St Bartholomew-the-Great
church in the City of London
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to St-Barts-the-Great, is a medieval church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123. It adjoins St Bartholomew's Hospital of the same foundation.
St Bartholomew the Great is named to distinguish it from its neighbouring smaller church of St Bartholomew the Less, founded at the same time and now a chapel of ease. The two parish churches were reunited in 2012 under the benefice of Great St Bartholomew. Today the buildings house a lively and growing parish with services taking place in both buildings.
History
Medieval Priory
The church was founded in 1123 by Rahere, a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral and an Augustinian canon regular. While at the Vatican, Rahere dreamed that a winged beast came and transported him to a high place, then relayed a message from "the High Trinity and...the court of Heaven" that he was to erect a church in London's Smithfield. Rahere travelled to London and was informed that the area in his vision – then a small cemetery – was royal property, and could not be built upon. Henry I, however, granted title of the land to Rahere upon hearing his divine message.
The public source identifies “St Bartholomew-the-Great” as church in the City of London. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bartholomew-the-Great, church and City.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1093271. VIAF identifies the subject as 262220679. The Library of Congress control number is n88663250. Authority coordinates are 51.519, -0.100. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1123 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “St Bartholomew-the-Great” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.