Coventry cathedral

Coventry Cathedral
Cathedral Church of St Michael
Coventry Cathedral Shown within West Midlands
Coordinates: 52°24′30″N 1°30′25″W / 52.408333°N 1.506944°W / 52.408333; -1.506944
Location	Coventry city centre, West Midlands
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	coventrycathedral.org.uk
History
Consecrated	1962
Architecture
Previous cathedrals	2
Architect(s)	Basil Spence
Style	Modernist
Years built	1956–1962
Administration
Diocese	Coventry (since 1095–1102; 1918–)
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Christopher Cocksworth
Dean	John Witcombe
Precentor	David Stone, Canon Precentor
Canon(s)	David Porter, Canon for Reconciliation (lay) vacant (Canon Theologian)

Coventry Cathedral, also known as St Michael's Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry, in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current (9th) bishop is Christopher Cocksworth and the current Dean is John Witcombe.

The city has had three cathedrals. The first was St Mary's, a monastic building, only a few ruins of which remain. The second was St Michael's, a 14th-century Gothic church later designated cathedral, that remains a ruined shell after its bombing during the Second World War. The third is the new St Michael's Cathedral, built after the destruction of the former.

The first cathedral in Coventry was St Mary's Priory and Cathedral, 1095 to 1102, when Robert de Limesey moved the bishop's see from Lichfield to Coventry, until 1539 when it fell victim to King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. Prior to 1095, it had been a small Benedictine monastery (endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lady Godiva in 1043), Shortly after 1095 rebuilding began and by the middle of the 13th century it was a cathedral of 142 yards in length and included many large outbuildings. Leofric was probably buried within the original Saxon church in Coventry. However, records suggest that Godiva was buried at Evesham Abbey, alongside her father confessor, Prior Aefic.