Whilst in Suffolk it seems appropriate to add to Canon Stevenson’s list of Marian shrines that of Our Lady of Sudbury.
There appears to be little recorded about this devotion. The statue was in the chapel of Our Lady and St Anne adjoining the porch of the church of St Gregory, which had been made collegiate in 1365 by the ill-fated son of the town Archbishop Simon Sudbury, who was murdered in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381.
The Church of St Gregory Sudbury
The chapel of St Anne can be seen east of the south porch.
Image: St Gregory’s Sudbury
The illustrated history of the church on the parish church can be seen at History and there is another from Suffolk churches at Suffolk Churches
It has been suggested in Our Lady of Sudbury, East Anglia that the devotion to Our Lady of Sudbury was part of the rise in popularity of such shrines in the years after the dedication of England as the Dowry of Mary in the wake of that selfsame revolt.
Queen Elizabeth of York in 1502 gave money to this as to a number of other Marian shrines seeking prayers for her safe delivery in what was to be her last pregnancy.
The following paragraphs are reproduced from the website linked to above:
An end came in 1537 when the King’s Commissioners were in East Anglia to dismantle all the shrines and to rob them of their votive offerings. Nothing is known of the fate of Our Lady’s statue but it may well have been one of those with which Thomas Cromwell intended to “make a jolly muster” on a bonfire in Smithfields in 1538.
All was quiet for nearly four centuries until in 1876 the Mass returned to Sudbury. In 1882 two houses on the Croft near to the original site of the Shrine were bought and the lower rooms converted into a chapel where a niche was made to house a statue of Our Lady that still may be seen near the church door.
In 1934 the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham which had been restored in King’s Lynn in 1897 was translated to the Slipper Chapel and this re*awakened interest in shrines of Our Lady throughout the county. With the enthusiastic support of Bishop Laurence Youens the parish priest, Fr Gerard Moir, determined to do something at Sudbury.
Fr Moir met a generous American from Chicago who had been on pilgrimage to Walsingham. Hearing about Sudbury, he wanted to restore the Shrine. Unfortunately he died suddenly and the project was threatened. Fr Moir’s mother, who was not a Catholic (Gerard was a convert of Mgr Hugh Benson) stepped into the breach and paid for a new statue and shrine to be carved by the Walsingham craftsmen James and Lilian Dagless. Because the appearance of the original statue was unknown the new one was based on a 14th century French design. At the feast of the Assumption 1937, 400 years after the desecration of the original, the restored Shrine of Our Lady of Sudbury was dedicated with a pilgrimage of about 4,000 in attendance.
In the later Middle Ages there were many processions of the various Guilds in Sudbury and one of these involved Our Lady’s Shrine. On the Saturday after the Assumption the statue was taken to a chapel outside the town (probably the Benedictine Priory of St Bartholomew) and then on the Sunday evening at sundown was carried back in procession accompanied by sheaves of corn and casks of wine. This was known as the “Homecoming of Our Lady” and was revived by Fr Moir who composed music in honour of the occasion.
All was quiet for nearly four centuries until in 1876 the Mass returned to Sudbury. In 1882 two houses on the Croft near to the original site of the Shrine were bought and the lower rooms converted into a chapel where a niche was made to house a statue of Our Lady that still may be seen near the church door.
In 1934 the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham which had been restored in King’s Lynn in 1897 was translated to the Slipper Chapel and this re*awakened interest in shrines of Our Lady throughout the county. With the enthusiastic support of Bishop Laurence Youens the parish priest, Fr Gerard Moir, determined to do something at Sudbury.
Fr Moir met a generous American from Chicago who had been on pilgrimage to Walsingham. Hearing about Sudbury, he wanted to restore the Shrine. Unfortunately he died suddenly and the project was threatened. Fr Moir’s mother, who was not a Catholic (Gerard was a convert of Mgr Hugh Benson) stepped into the breach and paid for a new statue and shrine to be carved by the Walsingham craftsmen James and Lilian Dagless. Because the appearance of the original statue was unknown the new one was based on a 14th century French design. At the feast of the Assumption 1937, 400 years after the desecration of the original, the restored Shrine of Our Lady of Sudbury was dedicated with a pilgrimage of about 4,000 in attendance.
In the later Middle Ages there were many processions of the various Guilds in Sudbury and one of these involved Our Lady’s Shrine. On the Saturday after the Assumption the statue was taken to a chapel outside the town (probably the Benedictine Priory of St Bartholomew) and then on the Sunday evening at sundown was carried back in procession accompanied by sheaves of corn and casks of wine. This was known as the “Homecoming of Our Lady” and was revived by Fr Moir who composed music in honour of the occasion.
Our Lady of Sudbury
Image: Suffolk churches
The present Catholic Church of Our Lady and St John in Sudbury is described on the Suffolk churches website which can be seen at Suffolk Churches
I have only visited Sudbury once but it has three medieval churches and that quiet East Anglian charm that gradually discloses its history and heritage.
Our Lady of Sudbury Pray for us
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