Discovering Walsingham.

Walsingham is a village in Norfolk.  Im 1061 a woman called Richeldis lived there and prayed to our Lady to let her do something special for her.  Our Lady asked her to build a house which was a replica of the home she had lived in through her early years, where the Angel Gabriel had told her she was to be the Mother of God.   Our Lady wanted this house built so that people would remember the wonderful event of the Annunciation.  The house was built and soon became a place of pilgrimage not just for the people of England but for people from all parts of Europe.  A Priory was built and the Augustinian monks took charge of the shrine.   In 1538 at the instructions of Henry VIII the shrine was destroyed and a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken to London and destroyed.

For three hundred and more years the ruined wall of the Priory stood and nearby the slipper chapel, where pilgrims cleaned their muddy boots before moving on, was used as a Poor House, and then a Blacksmiths and eventually a Barn.   A woman called Charlotte Boyd looked at the Barn one day and saw the structure was really like a Church.   The Story of Walsingham had been lost, but moving to certainty that it had indeed been once a Church she began to make enquiries and found again the story of Walsingham.  She purchased the place immediately and eventually the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Walsingham was restored by a decree of Pope Leo XIII.   Through the building of this Holy House which would have meant so much to Our Lady we gave  a wonderful gift which was indeed called Mary's Dowry a present  to her by the English people.

So the pilgrimages started again and after the Second World War there was a pilgrimage called the Cross Carrying Pilgrimage of Prayer and Penance and Peace.   Fourteen crosses were carried on foot from different parts of England and one of them was carried from my home town Basingstoke.  It is recognised in Walsingham that there were other shrines to Our Lady in England and one was indeed in Basingstoke.  Local historians have commented on this.    It was part of St Michael's Church.    If you go to Wlsingham you will find that the fourteen Stations of the Cross are these same Crosses and the Basingstoke Cross was the IV.

As in 1948 there is a great need in our country for such a pilgrimage again, seeking Prayer and Penance  and Peace.   Our Lady is desperate to save us and our country and give us back to her son.   It is time for the Church to turn to Mary again for as we have seen without  her protection we are lost.        

Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

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