Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Islington

The Pilgrimage now travels north to the hills immediately to the north of London and to three Marian shrines. Today brings us to the first of these, Our Lady of Islington.

Not a great deal appears to be known about this devotion to a statue which seems to have originally been set in a tree in the churchyard. The medieval church, said to have been rebuilt in 1483, was replaced in the mid-eighteenth century by the present building, although much of that was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940 and subsequently rebuilt.

My post from last year, with links to previous posts can be seen at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Islington

 

The medieval church at Islington

Image: A London Inheritance 

There is more about the history of the church and parish in an illustrated article at St Mary Islington - A Tower with a View - A London Inheritance

Statues of Our Lady situated in tress were not uncommon and we shall visit another example, in Norwich, on this Pilgrimage. Apparitions of the Virgin standing in a tree are also recorded, as at Evesham at the beginning of the eighth century, and also on this Pilgrimage, and, most famously in the modern world, at Fatima in 1917. 

Quite coincidentally, but doubtless providentially, today I came across a reference to the Belgian shrine of Scherpenheuvel in Brabant which also originated with a statue of Our Lady that was in a tree. Wikipedia has two entries about the history of the shrine at Scherpenheuvel-Zichem and at Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Scherpenheuvel

May Our Lady of Islington pray for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray