The Walsingham Story
Retold by the Rt. Rev'd Archimandrite Daniel Keller
-reposted from WesternOrthodox.com. The icon for Our Lady of
![]()
Walsingham can be purchased here:
http://www.andrewespress.com/icon_olow.html
The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is the most renowned sanctuary of the Mother of God in the whole of the British Isles.
Walsingham itself is a village in a remote part of East Anglia some
125 miles from London. Here in the year 1061, (when England was still
considered part of the One Orthodox Catholic Church) Richeldis, Lady of
the Manor, received a vision in the fields near her home. The Blessed
Virgin Mary appeared to her and carried her in spirit to Nazareth.
There, Our Lady showed her the little house where the Annunciation took
place, and directed her to construct an exact copy. In confirmation of
this vision, a spring of water suddenly appeared at Richeldis'
feet.
Richeldis obeyed, and so a chapel, after the model of the Holy House
at Nazareth, was built beside the spring in honor of the mystery of the
Incarnation. By God's blessing Walsingham grew into a great
center of prayer. Pilgrims came not only from distant parts of England
or Scotland but from all over Europe, to pray before the venerable image
of God’s Mother in the Holy House, and to drink from the waters of
the spring. England's Nazareth, as it was called, became
famous for miracles of healing.
The Destruction and Restoration of the Shrine
In 1538, during the Reformation under King Henry VIII, the Shrine was
closed by force and destroyed. The image of Our Lady was publicly burnt
and the Holy Well blocked up with rubbish. The Shrine Church
disappeared so completely that its exact site was forgotten.
Then, after four centuries of neglect, the Shrine was restored once
more, largely through the dedicated efforts of one man: the
Anglican Vicar of Walsingham, Father A. Hope Patten (1958). In
1921 he placed in his parish church an image of Our Lady, a copy of the
ancient one that stood formerly in the Holy House. Ten years later a
piece of land was acquired in the village, and the Holy House was
rebuilt. When the workmen were clearing the ground for the foundations,
they unearthed an ancient well, together with some medieval foundations,
corresponding closely to the measurements of the Holy House built by
Richeldis. Thus, it seems that Father Hope Patten and his helpers were
guided by God to rebuild the Holy House on exactly the same spot as that
on which it once stood. On October 15, 1931 the image of the Mother of
God was transferred from the parish church to the restored Holy House,
and there it has since remained. In 1937-8, the Shrine Church was
greatly enlarged.
Orthodoxy at Walsingham
The Mother of God is honored at Walsingham not only by Anglicans and
Roman Catholics, but by Orthodox as well. Before World War 11,
Archbishop Seraphim, of the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris, blessed a
plot of land close to the nave of the Shrine Church, where it is hoped
one day to establish a permanent place for Orthodox worship (this chapel
has not so far been built). In 1938, at the consecration of the
enlarged Shrine Church, a delegation from the Russian Church was
present, led by Archbishop Nestor and Archimandrite Nicolas Gibbes.
Then at Pentecost, 1944, a temporary chapel within the walls of the
Anglican Shrine was blessed by Archbishop Sava of Grodno, of the Polish
Orthodox Church. This continues to be used by Orthodox pilgrims.
Although small, it has an icon screen and all the features necessary for
Eastern Orthodox worship.
Among the Orthodox who visited the Shrine after the war was the
saintly Serbian Bishop, Nicholai Velimirovich. For several years a
Serbian priest, Father Nadjanovich lived permanently at Walsingham.
Since 1961 there have been regular Greek Orthodox pilgrimages. In 1964,
the Orthodox Confraternity of Our Lady of Walsingham was set up, under
the patronage of Metropolitan Athenagoras, with Greek, Russian, Serbian,
and English Orthodox representatives on the Council.
