It was on this date, December 28, 1065, that Westminster Abbey, in Westminster, London, was consecrated. The now-traditional place of coronation and burial for English monarchs, located just to the west of Westminster Palace, contains the Collegiate Church of St. Peter as well as the Abbey, or home for monks. According to legend, the church received its name after a fisherman’s miraculous vision of St. Peter. The original Benedictine Abbey was built in the Romanesque style at the decree of the penultimate Norman monarch of England, the very pious Edward the Confessor, between 1045-1050, as penance for his failure to undertake a promised pilgrimage. Westminster was rebuilt in the Gothic style we recognize today between 1245-1517.

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Originally published December 2003 by Ronald Bruce Meyer.