The Church has witnessed to its Christian Faith here at St. Magnus for a thousand years during which time it has had its 'ups and downs'. But we have stayed the course and continue our witness in our part of the City of London. The City no longer has a resident population for us to serve 'after office hours' but each and every church in the City has its part to play. At St. Magnus we endeavour to serve the City worker and the tourist, as well as our regular Sunday congregation. Unlike some other City churches we are able, and willing, to leave our church open during the day.The Eucharist is celebrated six days of each week, including a Solemn Eucharist every Sunday and major festivals throughout the year. All are welcome to worship here with us.

Michael Woodgate Rector 1984

Scensing on St Magnus Day

Who was St. Magnus? (the following taken from a guide to St. Magnus the Martye written by John Wittich in 1994)

There are a number of saints named Magnus in the various Calendars of Saints. They all appear to have been martyred but their faith but
little, if anything, is known about most of them. Who was the St. Magnus that gave his name to our church? With an early reference to
both the saint and the church near the riverside in London it is quite obvious that it could not have been Magnus of Orkney, who did
not die until 1116, some forty years or more after the 'first mention' of the church, and was not canonised (made a saint) until 1135. John Stow, writing in the 16th century, says that the patron of the parish was St. Magnus, Bishop of Caesarea.

Magnus of Orkney is now the accepted patron of the parish. His story is told in the 'Orkneyinga Saga'. Towards the end of the 11th century
the Orkney Isles were jointly ruled over by three cousins - Hakon, Paulson Erling and Magnus Erlingsson. On his way to raid Ireland, the
Isle of Man and Wales, King Magnus the Barefoot of Norway collected the three young men to assist him in his battles. During the Battle
of the Menai Strait, Erling was killed leaving Hakon and (our) Magnus to rule jointly over Orkney. Magnus, a peace-loving man, refused to lift a sword, preferring to stand to one side and to chant psalms from the Old Testament. Such action did not endear him to the Viking king. As a result he hurriedly left the battle and sought sanctuary in Scotland.

When King Magnus died Hakon was proclaimed Earl of Orkney and Magnus left Scotland and returned to Orkney. For the next few years Hakon and Magnus ruled together uneasily. Magnus decided to pay a visit to Henry I in England. On his return he was confronted with Hakon's
determination that their joint rule must end with himself the sole ruler of the island. A conference was arranged to discuss their problems and to sort out solutions. It was accepted that each man would attend the conference on the Island of Egilsay with only two ships and their crews. Magnus arrived at the rendezvous with the correct number of ships and men, but Hakon had other ideas. He brought with him eight ships fully manned.

Magnus realised that the only obvious result of such a conference was his demise and retired to the little church on the island to pray and
to seek sanctuary - the Saga reads 'not for fear's sake but to commit to God his case'. Hakon's men stormed the church but first could not
find Magnus. Later they found him hiding. After much discussion between the two cousins, all to no avail, Hakon's followers demanded
the death of Magnus. Hakon's cook, Lifolf, was called to behead him. The Saga reads 'he signed himself with the cross and bowed himself
for the stroke and his spirit passed into heaven'.

Strictly Magnus was not a martyr, one who has died for his faith, but his tomb in the Cathedral of Kirkwall attracted many pilgrims to it,
and soon miracles were being claimed. After his canonisation in 1135, the 16th April became his feast day.

"0 Magnus of my love, thou it is who would guide us; thou fragrant body of grace, remember us, though saint of power, who didst encompass and protect the people ... Lift our flocks to the hills, quell the fox, ward from us spectre, giant, fury and oppression."
(From an ancient prayer to St. Magnus.)

History

Richard Newcourt's Repertorium records the first church built here was dedicated to St. Magnus. Was this Magnus who suffered martyrdom in A.D.276 at the time of Alexander, Governor of Caesarea?

Early records show the title as being 'Ecclesia St. Magni Civitatis London juxta pedem, vel as pedem Ponti London' - viz 'The Church of St. Magnus at the foot of London Bridge'. It is recorded in a confirmation of a grant made by William the Conqueror to Westminster Abbey in 1067. A church, made of stone, was standing here at the time of the grant. It was pulled down and a new larger one built in 1234 on a new plot of land.

Its position, near the bridge, played an important part in the life of the church of the City. London Bridge with its twenty arches stretching across the river from the north to the south bank and forming a barrier through which the larger ships could not pass. Ships wishing to unload their goods into the City of London did so along the bankside from the Tower of London to the bridge.

By a decree of Pope Innocent IV in 1250 a bishop visiting his diocese was permitted to summon his clergy to one place for a general meeting. From the 15th to the 17th century the chosen church was St. Magnus, probably because of its proximity to the river. While in the 14th century the Fraternity of Salve Regina was established here. In the late 15th century the priests and clerks of the City were called to order for dallying in taverns and fishing at the 'tyme of dyvyne services' instead of paying attention to their services.

