Who is Our Lady of Walsingham?

WHO IS OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM?

“Whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty-handed.”

In 1061, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in a series of dreams to Richeldis de Faverches, a young noblewoman of the village of Walsingham in Norfolk, England, in which she took Richeldis to the House of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the site of the Incarnation of Our Lord, and asked her to build a replica of the house in England as a perpetual memorial to the Annunciation.

Richeldis chose a location and commissioned the construction of the house, but the builders were unable to complete their task. Richeldis spent the night in prayer and, in the morning, she was surprised by the sound of beautiful music. Following the sound, she discovered a perfectly constructed house on a second site from which she saw angels leaving and ascending to heaven.

Richeldis de Faverches

An image of Our Lady, to be known as ‘Our Lady of Walsingham,’ was later installed in the Holy House. A priory arose around the house and a second chapel, the ‘Slipper Chapel,’ was constructed an English mile from the site. It was there that pilgrims confessed their sins, heard Mass, and removed their shoes to continue barefoot for the final mile of their journey to ‘England’s Nazareth.’

Many miracles took place at Walsingham and the shrine became one of the greatest in all of Christendom. For generations, the kings and queens of England sponsored and visited the shrine, including Henry VIII who saw to the glazing of the priory windows. Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, was a regular pilgrim.

In 1534, Henry left and outlawed the Catholic Church. A great persecution began and many holy martyrs were made. Four years later, the priory at Walsingham was destroyed and looted, the Holy House was burnt to the ground, and the image of Our Lady was, reportedly, dragged to London and burnt at Chelsea in the presence of Thomas Cromwell along with other holy images.

After a time, the village of Walsingham returned to relative obscurity, but the faithful remembered. Some years later, Sir (now Saint) Philip Howard, upon visiting the ruins in the company of Elizabeth I, was moved to pen ‘A Lament for Our Lady’s Shrine at Walsingham’ (see below). Howard converted to the Catholic Church and died a martyr at Tower Hill, London.

Priory Ruins at Walsingham

In 1829, nearly three hundred years after the beginnings of the persecutions, the Catholics of England were again permitted to practice the faith and thoughts soon turned to the revival of the ancient devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. Walsingham sprang to life again in a wonderful way. In 1896, a woman named Charlotte Boyd, influenced by the Oxford Movement, purchased the then-derelict Slipper Chapel. She soon after became a Catholic, restored the chapel, and returned it to the Catholic Church. The next year, Pope Leo XIII re-established Walsingham as a Catholic shrine. In 1934, the first public mass since the destruction of the shrine was celebrated there. And, in 2020, a rededication of England as the ‘Dowry of Mary’ at last took place.

Devotion to Our Lady under the title of ‘Our Lady of Walsingham’ is an indispensable part of our English patrimony. She is, for us, not a distant memory; she represents not a bygone glory but a future one: the re-conversion of England and her children, including Canada, in the Anglosphere. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy upon us. Our Lady of Walsingham, remember us. Regna in cordibus nostris! Reign in our hearts! Amen. 

An excellent video on the subject by Mary's Dowry Productions 

 

ANGLO-CATHOLICISM

In addition to the Catholic shrine (the Slipper Chapel) and a replica of the Holy House at nearby King’s Lynn, there is an Anglican shrine that is adjacent to the priory ruins and that features a rebuilt Holy House. The appointment in 1921 of the Reverend Alfred Hope Patten as Vicar of Walsingham got the Anglican restoration of the shrine at Walsingham under way. Hope Patten made the restoration of devotion to Our Lady at Walsingham his life’s work.

Of all the Reformation “churches,” the Church of England kept the most Catholic features. These elements were a constant reminder of its matrix, the Holy Catholic Church. Out of this arose the Oxford Movement in 1833 which sent many Anglicans, including St. John Henry Newman, into full communion with Rome. It also created, among many who remained in the Church of England, a thirst for Catholic belief, devotion, and liturgy and a renewed interest in England’s ancient Marian shrines.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the embrace of modernism by the Church of England sent yet more of their communion into the Catholic Church. This led, in 2009, to the creation of the Ordinariates by Pope Benedict XVI, whose apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus allowed Anglicans to bring those parts of their spiritual and liturgical heritage that were compatible with Catholic doctrine, liturgy, and practice with them into the Catholic Church. Fittingly, the first to be created was the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England.

THE IMAGE OF OUR LADY

The image of Our Lady of Walsingham that we are familiar with today was commissioned in 1922 by Fr. Alfred Hope Patten, Vicar of St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Walsingham, and modelled on the image that is found on the medieval seal of the priory at Walsingham, the only confirmed medieval image of Our Lady of Walsingham to have survived to the present day.

The image of Our Lady has a number of notable features. Our Lady wears a Saxon crown. This both designates her queenship and bears witness to the 1061 date (five years prior to the Battle of Hastings). She bears a three-fold Lily-sceptre which designates her virginity and sovereignty. Moreover, she points to Christ who, in turn, with one arm, extends a gesture of blessing and protection to his mother and, with the other, holds the Gospels. Christ employs as his throne his mother whose own throne represents herself under the title of ‘Seat of Wisdom.’ Her throne bears seven rings, one for each of the seven sacraments, and features a rainbow, symbolizing God’s covenant with Noah. Lastly, Our Lady has as her footstool a toadstool, an East Anglican symbol of evil.

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM

Our Lady of Walsingham, 

Plead with thy Son for our parish, its priest and people.

Guard us beneath thy protecting veil from sin and sorrow; 

be our shield against pride and envy, and all the snares of the devil; 

and teach us, loving thee, to love the Lord Jesus and all souls for his sake. Amen.

A LAMENT FOR OUR LADY’S SHRINE AT WALSINGHAM

St. Philip Howard

In the wracks of Walsingham

Whom should I choose

But the Queen of Walsingham

To be my guide and muse.

Then, thou Prince of Walsingham,

Grant me to frame

Bitter plaints to rue thy wrong,

Bitter woe for thy name.

Bitter was it so to see

The seely sheep

Murdered by the ravenous wolves

While the shepherds did sleep.

Bitter was it, O to view

The sacred vine,

Whilst the gardeners played all close,

Rooted up by the swine.

Bitter, bitter, O to behold

The grass to grow

Where the walls of Walsingham

So stately did show.

Such were the worth of Walsingham

While she did stand,

Such are the wracks as now do show

Of that Holy Land.

Level, level, with the ground

The towers do lie,

Which, with their golden glittering tops,

Pierced once to the sky.

Where were gates are no gates now,

The ways unknown

Where the press of peers did pass

While her fame was blown.

Owls do scrike where the sweetest hymns

Lately were sung,

Toads and serpents hold their dens

Where the palmers did throng.

Weep, weep, O Walsingham,

Whose days are nights,

Blessings turned to blasphemies,

Holy deeds to despites.

Sin is where Our Lady sat,

Heaven is turned to hell,

Satan sits where Our Lord did sway

Walsingham, O farewell!