Why are some church porches, like the large one here in Ely, called Galilees?
(The super photograph is courtesy of David Alcock www.thecravenimage.co.uk.)
The standard explanation is that it was supposedly the final station in the medieval Corpus Christi procession, where Christ leads his disciples after the resurrection into Galilee. It’s hard to find evidence for this though.
So here’s an alternative theory. The introit (opening chant) on Ascension Day is Viri Galilei: “
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1.11)
In some traditions the Eucharist of Ascension Day is preceded by a procession round church, re-enacting as it were the walk out of Jerusalem to the Mount of the Ascension. Here it is still happening in Kosovo:
But more crucially, Ascension Day was one of the Durham Rite’s three such processional days (with Whitsun and Trinity). And it is at Durham that the OED first records the term Galilee for a porch
[a1186 Charter in Greenwell Durh. Cath. (1892) 48 note, Super altare Beatæ Mariæ in occidentali porte ejusdem ecclesiæ quæ Galilæ a vocatur.] 1593 Rites of Durham (Surtees) 36 A chappell maide and dedicated to the blessed Virgin Marie, now cauled the Galleley.
So how about the porch as the natural gathering place at the end of the procession, and the place of the “Men of Galilee” introit (sung perhaps from a gallery where there was one) – and voila, the porch becomes known as Galilee.
Well, it’s probably got as much going for it as the other theory … Let’s see if the Precentors at Ely and Durham take up the idea for the twenty-first century too.
Filed under: History , Durham, Ely, Galilee porch
