Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Coventry

The Pilgrimage now veers west to Coventry and the shrine of Our Lady in the now destroyed cathedral of St Mary.

My post from last year, with its links to those from earlier years can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Coventry

I have always been intrigued by this ‘lost’ cathedral and went looking for what tiny portions were visible on my first visit to Coventry as a schoolboy in 1963. Since then a significant part of the site has been excavated and much more is known about its plan and structure.

Wikipedia has an illustrated account at St_Mary's_Priory_and_Cathedral and there is another, which looks at its potential similarities to its co-cathedral at Lichfield, from historiccoventry.co.uk which can be accessed at St. Mary's Priory, Coventry: St. Mary's Priory & Cathedral: Introduction

Despite the destruction of the 1540s and 1940s the area around the site of St Mary’s, the ruins of St Michael’s, Holy Trinity and the remarkable St Mary’s Guildhall are still, along with some attractive Georgian buildings, picturesque and fascinating, a place where the past, good and bad, still seems present. Elsewhere Coventry has other significant later medieval remains such as the tower and spire of the Greyfriars, remains of the Whitefriars as well as the church of St John Bablake, and some impressive timber framed houses.

The modern pilgrim can therefore feel they are close to their medieval predecessors.

May Our Lady of Coventry intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bury near Ramsey

Before leaving Huntingdonshire there is, I discover, a Marian shrine to add to the Pilgrimage list. This was in a chapel at the parish church of Holy Cross at Bury near the great Benedictine abbey at Ramsey, and both the church and chapel were dependent upon the abbey.

Ramsey was founded in 969 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St Benedict and all Holy Virgins. In consequence it appears to have been a centre of Marian devotion. 

The abbey possessed the relics of St Felix, the apostle of East Anglia and of St Ivo, which were discovered in 1001 at Slepe, which came to be renamed in his honour as St Ives.

However for pilgrims seeking the intercession of Our Lady the focus was not apparently the main monastic church nor the Lady Chapel, which like those at Ely and the now destroyed example at Peterborough was, it would appear,  a free standing thirteenth century building linked to the main church. Part of it remains and is discussed and can be seen in a video link from 

Ramsey Abbey.co.uk at Lady Chapel - Ramsey Abbey

Instead the centre for pilgrim devotion appears to have been an image in the church at Bury, just to the south of Ramsey, but mine may imagine, part of the sacred landscape around the monastery. There pilgrims stopped to pray for the aid of the Virgin Mary and in the fifteenth century a large chapel was built - or maybe rebuilt in a larger scale - to the west of the church tower in her honour. This was destroyed after the dissolution and only its eastern angles survive.

Plan of Bury Church

Image: A Church Near You from VCH Huntingdonshire vol II

The tower of Bury church with the remains of the Lady Chapel

Image: Ramsey Abbey.co.uk

A closer view showing the niches

Image: A Church Near You

Wikipedia has an account of Ramsey Abbey at Ramsey_Abbey

The website Ramsey Abbey has some details about offerings in the chapel in 1508, which can be accessed at Church of the Holy Cross Bury

The Victoria County History of Huntingdonshire has articles on Ramsey Abbey here and on Bury here

May Our Lady of Bury intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

The Bridge and Chapel at St Ives

Turning from the theme, but not the itinerary, of the Pilgrimage a medieval pilgrim at Cambridge seeking to travel to the next stage but one at Coventry might have headed north-west to cross the Great Ouse at St Ives before setting off across the Midlands. Had they done so exactly six hundred years ago they would have been amongst the first to cross the elegant new bridge and to pause for prayer and probably to pay the toll in the new chapel. 

The Bridge and Chapel at St Ives

Image: Wikipedia 

The bridge had been rebuilt in stone between 1414 and 1425, and the chapel of St Ledger at the mid-point was completed in 1426. Why the gruesomely martyred seventh century Merovingian bishop of Autun was selected as the patron is not apparently recorded or suggested. The choice may reflect the views of the community at Ramsey Abbey who were the owners of the bridge, or maybe that the new chapel was dedicated on the feast day of St Ledger (Leodegar) on October 2nd.

The not uneventful history of the bridge is set out in considerable detail by Wikipedia at St_Ives_Bridge

There is also an account of St Leger at Leodegar 

Two more articles from the National Churches Trust  at St Ives St Ledger Chapel and from St Ives 100 years ago at St Ives Bridge & Chapel  are virtually word for word the same, but one has illustrations. 

There is another account from r-l-p.co.uk at St. Ives Bridge Chapel, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire

The BBC News website reports on the anniversary and celebrations to mark it at St Ives 'gem' celebrates 600 years

Our Lady of Grace in Cambridge

The next stage of the Pilgrimage is in Cambridge with the statue of Our Lady in the Dominican friary church.

