St Saviour's Church, Stydd, Ribchester

I recently discovered Stydd Chapel just outside Ribchester. This is a beautiful medieval church which, on account of its general isolation yet relative proximity to Ribchester, was left alone by the modernising Victorians. Whoever looks after it does an excellent job, and they kindly keep it unlocked during daylight hours. The place is also known as St Saviour’s. This seems a rather odd name, as Jesus was never a ‘saint’. But in the Latin it is Sanctus Salvator, better translated as holy saviour.

 

The Church belonged to the Knights Hospitaller, a crusading order like the Templars, once based in Jerusalem and then Rhodes and Malta. They probably built the chapel to service the manor that they held there, the revenues of which helped to fund their operations in Palestine. At the Reformation, lands belonging to monastic orders were seized by the crown and sold on. At any rate, the Order had lost its raison d'être; they were no longer based in the holy land where they might offer health care and hospitality to weary pilgrims. When they moved to Malta in the 1530, they assumed the role of policing the seas and freeing European slaves from North African pirates.

 

Because this chapel building was not a parish church, there was no need to update or enlarge it, giving us a splendid taste of the middle ages. Although it is still used for public worship, it serves as a reminder of previous expressions of Christianity. Entering its threshold is to step back in time. Much as I find the past interesting, I must say that regiments of armoured warrior-monks is not a form of following Christ that the Bible anticipates. On the other hand, the Hospitallers’ original function (dating back to 1023) of providing care for sick, poor and injured pilgrims is noble and worthy of emulation.

 

According to the Journal of Antiquities, quoting the author Ron Freety in Exploring Villages, 1985:

‘…these Hospitallers who took a major part in the crusades over in the Holy Land also brought back ‘healing’ herbal plants and says: “for the Knights of St John were not only good fighters but skilful healers and herbalists. Many of the plants they cultivated still grow well near Stydd, and a careful look around the church yard will reveal plants such as toothwort, used to cure toothache, and willow trees from which they stripped the bark to cure headache”.

My knowledge of flora is too inadequate to validate this claim, but it would be perfectly charming if it were so. Willow bark certainly produces acetylsalicylic acid, aka aspirin. Our chapel at Martin Top has not the longevity or patrimony of this chapel, but healing and wholeness are still to be found in its shadow.

 

“I have seen his ways, and will heal him;

I will also lead him,

And restore comforts to him

And to his mourners.

I create the fruit of the lips:

Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,”

Says the Lord,

“And I will heal him.”

Isaiah 57:18-19