View NE of the entrance, well chamber (baptistery), altar & benches inside Madron Chapel, Cornwall, England, UK: mainly C12th on earlier foundations.
View NE of the entrance (L), well chamber (baptistry), altar & benches inside Madron Chapel, Cornwall, England, UK. The existing masonry is mainly C12th with pre-Norman foundationst & lower courses. Recorded in 1203 as Sanctus Madernus, a well with a chapel built over it. Described in the 1590s as having healing powers & much resorted to by pilgrims. C17th reports say even after the Reformation regular visits were made at Corpus Christi in May or June, & on St Maddern's Day 17 May. The famous & spectacular cure of local cripple John Trelille, who regained the use of his legs after three visits to the well chapel - praying, washing & sleeping - took place around 1638-40. The chapel was damaged by Puritan soldiers in 1646, then described as roofless in 1652, but visits & cures continued. John Wesley preached here in 1760 & the chapel was regularly used by Wesleyans throughout the 18th & 19th centuries. Services are still held here in May & baptisms take place. Water from the well spring SW of the chapel runs through the font pool in its SW corner. The well has long been used for divination & healing, being considered particularly good for curing babies of skin complaints. St Maddern's bed, a bank of turf formerly constructed just N (L) of the altar, was used for sacred healing sleep in conjunction with prayer & full body washing.
Size: 3767px × 4924px
Location: Madron Well Chapel, Boswarthen, Madron, Penzance, Cornwall, England, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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