The site of the friary is now occupied by Emmanuel College, which was founded in 1584. The hall of the College is built on the foundations of the nave of the friar’s church. In 1850 a carved figure of the Virgin and Child was found in the College and given by it to the Catholic parish church, the immensely impressive masterpiece of Victorian gothic that is Our Lady and the English Martyrs. As a building that is very well worth while making a slight detour from the city centre to visit. Wikipedia has a history of the church at Our_Lady_and_the_English_Martyrs_Church

It is not entirely clear if this is the same statue that was venerated as Our Lady of Grace in Cambridge, but it is certainly a link to the monastery that housed the shrine.

The statue of the Virgin and Child found in Emmanuel College and now in Our Lady and the English Martyrs

Image: Wikipedia Commons

My post from last year with the links to those from previous years can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Grace in Cambridge

May Our Lady of Grace in Cambridge pray for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Oxford

 

The Pilgrimage moves away from London to visit the two ancient Universities, and begins with the older foundation in Oxford.

My post from last year with links to the notes from previous years can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Oxford

   

For contemporary pilgrims the obvious destination is the Oxford Oratory. Here they can find the painting of Our Lady of Oxford Mother of Mercy. This was acquired, whilst she was serving as a Papal Chamberlain by Hartwell de la Garde Grissell during the pontificate of Pope Pius IX. He and the Pope were friends and in 1869 the Pope attached indulgences to the image. The painting came to Oxford with its owner and a great collection of relics. They were housed in a chapel in de la Garde Grissell’s house in the High, and then, on his death in 1907, he bequeathed it to the Archdiocese of Birmingham for display in St Aloysius’ Church, which since 1990 has been home to the Oxford Oratory.

The painting e now has an assigned feast day celebrated on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday in July. The original indulgences expired in 1969, but have been reinstated by the Apostolic Penitentiary. A partial indulgence is granted for reciting the Salve Regina or the Litany of Loreto before the image.

May Our Lady of Oxford intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Muswell

Remaining for another day in what are now the northern suburbs of London the Pilgrimage now goes to the shrine of Our Lady of Muswell.

My post from last year, with links to ones from previous years can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Muswell

The modern Catholic Church of Our Lady of Muswell 
built in 1938, is described on the Taking Stock website at Muswell Hill - Our Lady of Muswell

I see that the image I had on a previous post about the most prestigious pilgrim to the shrine, King Malcolm IV, has disappeared. I am therefore reproducing it again in this post. It is taken from a charter granted by the King to Kelso Abbey which was founded by his grandfather King David I.

King Malcolm IV

Image: Wikipedia 

May Our Lady of Muswell intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Willesden

The next stational shrine on the Pilgrimage is that of Our Lady of Willesden. 

My article from last year about this king established place of pilgrimage can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Willesden

By following the links within it my additional comments can be read, adding to my account from 2021 of what is known of the history of the shrine can be read at Our Lady of Willesden 

Most of the evidence we have is from just before or during the sixteenth century religious upheavals, and apart from references to the statue in thirteenth century records there appears little evidence as to the pattern of devotion at that period.

The medieval church at Willesden appears to have been a small rural parish church with a nave and chancel, with a tower and south aisle and chapel added to the nave about 1400, and which was very considerably enlarged in the nineteenth century.

Willesden Church from the south before the nineteenth century restoration and extension 

Image: Willesden Local History Society

There is an illustrated account by Andrew Pink of the church and shrine at Our Lady of Willesden

 

Wikipedia also has a quite detailed article, but it is not without errors - for example St Paul’s Cathedral did not have monks attached to it in the medieval period. It can be seen at St_Mary's_Church,_Willesden

The Church of St Mary Willesden before being restored and enlarged in the nineteenth century 

Image: Andrew Pink

May Our Lady of Willesden intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Islington

The Pilgrimage now travels north to the hills immediately to the north of London and to three Marian shrines. Today brings us to the first of these, Our Lady of Islington.

Not a great deal appears to be known about this devotion to a statue which seems to have originally been set in a tree in the churchyard. The medieval church, said to have been rebuilt in 1483, was replaced in the mid-eighteenth century by the present building, although much of that was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940 and subsequently rebuilt.

My post from last year, with links to previous posts can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Islington

 

The medieval church at Islington

Image: A London Inheritance 

There is more about the history of the church and parish in an illustrated article at St Mary Islington - A Tower with a View - A London Inheritance

Statues of Our Lady situated in tress were not uncommon and we shall visit another example, in Norwich, on this Pilgrimage. Apparitions of the Virgin standing in a tree are also recorded, as at Evesham at the beginning of the eighth century, and also on this Pilgrimage, and, most famously in the modern world, at Fatima in 1917. 

Quite coincidentally, but doubtless providentially, today I came across a reference to the Belgian shrine of Scherpenheuvel in Brabant which also originated with a statue of Our Lady that was in a tree. Wikipedia has two entries about the history of the shrine at Scherpenheuvel-Zichem and at Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Scherpenheuvel

May Our Lady of Islington pray for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray