Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday, 11 May 2024

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Coventry


The Pilgrimage now veers off into the Midlands  before returning to East Anglia tomorrow. Today’s destination is the Shrine of Our Lady of Coventry which was in the medieval cathedral priory lost at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.

My post about the devotion and the new statue on the site of the cathedral, from 2021, can be seen at Our Lady of Coventry

Waterton has a lengthy section about thic Coventry shrine, most of it about the foundation and endowments of the Benedictine house by Earl Leofric and Countess Godgifu ( Godiva ). He mentions in particular the chaplet of jewels created by Godgifu and used rather like a rosary. She bequeathed this to this Coventry image of Our Lady. According to William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century it was valued at 100 marks
(  £66.13.4 ).

He also mentions offerings to the statue of Our Lady in the Tower, which may have been a shrine on the city walls. King Henry VIII made an offering in 1511.

May Our Lady of Coventry pray for The King and all the Royal Family and for us all


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