The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is a Church of England shrine church built in 1938 in Walsingham, Norfolk, England. Walsingham is the site of the reputed Marian apparitions to Richeldis de Faverches in 1061. The Virgin Mary is therefore venerated at the shrine with the title of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Richeldis de Faverches was an English noblewoman who is credited with establishing the original shrine to Our Lady at Walsingham. Before leaving to join the Second Crusade, her son and heir, Lord Geoffrey de Faverches left the Holy House and its grounds to his chaplain, Edwin, to establish a religious house to care for the chapel of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Priory passed into the care of Augustinian Canons somewhere between 1146 and 1174. [1] As travelling abroad became more difficult during the time of the Crusades, Walsingham became a place of pilgrimage, ranking alongside Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. [2] The shrine was visited by Erasmus around 1512, by which time the shrine was reputed to have been built by angels in the late eleventh century as a replica of the Virgin's house in Nazareth, [3] and he satirised the devotion of pilgrims at the site in the 1526 edition of his Colloquies . [4] [5] The shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1538. The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was burnt at Chelsea. [6]
Father Alfred Hope Patten SSC, appointed as the Church of England Vicar of Walsingham in 1921, ignited Anglican interest in the pre-Reformation pilgrimage. It was his idea to create a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the image depicted on the seal of the medieval priory. [7] In 1922 the statue was set up in the Parish Church of St Mary [6] and regular pilgrimage devotion followed. From the first night that the statue was placed there, people gathered around it to pray, asking Mary to join her prayers with theirs.
Throughout the 1920s the trickle of pilgrims became a flood of large numbers for whom, eventually, the Pilgrim Hospice was opened (a hospice is the name of a place of hospitality for pilgrims) and, in 1931, a new Holy House encased in a small pilgrimage church was dedicated and the statue translated there with great solemnity. [8] In 1938 that church was enlarged to form the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The enlarged church was blessed on Whit Monday, and thereafter a pilgrimage took place each year on that day, moving with the Whit Monday bank holiday to the Spring bank holiday in 1971. [9] Since 1959 the Whit Monday Pilgrimage has been known as the National Pilgrimage. [9]
During World War II, Walsingham was a restricted zone closed to visitors, but in May 1945, American Forces organised the first Mass in the priory grounds since the Reformation. [10]
Father Patten combined the posts of Vicar of Walsingham and priest administrator of the Anglican shrine until his death in 1958, whereupon the Revd John Colin Stephenson became administrator of the shrine, but declined to take on the role of vicar. [11] Enid Chadwick contributed to the artwork in the shrine. [12]
The shrine church was substantially extended in the 1960s. [6] The church has a holy well known for its healing properties; the act of receiving water from the holy well is often accompanied by the laying on of hands and anointing. [13] Water from the well is often taken home by the faithful and distributed to their family, friends and parishioners.
The grounds include the shrine church, gardens, several chapels, a refectory, a café, a shrine shop, a visitors' centre, the Pilgrim Hall, an orangery, the College (home to priests-associate when in residence), and a large number of different residential blocks for the accommodation of resident pilgrims.
In 1947 three sisters of the Society of Saint Margaret moved to Walsingham to help at the shrine. [14] The Priory of Our Lady, Walsingham, was founded in 1955 as a daughter priory, and gained independence as an autonomous house of the Order in 1994. The sisters welcome guests and work in the shrine; they are also involved in educational work. [15]
Beyond the staff (who include a resident community, and external day staff) a number of groups are officially associated with the life of the shrine. These include:
Walsingham is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval monastic houses. Walsingham is 27 miles (43 km) northwest of Norwich.
Our Lady of Ipswich was a popular English Marian shrine before the English Reformation. Among Marian shrines, only the shrine at Walsingham attracted more visitors.
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of God, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, but generally rejected in other Christian denominations.
