Thread by @DouayRheims1

#OURLADYOFWALSINGHAMMEMORIAL: SEPTEMBER 24

~thread~
1. Five years before the Norman Conquest, in the little village of Walsingham, England, a pious widow, Richeldis, had a vision in which the Blessed Virgin asked her to build a
replica of the Holy House of the Annunciation.

2. Richeldis hastened to obey. Thus, says the legend, England received its most celebrated shrine.

WALSINGHAM AND LORETO

The Holy House of Loreto is said to be the very house in which our Lady lived, while the house at Walsingham was a replica of it.

3. Of the two, Walsingham is the older. The date given for the foundation of Loreto is 1291, that for Walsingham is 1061. There is no doubt of the sanctity of both shrines nor of the number favours granted there. Among the thousands who made the pilgrimage to Walsingham

4. were many kings and queens of England. Such was the love Englishmen had for our Blessed Mother in medieval times.

"New Nazareth" became known throughout all Christian Europe. Because of it, England was called “the Holy Land, Our Lady’s Dowry.”

5. KING HENRY VIII

King Henry VIII at first had great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He made a pilgrimage to Walsingham, walking the last mile barefooted in the snow.

When he broke with Rome in order to take a new wife, he had the buildings razed.
#KingHenryVIII #history

6. An anonymous sixteenth-century author wrote this Lament Over Walsingham:

Bitter bitter Oh to behold the grass to grow

Where the walls of Walsingham so stately did show;

Such were the works of Walsingham while she did stand:

Such are the wrecks as now

7. do show of that holy land.

Level level with the ground the towers do lie

Which their golden glittering tops pierced once the sky…

Weep weep O Walsingham whose days and nights

Blessings turned to blasphemies holy deeds to dispites,

Sin is where Our Lady sat

8. Heaven turned to Hell,

Satan sits where our Lord did sway, Walsingham O farewell.

[Following the Catholic Emancipation Act] a shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham at the parish church of King’s Lynn was built.

A statue blessed by Pope Leo XIII was enshrined in the new

9. sanctuary on August 19, 1897.

About 1894 the Slipper chapel [which belonged to the original shrine] was discovered by an Anglican woman, Miss Charlotte Boys. She wished to purchase it and to restore it.

While negotiations were going on, she received the gift of faith.

10. She completed the purchase and employed a noted architect to do the work of restoration. In 1897, the day after the inauguration of the shrine at King’s Lynn, Walsingham had its first official pilgrimage since the Reformation.

The Slipper Chapel was made a shrine in 1934.

11. From that time pilgrimages have been made from every part of England. Many people travel on foot from London, 117 miles away. In 1938, the fourth centenary of the desecration of Walsingham, Cardinal Hinsley led the gigantic pilgrimage of Catholic youth to the Slipper Chapel..

12. Little by little, England is returning to Walsingham.

(Excerpts from: “The Woman Shall Conquer” by Don Sharkey, Prow Books/Franciscan Marytown Press, Libertyville, IL, 1954)

#OurLadyOfWalsingham