The site of coronations for 1,000 years, blessed by St. Peter himself

After the completion of the buliding, St. Peter, it is said, came by night to the banks of the Thames and was ferried over the broad marshes which surrounded the site of the abbey on the island of Thorney, by a wandering fisherman.

Proceeding to the church he performed the rites of consecration amid the chanting of celestial choirs, and on his return bade the awestricken boatman to go to Bishop Mellitus of London, tell him what he had seen, and forbid him to repeat the ceremony, which he was to have performed on the mirror. St. Peter also caused the fisherman to take an unprecedented draught of salmon, one of which he charged him to present to the bishop in token of the truth of his story.

When the next day broke Mellitus came to the abbey and found the holy water, oil and crosses, the halfburnt candles, and the Greek and Latin alphabets inscribed upon the walls. He therefore, says one writer, completed what remained to be done, and collecting the relics of apostolic consecration, placed them in a shrine where they still remained in the fourteenth century.