Description of Walsingham

Re: Walsingham

To wet y’alls’ appetite:

Walsingham is on the eastern coast of England -or near abouts at any rate- in Norfolk county, 28-34 miles out of Norwich and King’s Lynn; about 2-3 hours from London by train and bus. (Note, while probably old hat to our British natives on the list, for the rest of us it is new, this is the reason for the lengthy description). While not exactly "unscathed" as Anthony puts it, the shrine has been restored to something of its former glory thanks to groundwork laid in the latter nineteenth century. The Shrine and its associations date from 1061 when Lady Richeldis de Faverches of Walsingham manor received a vision from the Blessed Virgin instructing her to build for her a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth (whence the appellation England’s Nazareth; because of the vision, it has been likened to the events Lourdes and Fatima, albeit not quite so glamorous in its beginning and a few centuries older!). Lady Richeldis did so, building a wooden thatch Saxon structure which the Shrine and pilgrimage was built up. Even though a Shrine Church was later built next to it, the actual Shrine remained as simple as the day it was built and survived intact until the Dissolution under Henry VIII in 1538.

In the 13th century the Shrine was given to the care of Augustinian Canons (Who again kept their post until the Dissolution). And it was early and often visited by royalty and favored by episcopal visits, Archbishops of Canterbury, Richard Couer de Lion, Henry III, the king of Scotland, the dowager princess of France, -even Henry VIII was a patron of Walsingham- attracting an international reputation, eventually making it the greatest Shrine in England after Canterbury and putting it on a part with the other great pilgrimage sites of medieval Europe: Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostello. Though not originally part of the Shrine, a statue was later commissioned and became the symbol for Walsingham, and Walsingham became one of the wealthiest Shrines in England, with many royal endowments. It depicts Mary with the Child seated on a Saxon throne resting on a toadstone and wearing a Saxon crown. The Child sits on her right arm holding the Gospels and in her left rests a lily like a scepter or crozier. The arms of the throne have 7 rings. Sadly, when the end came (and it even provoked a minor rebellion "Walsingham rebellion" in defense of the shrine), Walsingham was quickly forgotten, receding to a fleeting, whispering memory in the back of the minds of the faithful and virtually forgotten to history until its restoration in the early twentieth century.

There are presently two Shrines of our Lady of Walsingham, the Anglican and the Roman Catholic. The current Anglican Shrine (the one I am primarily interested in) dates from c1922 and the leadership of Fr. Hope Patten the vicar of Little Walsingham Parish, and is situated on the site of the Shrine itself, owing to the fact that after the Dissolution, the Priory and surrounding land fell into Protestant hands (the ruins of the Priory’s East face can still be seen today, as well as the foundations of the first Shrine Church, and the probable location of the Shrine itself). The Roman Catholic Shrine dates from the first pilgrimage of 1897, situated a mile from the actual site in the so-called "Slipper Chapel" -the last of the pilgrim Churches before the Shrine, where pilgrims customarily left their footwear to walk the last mile barefoot, which was owned by a catholic lady before donating it to the Church for its Shrine after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

I’m sorry if I’m boring you with a lengthy historical treatment, but to me, a description of the Shrine necessarily involves its history, especially since we believe in a God who works in and through history. And you really need the history of a place to get a feel for it, especially when discussing England!

ANCIENT PRAYER OF PILGRIMS TO OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM (attributed to Erasmus)*

Alone of all women, Mother and Virgin, Mother most happy, Virgin most pure, now we, sinful as we are, come to see thee who art all pure, we salute thee, we honor thee as how we may with our humble offerings; may thy Son grant us, that imitating thy most holy manners, we also, by the grace of the Holy Ghost may deserve spiritually to conceive the Lord Jesus in our inmost soul, and once conceived never to loose him. Amen.

I’ll have more when I return.