Roodmass and the Legend of the Holy Cross September 14th

Roodmas is celebrated September 14th (and May 3rd). It was celebrated with processions, and the cooking of Cross-shaped food. Parish Churches used to have a Rood Screen separating the holy Choir from the more secular Nave. This screen was topped with a statue of the Crucified Jesus.

Roodmas commemorates the discovery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in 326 by Helena, wife of Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine the Great. Most of the Cross was sent back to the care of Constantine the Great in Constantinople. The part of the Holy Cross that was left in Jerusalem was taken by Persians but recovered by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628. The two events are celebrated on the two dates for Roodmas.

Over the years, the cross was shivered into ever smaller pieces as Emperors, Kings, Dukes, Counts, Popes, Bishops, Abbots and Abbesses swopped relics with each other. The fragments were cased in beautiful reliquaries and had enormous power for those of faith and those who could be helped by healing by faith.

The Rood in Stratford-upon-Avon

One of my favourite places to go is the Chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross at Stratford-upon-Avon. It is a medieval chapel, opposite the house Shakespeare was living in when he died, and near the school he went to. The Guild which ran it was dedicated to the legend of the Holy Cross, or the Rood as it was called in the medieval period. The Guild also ran the local council.

The Guild Chapel was built in 1269 and developed in the 15th Century. The legend of the Holy Cross held that seeds from the Tree of Knowledge were grown on Adam’s Grave, honoured by the Queen of Sheba, buried by King Solomon, possibly used in the building of the Temple, and used as the Cross to crucify Jesus. Then buried and found, with the nails, and the crown of thorns by St. Helena. She knew it was the real thing as a deathly sick women was revived by contact with the timber of the Holy Cross.

In the 15th Century Hugh Clopton, former Lord Mayor of London and richest man of Stratford on Avon, paid to enlarge the Chapel. Included in the restoration was a new paint scheme for the interior of the Chapel. This is now thought to be one of the most complete survivals of a unified medieval decorative Church interior design. What makes it even more interesting is that in 1564, the person responsible for defacing the wall paintings was one John Shakespeare, father of William.

The most striking part of the scheme is ‘Doom’ which is high on the Chancel Arch. The detail of the figures are pecked out and defaced, but the outline of the bodies can be seen. It shows Jesus in the middle. with corpses sitting upright in their graves, as they are called to Judgement. To the Left is the City of God, still in good condition, and on the right is the mouth to hell. Hellish creatures are collecting lost souls, brandishing huge clubs. Hellfire is seen in a building above the hellhole, where figures representing the Seven Deadly Sins are seen.

Other set pieces including the story of Adam, the Whore of Babylon, an illustrated poem: Earth to Earth, St Thomas, St Christopher. The left-hand side of the nave contains traces of a French scheme called the Dance of Death which shows a pope dancing with a skeleton dancing with a Cardinal, dancing with a skeleton dancing with a Patriarch dancing with a skeleton and so on through the ranks of society. All equal in the face of death, and rendered in a vivid vermillion. There was a version of it in the Pardon Cloister, at St Pauls in London which is where Clopton might have seen it. A poem on the subject was written by John Lydgate.

For my post on Charles III, his coronation, and the True Cross please look here:

Féill Ròid – in Scotland

In Scotland, Roodmas (or Féill Ròid) is the beginning of the rutting season for deer. And if the night before was wet, it would followed by a month of dry weather, so the farmer need not worry about his crops.

Please return to the page as I will add images when I return to London.

First draft September 2024, revised 2025