Medieval records show that in the 14th century the Pope was the Patron of the Living and appointed five rectors to the parish. In Pre-Reformation days the parish took part with St. Peter's Cornhill and St. Nicholas Cole Abbey in a joint procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi. This event was often marred by the squabbling between the parishes as to who should lead the procession, the question of precedence
being finally settled by the Bishop of London. He decided that St. Peter's Cornhill could, justifiably, claim to be the oldest Christian church site in the Citv of London having been founded in the latter half of the 2nd century.

After the Reformation, patronage alternated between the Abbey of Bermondsey and the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. In the 16th century patronage passed to the Bishop of London Edmund Grindall, who appointed Miles Coverdale to the parish in 1563. At which time the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken in two parts, all the altar stones in the church.

The medieval church was repaired in the early 17th century and completely rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666 by Christopher Wren. One of the Tables of Benefactions in the lobby at the West end of the church records the close escape the church had in 1640 during the 'late terrible Fire on London Bridge'. The Table also records the provision for a sermon to be preached on every twelfth day of February to commemorate its preservation. Strype in his revision of John Stow's Survay (sic) down to 1720 writes: 'On the east side near the Bridge is St. Magnus' Church, seated in the Corner, going into Thames Street. It was destroyed by the Fire of London, since which it is rebuilt with Freestone and a Tower Steeple, all of a curious workmanship to which Church is united the Parish of St. Margaret New Fish Street, that church not being rebuilt.'

In the great holocaust of 1666 the church was the second one to perish, the first being St. Margaret, New Fish Street. Today's church although much altered internally was the work of Wren. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, are 'The Bills of the Parochial Churches', and 'The Ledger of the Parochial Churches' being the manuscripts of Wren's accounts for the rebuilding of the churches of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666. The accounts for the rebuilding of St. Magnus show that it cost £9,580.

In the following century, a 'dreadful fire suddenly broke out with great violence about ten o'clock in the morning of 18th April 1760 at an OYL (sic) shop adjoining the church, which instantly consumed the vestry room, most part of the roof of the Church, greatly injured the ORGAN, and did very considerable damage to the fabric.'

Under an Act of Parliament dated June 1756, permission was obtained to demolish all the shops and houses on London Bridge. This was to allow for the widening of the bridge facilitating a speedier flow of the traffic going across. Both the Act and the subsequent action did not please those people who lived and worked on the bridge! A reward was offered to anyone who could solve the mystery of the starting of the fire. A reward of two hundred pounds was offered but never awarded. All this in spite of the fact that a certain Mrs. John Dennys made a sworn statement that she had seen, from her bedroom window, three lanterns moving about near the chapel pier. Shortly afterwards the chapel was ablaze. When the bridge was rebuilt a constant guard was kept upon it, with a patrol walking up and down a wooden gallery built just below the line of the roadway.

After the fire the church was fully restored, the organ reinstated and a new vestry room rebuilt at the North-West end at the sole expense of the united parish of St. Magnus the Martyr and St. Margaret, New Fish Street for the cost of upwards of £1,200. In 1762 the City Corporation placed before Parliament that they had not only repaired the bridge but also allowed for it to be widened. This latter condition affected the west end of St. Magnus' Church. Previously the end of the church building, with its vestry room, had been on the edge of the roadway at the north end of the bridge. Now, the widened bridge's footpath was designed to go through the tower of the church. When the surveyor examined the church it was discovered that Wren had filled in the two side arches of the tower. It almost seemed as if he had anticipated the building of a new bridge that would be wider than the medieval one. These arches were duly opened, the vestry room demolished, with an overall effect of shortening the length of the church. A new vestry house was built on the South-West side of the church.

In 1782 in an attempt to reduce the noise of the many iron-rimmed carts working in nearby Billingsgate, the windows in the North wall were altered to their present round form. In 1924-1925 Martin Travers restored the interior when the 'unsightly changes' made in the early 19th century were removed. The box pews were replaced by those currently in use and the three-decker pulpit with its 'rectory pew' dismantled revealing the elegant pulpit of Wren. This pulpit was so greatly admired that two copies were made, one of which was, until the Blitz of 1940-1941, in the Parish Church of St. Lawrence Jewry. After World War II, 1939-1945, new stained glass windows were commissioned and placed in the church, by Laurence King.

Not every visitor to the church has appreciated the various alterations that have been made since its rebuilding in the late 17th century. Besant in his City Churches and their Memories writes 'As to the interior of St. Magnus, up to a year ago it was worth visiting. Spacious and severe - rather bare, as a matter of fact - with high pews and a three-decker pulpit, it was thoroughly representative of the architect and the period.
But now all has changed. The three-decker pulpit and high pews are gone by the board. In the place of the one simple altar there are now three, with candles to burn, and a heavy smell of incense, all in the Roman manner - hopelessly and absolutely out of keeping. That is how it strikes me.'

Today's church building reflects the needs of those who worship there and not some idealistic person of the past wishing to impose his ideals on some future generation.

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