The History of Our Lady of Walsingham

From EWTN.CO.UK

During the reign of St Edward the Confessor, in the year 1061, in Walsingham, Norfolk, a devout noblewoman named Lady Richeldis sought a way to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary. After many earnest prayers, the Virgin Mary appeared to her three times, providing divine guidance. During one of these encounters, Mary transported Lady Richeldis to Nazareth, the site of the Annunciation. According to the Pinson ballad, the Virgin instructed her, “Look, daughter, take the measurements of this house and erect another one like it in Walsingham. It shall be a perpetual memorial to the great joy of the Annunciation, the origin of all my joys and the root of humanity’s gracious redemption. This came about through Gabriel’s message, but I would be a mother through my humility and conceive God’s son in virginity. Let it be a place of pilgrimage; whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty-handed.”

With this sacred task, Lady Richeldis faced the challenge of selecting the exact location for the replica of the Holy House. The Virgin provided a sign, revealing a dew-drenched meadow where two areas remained completely dry. After careful consideration, Lady Richeldis chose the area that was close to two wells for the construction. However, the workers she hired encountered numerous obstacles, as if the materials and tools seemed to resist their efforts. Feeling disheartened, they suggested that Lady Richeldis seek further guidance from the Virgin. The noblewoman then spent the night in prayer to the Blessed Virgin.  When the workers returned the following morning, they found in the other area shown in the vision, the one further from the wells, the house that they had been trying to build. It had been miraculously built overnight by angels. Next to it was a newly uncovered spring.  News of this event spread rapidly, attracting many pilgrims to Walsingham. Over the centuries, countless miracles took place there—lame individuals walked, blind people regained their sight, and many others found healing and conversion.

King Henry III was the first monarch to visit Walsingham, around 1226. A devoted supporter of the Virgin Mary, he established Walsingham as a significant centre for worship. This legacy continued with other English monarchs, including initially King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon. However, tragedy struck during Henry VIII’s reign when he turned against the Catholic Church, leading to the pillage and destruction of many religious buildings, including this holy shrine. The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, revered at the shrine, was ordered to be burned. There are two possible locations where this is believed to have occurred: the Heretics’ pyre at Smithfield or the courtyard of Thomas Cromwell’s residence in Chelsea. However, some hold the belief that Catholics were able to save it and that it is the 12th century statue found now at the  Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The “mansion of the saints”, as the Holy House was called in the early sixteenth century, had been destroyed by Henry VIII, but the ruins remained. In 1896, a devout Catholic woman, Charlotte Boyd, purchased the land where the Slipper Chapel’s ruins were located and gave it to the Catholic Church. The Catholic Shrine of Walsingham was then reinstated. By the end of the twentieth century, a pilgrimage Church had been built in the grounds of the Slipper Chapel, and in 2024, the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, on September 24, was allowed to be celebrated in the dioceses of England.  Today, Walsingham is home to three shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary: the Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham, also known as the Slipper Chapel; the Catholic pontifical shrine of Our Lady of the Annunciation, featuring a replica of the Holy House reconstructed in 1897; and the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, which includes another replica of the Holy House and the miraculous spring.