Discover St Saviour’s

St Columba’s Chapel

St Columba, the Irish born apostle to Scotland, features much in the fabric of St Saviour’s. He is illumined in windows, stands strong in a beautiful statue, and remembered here in the old St Columba’s Chapel which keeps his memory alive.

This area is not used so much as a Chapel these days but there are still remnants of the past. The screen which separates the St Columba Chapel from the South Aisle was decorated at the expense of The Guild of Nazareth (you can see their banner on the wall above you, just to the right).

The screen features the scrolled words, “Honour, Glory, praise, Power,” and at onetime the roof was painted red with the inscription “Thy sound, O Columba, is gone out into all the world, and thy words unto the ends of the world. Alleluia.’

The Nazareth Guild was the ‘Girls Communicant Guild.’  The original banner, featuring the Virgin and Child, was badly perished and the oleograph picture badly torn.  It was replaced by this lovely banner featuring the Holy Family.  It was created by Sister Beatrice Mary SSM who served in this parish from 1933.

The Columba Connection

In 1877, a School Chapel of St Columba was established in Splott.  The land had been gifted by the second Marquess of Bute who also contributed to the fabric of the church.

His own Scottish heritage gave rise to many street names in Splott with that particular Celtic flavour.  He is, perhaps, the reason for the patronage of the first church in Splott being St Columba who sits well among so many local Celtic Saints who lived and witnessed in Wales, like Cadoc and Iltud, Dyfrig and Euddogwy. 

The Chapel was dedicated by Edward King (Bishop of Lincoln from 1885 and principal founder of St Stephen’s House, Oxford).

He had preached at the consecration of the old iron church of St Saviour in 1884 and returned 11 years later on January 24, 1894 for the dedication of the south aisle and chapel.

Only a few years earlier he had been prosecuted by the Archbishop of Canterbury for ritualistic practices! He also happened to be the uncle of the first vicar, Fr Dawson.

Edward King (Bishop of Lincoln)

There are still some remnants of the chapel today.  The altar with the iron screen was the gift of Fr Dawson (the first Vicar) in memory of his mother.  The iron standards are headed by two gilded angels holding candles, copies of figures in Nuremburg Cathedral.

Detail of one of the gilded angels holding candles in St Columba’s Chapel, and which are copies of figures in Nuremburg Cathedral.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19