Before leaving Huntingdonshire there is, I discover, a Marian shrine to add to the Pilgrimage list. This was in a chapel at the parish church of Holy Cross at Bury near the great Benedictine abbey at Ramsey, and both the church and chapel were dependent upon the abbey.
Ramsey was founded in 969 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St Benedict and all Holy Virgins. In consequence it appears to have been a centre of Marian devotion.
The abbey had the relics of St Felix, the apostle of East Anglia and of St Ivo, which were discovered in 1001 at Slepe which came to be renamed in his honour as St Ives.
However for pilgrims seeking the intercession of Our Lady the focus was not apparently the main monastic church nor the Lady Chapel, which like those at Ely and the now destroyed example at Peterborough was, it would appear, a free standing thirteenth century building linked to the main church. Part of it remains and is discussed and can be seen in a video link from
Ramsey Abbey.co.uk at Lady Chapel - Ramsey Abbey
Instead the centre for pilgrim devotion appears to have been an image in the church at Bury, just to the south of Ramsey, but mine may imagine, part of the sacred landscape around the monastery. There
pilgrims stopped to pray for the aid of the Virgin Mary and in the fifteenth century a large chapel was built to the west of the church tower in her honour.
Plan of Bury Church
Image: A Church Near You from VCH Huntingdonshire vol II
The tower of Bury church with the remains of the Lady Chapel
Image: Ramsey Abbey.co.uk
A closer view showing the niches
Image: A Church Near You
Wikipedia has an account of Ramsey Abbey at Ramsey_Abbey
The website Ramsey Abbey has some details about offerings in the chapel in 1508, which can be accessed at Church of the Holy Cross Bury
May Our Lady of Bury intercede for us and our intentions
Jesu mercy, Mary pray
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