The Washington herald., 1911-12-10
From Yeritas Magazine for December.
The staff het budded. het grew
Until it blooms da whole da drew
And sill il blooms on Xmas night
But best they sang at dark midnight.

But best they sang AZ dArk nhoh4Snt'
1t will interest Americans to know
that the National Cathedral of SIS. Pc
ter and Paul, Washington. d. c., has
in its close a slip of the famous Glas-
tonbury thorn. a living relic OF Eng
lands eventfuI religious past.
The mystic thorn is as ancient as
British Christianity itself. Its story
has been preserved by British bards for
centuries. Druid ministers ceased their
barbaric chants to sing of 1t. The early
! Christian fathers put the white bios
SONS in their austere writings. And
meantime. the mysterious tree grew
apace. Through centuries it remained
unharmed. if not always untouched, by
/ impious hands.
The Glastonbury thorn speaks of the
coming of Joseph Of Arimathae to
England. about 63 A. D.
II will be remembered that Joseph OF
Arimathae was a Hebrew scholar. who
gave his garden tomb 10 receive the
crucified body or Christ. After the
resurrection, Joseph embraced the
faith. with twelve companions or mis-
sionaries, he worked his way across
Europe. The prosecutions of the in
| famous Nero were rampant at the time.
To escape their enemies, Joseph and
his party took to sea in a small boat.
They were driven by storm into port
| Of England. then as heather as the
lands they had quilted.
Their missionary zeal remained, and
Joseph and his companions knew IL
was their mission 10 convert the Druids
of the new country.
Its Coming to America.
| Through toll and tribulation they
made their way across England to the
West Country-to the ancient Isle of
Avalon. the birthplace. the court of
last resort, the garden OF English chiv-
airy.
The hill where St. Joseph OF Arlma thae
so impulsively planted his stafT IS called
Weary All Hill" TO this day. The origi-
nal thorn has been preserved by slips
| and gratis.
! The story OF its advent into America Is
an interesting one. 1t shows how closely
the National Cathedral at Washington is
! interviewer with the old abbey Of SS.
Peter dnd Paul, Glastonbury, England,
J The Washington cathedral is named IS,
Peter and Paul after the Glastonbury
! church In 1900 Mr.. Stanley Austin, son
] Of the laureate and owner of GlastOn-
! bury Abbev. presented to the late Bishop
! Satterlee, Of Washington, a slip from the
| celebrated Glastonbury thorn. This sliT
| the bishop planted in the Cathedral Close
| at Washington. Under careful nursing
and with horticultural skill, the thorn
| has flourished For the past two seasons
it has blossomed at or around Christmas
one year on the Feast OF the Epiphany
! January s.
This famous thorn Is but an added
| touch to the remarkable religious history
| Of the National Cathedral OF IS. Peter
| and Paul which is being built by the
| Episcopal Church at the National Capital
| at an estimated cost or over so, OOO. 900
| The beginnings OF this National Cathe-
dral. for such II is through the gifts and
| interests exhibited in 1t throughout the
country, go back to the days of the great
! Washington and the colonial period.
| It is a story of a seed OF prayer planted
! by a sanity Washingtonian of the
| eighteenth century; how that seed was
nourished through the years, first by his
! own kinswoman, then by devout church
men and women. until it blossomed into
the great National Cathedral OF SIS. Peter
and Paul.
The first Registrar of the Treasury,
| Joseph Nourse. was a man of devout and
! fervent disposition. the owner of a vast
tract OF land in Georgetown. principally
in what is now known as Tennallytown.
He was a personal friend OF George