The Psalter was given to the Abbot of Ramsey by William of Grafham and contained eleven full page miniatures, ten of which are now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This reproduction is of Folio 4v is reproduced with the kind permission of the Pierpont Morgan Library, and is very unusual in that the subject matter is not Biblical. It depicts the legend of the founding of Ramsey Abbey and the subsequent naming of the Parish Church.
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The upper section shows the four knights striking down Henry's 'turbulent priest', Thomas a Becket in the year 1170 a.d. The murder shocked Christendom. Thomas was canonised three years later and gained a wide following. When the hospital of the Abbey was converted to become the Parish Church, around the year 1210, it was dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury. On the right hand side is a figure of St Paul and on the left hand side is a Bishop holding the replica of a church, possibly Ramsey Church. The lower section shows seated, with his feet on a ram, Archbishop Oswald of York, one of the founders of the Abbey. Also seated is the first elected Abbot, Ednoth. The Abbot has his feet on a bull recalling his miraculous dream in which St Benedict directed Duke Ailwyn, co-founder, and benefactor, to 'build an altar with a house for guests on the spot where he observed a bull upon rising, to strike the earth with his right foot' The Abbey was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St Benedict, and to all Holy Virgins. The Holy Virgins are represented in the miniature by St Catharine, to the left, and St Margaret on the right, both saints being martyrs from early Roman times.
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