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  Abbey at Bath                        
                          

The springs at Bath have long been at the center of religious healing and lore.  more>>    
                               
Melrose Abbey
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Order:   Benedictine as of 959.

Location:  Bath, England

Founded:   Originally founded as a home for women religious, granted by King Osric and founded by its first Abbess, Berta, in 675.  Male monks came to the Abbey later.  Bath was designated as a Cathedral dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, with the work completed in 156.  

Short History:   "Tradition ascribes to bathing some actual cures of 'leprosy.'  Bladud the Briton, a prehistoric prince, was driven from home because he was a leper.  At length he discovered the hot springs of Bath, where instinct had already taught diseased swine to wallow: Bladud, too, washed and was clean.  The virtue of the mineral waters, well known  to the Romans, was also appreciated by the Saxons; possibly the baths were frequented by lepers from early days, for there was long distributed in Bath 'an ancient alms to the poor and leprous of the foundation of Athelstan, Edgar and Ethelred.'  A small bath was afterwards set apart for their use, to which the infected flocked."               
From The Medieval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay.  1909.   

Of Interest:  The Abbey at Bath survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  The healing waters of bath competed for pilgrim's attention (and coins) with the miraculous water of Canterbury.

Famous for:  It's healing waters, a site of religious significance since well before the Romans built extensive bath works and the Normans built the church.
                              
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