Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Tynemouth

This is a new addition to the Pilgrimage, and one for which I have very little evidence, but which I think worth including.

The Northumbrian monastery on the headland at Tynemouth was the burial place of the murdered seventh century St Oswin, King of Deira. When in the years after the Norman Conquest his relics were rediscovered a priory was established as a daughter house of Durham Cathedral priory and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St Oswin. It then became a daughter house of St Albans - leading to a prolonged dispute with Durham - and became a place for pilgrimage to the shrine of St Oswin. The suggestion is that because of its joint dedication the priory also became a centre for Marian devotion, and excavation of the monastic church has revealed the foundations of a large Lady Chapel which had been added on at the north east of the presbytery.

Plan of Tynemouth Priory

The large Lady Chapel can be seen at the north-east

Image: GetArchive

Wikipedia has a quite detailed account of the history of the monastery - including a translation of a mid-fourteenth century letter from a St Albans monk exiled to Tynemouth to a friend back in Hertfordshire - and that can be read at Tynemouth_Priory_and_Castle

The remains of the east end of Tynemouth Priory with the Percy chapel beneath. The Lady Chapel was to the right.

Image: easymalc.co.uk

May Our Lady of Tynemouth intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Jesmond

The Pilgrimage now heads to Jesmond, which is now an affluent northern suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, and to the remains of a Norman shrine chapel which still attracts pilgrims..  

My post from last year, again with links to earlier ones on this pilgrimage site, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Jesmond

In addition both the Wikipedia article at Jesmond and the illustrated one from Historiette at St Mary's Chapel Jesmond give a ‘foundation myth’ about an apparition of the Virgin and Child which led to the building of the chapel at Jesmond. I have not seen a more fully documented account but am sharing it as the only explanation of the pilgrimage tradition to Jesmond I have seen.

The ruins of Jesmond Chapel

Image: Co-Curate

May Our Lady of Jesmond intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

  

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Cathedral

 

This devotional statue was in one of two chapels which in 1922-23 became the Regimental Chapel of the Durham Light Infantry in the south transept of the cathedral.

My post from last year, which has links to other posts on this image of Our Lady, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Cathedral

A Virgin ouvrante from the Musee de Cluny of the same kind as Our Lady of Bolton

The French theologian Jean Gerson, who died in 1429, was opposed to this popular type of image as he considered it heretical by suggesting that the Holy Trinity was the fruit of the womb of Mary

Image: Aidan McRae Thompson on Flickr

Another example of a vièrfe ouvrante

Image: Pinterest 

The Durham Light Infantry Chapel today,

the site of the medieval statue of Our Lady of Bolton

Image: Durham Cathedral and Jarrolds

May Our Lady of Bolton intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham Cathedral

Moving now to the north-east of England the Pilgrimage stops at Durham Cathedral, which had two statues of Our Lady which drew pilgrims.

In the Galilee Chapel at the west end was the statue of Our Lady of Pity.

My post about this from last year, together with links to other posts from previous years on this shrine, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham Cathedral

The site is the statue of Our Lady of Pity

Image: David Dixon and Geograph Britain

May Our Lady of Pity in the Galilee at Durham intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

The Vatican vs SSPX

Since rhe announcement by SSPX of their intention to consecrate new bishops for the Society at Écône on July 1st the verbal skirmishing between it and the Vatican has rapidly escalated into a war of words, albeit a Cold War at present.

 

The very well informed website The Pillar offers a detailed and informed  exposition of the canon law in the context of consecrations without Papal approval together with some reflections on the context of the current dispute at If the SSPX consecrations happen, who exactly is excommunicated?

LifeSite News yesterday shared the text of the Society’s  response to the threat of excommunication from Cardinal Fernández. This is in the form of a profession of faith, and responding to some current matters of debate. It can be read at SSPX responds to Vatican threats with profession of faith

This is a situation which looks very much like a “stand-off”, and surely requires the prayers not just of those directly involved but of all the concerned faithful. It should not be beyond the realms of possibility to find some form, not of that loaded word ‘compromise’ ,

but of agreement not to push matters to a breach.

Addendum:

LifeSite News has now published the response from SSPX to the Vatican statement threatening excommunication. It can be read at SSPX responds: 'Excommunicated? But by whom? By those who kneel before Pachamama?'

I do urge readers to look carefully at these three statements and to reflect upon them.

Cardinal Allen

I have another article in the latest edition of Mass of Ages, the quarterly magazine published by the Latin Mass Society. It has even made the front cover with a portrait of the subject of the article, Cardinal William Allen. 

Cardinal William Allen

Image: Wordpress

   

He was the founder of the Douai seminary for missionary priests during the Elizabethan persecution and also of the English College in Rome. His last years were spent as a Cardinal in Rome, but he never forgot his birthplace on the Lancashire coast. He was a key figure in maintaining the Catholic faith during a time of increasing persecution, yet in many ways his actions made the Elizabethan government all the more hostile to Catholicism. That paradox remains at the core of his life.  

Doomed to exile by the circumstances of his times he never relinquished his love for the land and faith of his birth. 

My interest in him is not just that he was a leading Catholic figure, but we are both members of the same Oxford college of Oriel. His early twentieth century statue looks out from the High Street facade of the Rhodes Building.

The article and magazine can be accessed at https://share.google/9092pe33JYbBoFrnQ

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Abingdon

The Pilgrimage now goes back to the Thames Valley and to the shrine of Our Lady of Abingdon in the great Benedictine abbey there.

My post, with its links to previous ones which include links to pieces on the restored medieval statue of the Virgin and Child now in the nineteenth century Catholic Church, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Abingdon

David Nash Ford’s Royal Berkshire History has an account of the abbey, including its other great focus of devotion, accross which was believed to include one of the nails from the Passion. This relic, known as the Black Cross features in the arms of St Edmund of Abingdon, and may have had its own chapel in the abbey forecourt. The account can be seen at RBH: History of Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire

A Facebook post from the Medieval & Tudor Period Buildings Group  has a quite detailed account of the revival of the abbey at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the Italian born abbot Faricius. This can be seen at Abingdon Abbey near Oxford was probably founded in the late seventh century, but its great days started when it was re-founded by Bishop Aethelwold

The Friends of Abingdon Abbey Buildings Trust has an illustrated website which outlines the history of the abbey and discusses the few surviving buildings. This can be seen at Precious Heritage Site: the History of the Buildings - Abingdon Abbey Buildings

  

A reconstruction of Abingdon Abbey

Image: Abingdon Museum

 

Abingdon Museum Blog has an account of the suppression of the abbey which can be seen at The Dissolution of Abingdon Abbey 

The seal of 

Abingdon Abbey depicting the Virgin and Child

Image: VCH Berkshire

May Our Lady of Abingdon intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Ascension Day

The Ascension of Our Lord

Giotto circa 1305

Capella Scrovegni - Arena Chapel

Image: buypopart.com

May I wish all my readers a joyful celebration of the Ascension of Our Lord