I have often heard about a shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and would like to know more about it. Is it associated with an apparition of Our Lady?
The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is in Norfolk and has a very long history, going back to the time of Edward the Confessor in 1061.
In that year, according to the Pynson Ballad written around 1485, a devout, widowed, English noble woman named Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady.
In answer to her prayer, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her three times in a vision and showed her the house in Nazareth where the Annunciation occurred, asking her to build a replica in Walsingham as a perpetual reminder of the Annunciation.
Richeldis then had a Holy House built, a simple wooden structure in imitation of the house in Nazareth where the Annunciation occurred.
She entrusted the care of the house to her son Geoffrey, who arranged for the building of a priory in Walsingham so that the monks could care for it on a more permanent basis.
Although historical records from the period are scant, it is known that with papal approval the Augustinian Canons Regular built a priory there some time between 1146 and 1174.
Walsingham soon became one of the most popular shrines in Europe, especially when war and political upheaval made travel to Rome and Santiago de Compostella difficult.
Over the years royal patronage helped the shrine grow in wealth and popularity, and it was visited by numerous kings, from Henry III in 1241 through Edward I and Edward II to Henry VIII in 1513. Henry VIII’s Spanish wife Catherine of Aragon was a regular pilgrim.
The Reformation in England was to see the suppression of the monastery and the shrine.
On the pretext of discovering any irregularities, Thomas Cromwell organised a series of visitations which led in 1536 to the suppression of some smaller monasteries, although not of Walsingham.
Even though the prior of Walsingham, Richard Vowell, signed the acceptance of the King’s supremacy over the Church, the sub-prior Nicholas Milcham was charged with high treason for conspiring to rebel against the suppression of the monasteries and was hanged outside the priory walls.
The priory was finally suppressed in 1538 and the buildings and shrine were looted and largely destroyed. The image of Our Lady was taken to London and burned, along with other images.
A Chronicle of England of the time reported: “It was the month of July, the images of Our Lady of Walsingham and Ipswich were brought up to London with all the jewels that hung around them, at the King’s commandment, and divers other images, both in England and Wales, that were used for common pilgrimage … and they were burnt at Chelsea by my Lord Privy Seal.”
In 1897, more than four hundred years after the destruction of the priory and shrine, Pope Leo XIII re-established the restored 14th century Slipper Chapel as a Roman Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
The Slipper Chapel received its name from the fact that it was located about a mile from the original shrine of Walsingham and pilgrims used to take off their shoes or slippers there and walk barefoot the rest of the distance.
The first post-Reformation pilgrimage was led to the shrine by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom on August 20, 1897.
A new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was made, modelled on the mediaeval statue, and it is now venerated in the Chapel. Our Lady is seated on a simple chair of state with the Child Jesus on her knee. S
he wears a Saxon crown as a reminder of her ancient queenship and holds the lily of purity in her hand. The Holy House, too, has been rebuilt as the Lady Chapel in the Church of the Annunciation at King’s Lynn.
In 1922, the Anglican Church took an interest in reviving devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham and had a new statue made, based on the image depicted on the seal of the mediaeval priory. Devotion soon followed and pilgrimages once again became popular.
In 1931, a new Holy House was built in a small pilgrimage church and the statue of Our Lady was placed there. In 1938, the church was enlarged to form the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Over 100,000 pilgrims go to Walsingham each year, many of them visiting both the Anglican and the Catholic shrines. The feast of Our Lady of Walsingham is celebrated each year on September 24, the feast of Our Lady of Ransom.