Our Lady of Walsingham is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus venerated by Catholics, Western Rite Orthodox Christians, and High Church Anglicans associated with the Marian apparitions to Richeldis de Faverches, a pious English noblewoman, in 1061 in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk, England. Lady Richeldis had a structure built named "The Holy House" in Walsingham which later became a shrine and place of pilgrimage.
Walsingham Priory was a monastery of Augustinian Canons regular in Walsingham, Norfolk, England seized by the crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.
Richeldis de Faverches, also known as Rychold, was a devout English Christian noblewoman who is credited with establishing the original shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The story of the vision of "Rychold" was recounted in the 15th century in "The Foundation of the Chapel of Walsingham", published by Richard Pynson. The reputed appearance of the Virgin Mary to Richeldis is one of the earliest Marian apparitions.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham, informally known as the Slipper Chapel or the Chapel of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is a Catholic basilica in Houghton Saint Giles, Norfolk, England. Built in 1340, it was the last chapel on the pilgrim route to Walsingham.
Alfred Hope Patten, known as "Pat" to his friends, was an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Church of England, best known for his restoration of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
St. Lawrence Shrine Basilica or Attur Basilica is a Roman Catholic church in Karkala, India. It was built in 1759 and is purported to be the site of many miracles. It is by characterized its Attur Jatre or Attur Festival.
Santuario della Madonna del Divino Amore, or the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, is a Roman Catholic shrine in the southern outskirts of Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary that consists of two churches: an old church built in 1745 and a new church added to the sanctuary in 1999. The church was included by Pope John Paul II in the pilgrimage of Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome during the Holy Year 2000.
Our Lady of Willesden is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by Christians in London, especially by Anglicans and Catholics. It is associated with the historic image (statue) and pilgrimage centre in the community of Willesden, originally a village in Middlesex, England, but now a suburb of London. The pre-Reformation shrine was home to the Black Madonna of Willesden statue.
Enid Mary Chadwick (1902–1987) was a British artist known for religious art and children's religious material.
Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, Maiden Lane, is a Roman Catholic church in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in the Westminster City Council area of London, England. The church building, in Early English Gothic style, is grade II listed and was designed by F. H. Pownall; it was “specifically devoted to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.”
William Peter Guy Hazlewood is a British Anglican bishop who has been the Bishop of Lewes since 2020. From 2011, he was Vicar of Dartmouth and Dittisham in the Diocese of Exeter.
St Mary and All Saints Church is the parish church of Little Walsingham in the English county of Norfolk. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Saints. Little Walsingham was the location of the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, destroyed at the Dissolution. The Anglican shrine was revived by Alfred Hope Patten, the Vicar of Little Walsingham, in 1922, and the image of Our Lady of Walsingham was in the church until its translation to the new priory in 1931.
The National Pilgrimage is an annual pilgrimage to the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the village of Little Walsingham in the English county of Norfolk. The first pilgrimage took place in 1923 in the parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Little Walsingham. The shrine, which had been destroyed in the Dissolution, had been revived in the church the previous year by the Vicar, Fr Hope Patten. The annual pilgrimage was established in 1938, when the statue of Our Lady was moved to a new shrine church. Originally known as the Whit Monday Pilgrimage, it has been known as The National Pilgrimage since 1959.
Albert Ernest Frost was an English Anglican priest who was persecuted for Anglo-Catholic practices in Australia. He subsequently returned to England and became an Anglican Benedictine and a noted spiritual writer.
Our Lady of the Annunciation Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. It was built in 1897, but incorporates parts of the former church on the same site that was built in 1845 and designed by Augustus Pugin. It is located on the corner of London Road and North Everard Street in the centre of the town. Its construction was partially paid for by the then Prince of Wales, Edward VII. It was also the national shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham until 1934. It is now a pontifical shrine, and was awarded Grade II listed status in 2022.
...prayer for wholeness and healing is so important for many pilgrims who come here, and how the experience of going to the well, followed by laying on of hands and anointing is a key part of pilgrimage to Walsingham.
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