To Walsingham

David Rees-Mogg recalls the joy of this year’s pilgrimage

Photographs by Joseph Shaw and Tremain Renee Newman-Brown

In 1061, in the reign of St Edward the Confessor, Our Lady appeared three times to the English noblewoman Richeldis de Faverches telling her to build “a house dedicated to praising and honouring Me”. Richeldis was given exact measurements by Our Lady, measurements that matched the House of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Walsingham, in Norfolk, where the church was built, became the principal site of pilgrimage in England, until the Martyrdom and canonization of St Thomas of Canterbury. Throughout the middle-ages pilgrims came in their thousands to visit England’s Nazareth.

Greedy for the wealth of the shrine, Henry VIII plundered Walsingham and for four centuries Our Lady was virtually abandoned there. The once great priory became a ruin, with just one colossal arch left standing.

Pilgrims began to return in more recent times, but a decline in numbers meant the annual pilgrimage stopped in the 1980s. Today the Walsingham Pilgrimage is once again thriving, thanks in no small part to the Latin Mass Society.

This year we pilgrims set off on the morning of the 26 August from Ely in Cambridgeshire. With the chant of the High Mass still in every pilgrim’s ear, the line of 160 devout souls lit out onto the streets under the shadow of the great cathedral.

My own pilgrimage had begun a little earlier than the first day in Ely. In fact, it began when I climbed onto an evening coach to get up to London. The experience of English public transport is something I would recommend as an excellent preparation for three days of arduous travelling!

Next morning, having slept on my brother’s sofa, I woke refreshed and made my way to Mass at St Bede’s, Clapham, from where we were due to set out.

Mass in St Etheldreda's Church, Ely

Arriving in Ely, to which we were taken by minibus, an initial feeling of trepidation soon melted with the warmth of our welcome and the sense of camaraderie.

We were an enormously varied group of men and women, but there was a sense that we were all united to the same end.

As we reached the River Ouse, an onlooker might have been forgiven for comparing the line of pilgrims to a ship surging along the river itself, with banners and flags as sails.

Each step of the way we had the security of knowing that we were following in the footsteps of our medieval ancestors and, as the pilgrimage progressed, the clamour of prayers which those early pilgrims would have recognised sounded across the Norfolk plains.

In medieval times, pilgrimages swelled as they travelled towards the shrine and something similar happened on our modern journey - as we progressed our number seemed imperceptibly to increase and, by the time we finally reached the Priory to venerate Our Lady, the crowd looked about double that which had set off.

Along the way we had benefited from the excellent singing of our team of cantors led by Dr Shaw, and by the wisdom of our chaplains, supported by religious brothers. At each stop we had a talk from one of the priests on the Virtues of Our Lady according to Louis de Montfort, and each day we were led through all fifteen mysteries of the Rosary by our cantors.

Every day there was either a High Mass or a Sung Mass, including one at the magnificent Oxburgh Chapel, which was being restored.

The Chapel, Oxburgh Hall

The chapel belongs to a recusant family, the Bedingfelds, who guarded the Faith for centuries. In the house there is a famous priest hole which no doubt sheltered saintly martyrs, and we had the privilege to assist at the Mass for which the martyrs shed their blood.

At the end of each day, we were welcomed into our campsite with the good cheer of our team of helpers, who had prepared meals of a quality one would be delighted to find in a restaurant, let alone at a campsite. My particular favourite was the sausage casserole!

We spent the night under the bright promontory of stars, with the voices of groups singing Compline in the evening stillness.

And then, finally, we were joined by the statue of Our Lady for the last day to spur us on for our morning’s walk. So, Our Lady reached the shrine where she was placed on the ancient site and once again venerated by both the pilgrims and the angels in the Te Deum.

This year of Our Lord 2022 has seen the largest number of pilgrims to Walsingham. In spite of fears of the post-Covid period, it seems as though the call of these ancient pilgrimages rings as loud today as ever.

The ancient word for a Pilgrim was “Palmer”, after the palm which was brought back after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was Our Lady’s wish that we might take the Palmer’s path, and we watched Our Lady arrive carrying that same palm as we reached the priory grounds.

The lily in the hand of Our Lady is like the Root of Jesse which was planted in her womb. The root has once again been planted in this country and will flower forever with the protection of Mary who, by her prayers, protects her dowery.

Devotions in the Abbey Ruins in Walsingham village