(Picture of Great St Mary’s church by David Short. CC BY 2.0)
Great St Mary’s has played host to many refugees over the years. The theologian and ecumenical pioneer Martin Bucer fled to England from Strasbourg in 1549, and spent his final years in Cambridge. He died in 1551, and was buried in Great St Mary’s.
He had come to Strasbourg as a refugee from Wissembourg, and his adopted English homeland was to grow inhospitable towards him as Strasbourg had done. A few years after his death, Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) had his body dug up for posthumous execution — burning at the stake on a pyre of his own books. He was formally rehabilitated during the reign of Mary’s half-sister, Elizabeth I. His memorial in the church is not accessible to visitors.
The church is marking Refugee Week 2021 with prayers — streamed and face to face — every day at 12:00.
