kent emigrated to Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. As he had been brought up by the monks at Canterbury, he put the fortune and political influence he gained by service in the Imperial army to good use by building a church in honour of St Augustine and St Nicholas.

The Kentish man had the inside of his church decorated with icons of St Augustine and St Nicholas, and kept lamps burning before them — lamps so bright that it was never night within. The English emigres in Constantinople would gather there to make their prayers and remember the land they had been forced to flee.

115 words

Read the whole story

Return to the Index

Tags

Norman Era (14) Goscelin of Canterbury (1) Roman Empire (5) King William I (the Conqueror) (6) Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) (6) St Nicholas of Myra (8) Constantinople (14) Anglo-Saxon Era (72) Mediaeval History (150) British History (377) History (777)

Related Posts

for Home from Home

Norman Era

One Vast Heap of Booty

Embarrassed by the behaviour of his Norman bishops and abbots, King William I asked monk Guitmond to come over and set an example.

by Orderic Vitalis 1075-?1142

Norman Era

The Better Man

Two monks vying for the abbot’s chair at one of England’s prestigious monasteries each promised King William Rufus handsome rewards for his favour.

from Holinshed’s Chronicles 1577

Norman Era

The Voyage of Sigurd

Back in the eleventh century English refugees founded New York, but it wasn’t in North America.

from The Saga of Edward the Confessor

Norman Era

Welcome to Micklegarth

After the Norman Conquest, thousands of disappointed Englishmen departed for a new life in the Byzantine world.

by Orderic Vitalis 1075-?1142