Uniquely in the Church of England, Oxford’s Cathedral serves as both College Chapel and Mother Church for the Diocese of Oxford. This beautiful building is home to a vibrant worshipping community with a rich worshipping tradition and a world famous Cathedral Choir.
On this site once stood the convent church where Oxford's patron saint, St Frideswide, was buried in the eighth century. Around her shrine in the ninth and tenth centuries a group of priests lived a communal life, doing pastoral work, and in the twelfth century the monastery became the Augustinian priory of St Frideswide. By the thirteenth century it was a major place of pilgrimage.
When Cardinal Wolsey began the building of his college here, the western end of the building was removed to make space for Tom Quad, and the remainder was used as the temporary chapel for the new college. Wolsey's plan to replace it with a larger chapel on the North side of Tom Quad would have caused its demolition but when he fell from power the building of the new chapel stopped.
Today we are grateful that the building has survived
- See more at:
www.chch.ox.ac.uk/cathedral#sthash.YDl8HUdb.dpuf 