Our Lady of Muswell

The post I wrote last year about the shrine of Our Lady of Muswell can be seen at Our Lady of Muswell. To that there is the addition of a note from a reader about a bequest in connection with pilgrimage to Muswell 1456. I am grateful for that to the contributor. 

I do wonder if London wills might yield more about devotion to this and other smaller shrines with a local appeal. A quick look at the online Calendar of Wills in the London Court of Husting did not yield anything, but that is not to say that there may be such testamentary evidence to be recovered.

The only other addition is to include a picture of the first known beneficiary of the intercession of Our Lady of Muswell, King Malcolm IV of Scots and comment on his possible reasons for undertaking such a pilgrimage. There is a Wikipedia biography of him at Malcolm IV of Scotland. From that and other sources it emerges that fir much of his reign he suffered from poor health. This is thought to have been Paget’s disease which affects the bones. There is a description of that at Paget's disease of bone. The symptoms described there could well, in the early stages at least, be of the type that might be mitigated by either the innate process of the condition, to follow a naturalistic interpretation, or indeed by allieviated by some form of divine intervention. King Malcolm died aged 24 in 1165 so one can perhaps assume that as a young man his symptoms were still variable.

Possible dates for his visit to Muswell are  1159 when he was going to France with King Henry II on campaign, 1160 when he was returning home from that expedition, or 1163 when he is known to have been taken seriously ill at Doncaster on the journey through England. I have written about the Scottish connection of Doncaster before on this blog in 2012 at Doncaster in Scotland?

Image: Wikipedia

Our Lady of Muswell Pray for us