The next stage on the virtual pilgrimage is Oxford and various statues of Our Lady known to have been venerated in the city. I posted about these in Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Oxford
I recently attended an online seminar at the Warburg Institute which argued that stories such as that of St Edmund Rich placing a ring on the finger of the statue of the BVM in Oxford which could not subsequently be removed is more than just one of affective devotion or quaint sentimentality. In the view of the researcher this was rather more a processing of the Pygmalion story and indicative of a change in attitudes to sculptured figures. Whereas under St Gregory the Great Classical sculptures were seen as demonic and to be avoided or mutilated, by the twelfth and certainly the thirteenth centuries they were accepted into the mainstream of Catholic devotion, where they have remained.
May Our Lady of Oxford pray for The King and The Queen and for us all.
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