Cellars of Fountains

One of the greatest features of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, is a place which would not have been deemed especially worthy of interest before its ruination. Its cellars are one of the few parts still enclosed above and around. Officially called the cellarium and then subdivided into individual cellars, this is where the old Cistercian monks would have stored their food and drink, and perhaps more beside. What was then a mere place of utility, unlikely to feature on any grand tour for esteemed guests, is now one of its finest places. And if it rains, it is one of the few areas to offer shelter.

A theme throughout scripture is our God’s love of the humble and the plain at the expense of the showy and the proud. He loves to employ ordinary people to carry out His great purposes. Pride is the mother of sin, but humility is the midwife of salvation. God takes the cellarers and raises them above the rank of priors and abbots. He takes Adam’s orphans and ranks them above His flaming servants of fire. He chooses not the good-looking, the clever and the erudite, but the plain, the simple and the stammering. 

Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world...For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 1 Corinthians 1:20,26