Lady Richeldis Faverches – Our Lady of Walsingham, England 1061

Feastday 24^th September

Born Unknown

Died Unknown

Mary's presence in England began with three visions received by Lady Richeldis de Faverches, a widow who lived in a manor in Walsingham. In these visions, Mary showed Lady de Faverches the house in Nazareth where the angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to the Son of the Most High. The Blessed Mother asked Lady de Faverches to build a replica of her house in Nazareth dedicated as a memorial to the Annunciation to Mary and the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lady Richeldis was given precise measurements but no location for the carpenters to start work. After a night’s prayerful petition to the Mother of God for guidance the Blessed Virgin Mary had her angels intervene and complete the construction in one night on the site she wanted. Our Lady promised:

“Let all who are in any way distressed or in need seek me there in that small house that you maintain for me at Walsingham. To all that seek me there shall be given succour.”

The simple wooden structure measuring 23 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 10 inches became known as “England’s Nazareth.” For this reason in the Middle Ages, Walsingham became one of the greatest pilgrimage sites in all of Europe. A church was constructed around the house to protect it from the elements. What is now known as the “slipper chapel” named in honour of those who - in the Middle ages - removed their shoes to walk barefoot in the Holy House was built some three hundred years later in 1340 as the last pilgrim chapel on the way to the shrine.

Many English kings conducted pilgrimages to Walsingham. The last of these was Henry VIII, who made three pilgrimages to the site before breaking with the Catholic Church in 1534 and forming the Church of England. Tragically Walsingham was one of the first religious houses to surrender to Henry’s Anglican Church. The Shrine and Priory Church were summarily destroyed and the Statue of Our Lady taken to London with other images to be burnt. The slipper chapel however survived and was used as a barn, cow byre and workhouse until it was rescued by Charlotte Boyd and given to the Catholic Church’s Downside Abbey in 1896. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII made the slipper chapel the official Ancient Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and in 1930 it was absorbed into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northhampton.

It was not until 1931 however, that Walsingham’s Holy House was rebuilt on a new site by the Anglican Church under the direction of the vicar of Walsingham Alfred Patten. It was later encased in a small pilgrimage Church, and remains dedicated as the Anglican Church’s own official Shrine. The Catholic Church reinstated the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham September 24^th in the year 2000.

References

1. Living Miracles Apparitions (http://www.livingmiracles.net/Apparitions.html)

2. R.C. National Shrine History (http://www.walsingham.org.uk/romancatholic)

3. The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham The Story So Far (http://www.walsinghamanglican.org.uk)