Abbey, Glastonbury
Benedictine monastery , Somersetshire, England , the center of early Christian tradition in England , founded, according to the legendary history of William of Malmesbury, by Saint Joseph of Arimathea, A.D. 63 , on the Island of Ynyswitrin; he was sent to Britain from Gaul by Saint Philip, Apostle. Saint Patrick, 433 , came and taught the hermits to live together as cenobites . Though all this is legendary it points to a very early British origin. In the 8th century , Ina, King of the West Saxons, founded the church of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul and endowed the monastery . Saint Dunstan restored it after the Danish depredations; his shrine and King Arthur ‘s tomb made the abbey the greatest of England ‘s pilgrim centers. In 1539 the abbey was sacked and its treasures appropriated by the Crown; the abbot and two monks were martyred . The church was built between 1184 and 1186 , to take the place of the original church which had been destroyed in the fire of 1184 . The titular designation “Abbot of Glastonbury” is still used among the English Benedictines .