Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral

The second shrine on the Pilgrimage is that of Our Lady of the Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral. Fortunately it has survived the post-reformation centuries quite well and remains a beautiful and deeply prayerful place beneath the eastern arm of the cathedral. My post about this very popular shrine, which has survived relatively intact and has been re-established as a Marian shrine over the past century, can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral

Thinking at the moment as part of the intention about Cardinals it is worth pointing out that Canterbury Cathedral houses the mortal remains of six Cardinals - more than any other church in the country other than Westminster Cathedral.

They are  Stephen Langton (1228),  John Kempe (1454), Thomas Bourchier (1486), John Morton (1500), and Reginald Pole, who had been a distinctly possible papabile in 1549, (1558). There is also the tomb of the exiled French  Cardinal Odet de Coligny or Châtillon (1571), and an account of whose fairly extraordinary career can be read at Odet de Coligny

These tombs are to be found in the cathedral above the Undercroft with the exception of Morton who asked in his will to be buried before the statue of Our Lady of the Undercroft. This was to be beneath a plain marble slab, which subsequently broke, and his bones disturbed. His skull is now at Stonyhurst. Outside the screens enclosing the Chapel of Our Lady is the now rather battered but still impressive tomb of the Cardinal with an effigy showing him in full pontifical vestments.

May Our Lady of the Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral pray for the Papal Conclave and the election of a wise and holy Pope