St Michael's Church, St Albans

St Michael's Church in the Hertfordshire Cathedral city of St Albans is one of those fascinating churches tucked away, generously rewarding the visitor who has the time and curiosity to push upon its door.

Lots of strange windows are found within, including unglazed ones built into internal walls. These were from a Saxon church which later generations enlarged and expanded; the earlier builders' design and structure may still be observed.

I was struck by a painted board on the south wall not far from the main door. Rather disrespectfully, I stood atop one of the pews to get a better look, though the shining sun rendered most of my pictures unusable. It shows various figures rising, all naked, including a king and a queen, and men with clerical tonsures (shaved heads).

The artist had due regard for propriety, neatly positioning a pair of praying hands or loose locks of hair over the females’ breasts, while the menfolk’s masculinity is conveniently shielded by the handily non-decomposed coffin sides. The great event depicted is, of course, the resurrection of the dead, a future cataclysm with which medieval Christians were more conversant than we moderns.

‘The resurrection’ of the righteous and the wicked is taught in both Testaments of the Bible, and is the reuniting of the human spirit or soul with its outer casing, the body. Men and women shall receive judgement in the same manner as their first parents: embodied and very much alive. On that great and dreadful day, the ancients, the Saxons, the Normans, the Georgians, the Victorians- and us, shall arise, clothed again in flesh.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of earth, shall awake fully, some into everlasting life, and others into shame, that they see ever. Forsooth they that be taught, shall shine as the shining of the firmament, and they that teach many men to rightfulness, shall shine as stars into everlasting everlastingnesses. Daniel 12:2-3, Wycliffe’s Bible