Our Lady of Doncaster

Today being the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel seems an appropriate day to post something about a medieval English Carmelite sponsored devotion to Our Lady - that of Our Lady of Doncaster. This developed from the mid-fourteenth century in the Carmelite friary in Doncaster, and remained important until its closure in the 1530s. In the last half century and more it has been revived in the church of St Peter-in-Chains in the town centre, and was encouraged by the future Cardinal Heenan when he was diocesan Bishop in the 1950s. There is a good account of the history and revival of the shrine here.

The modern statue of Our Lady of Doncaster in the church of St Peter in Chains

Image: Wikipedia

This shrine attracted my interest not only as being a revival of a medieval devotion in my home area, but in the town in which my father was born and raised and in the church whose predecessor was attended by my Catholic cousins. As a consequence Our Lady of Doncaster is a title under which I often invoke the assistance of the Virgin Mary.