The Vatican has granted permission for Our Lady of Walsingham to be celebrated as a new Feast in the dioceses of England. It will be marked on 24 September.
Last year Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, asked for the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Walsingham be raised to the rank of Feast. Now Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has agreed:
“Given the historic importance of this shrine for the Church in England and Wales, dating back just over one thousand years, and given the growing devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham to which you attest, the Dicastery has decided that, by way of exception, your request may be granted.”
Walsingham, a village in Norfolk, is an important place of pilgrimage because it is believed to be the site of an important vision of the Virgin Mary.
In 1061, a Saxon noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverches, is said to have had a vision of Mary. She claimed that Mary took her to her house in Nazareth, the site where the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build an exact copy of this house in Walsingham.
It's called the Holy House and is inside St Mary’s Church at Walsingham. In the church there is a statue of Mary, called Our Lady of Walsingham, above the altar. The site is also known as the Nazareth of England and it has been visited by pilgrims for centuries. Every year there is a national pilgrimage to Walsingham on the spring bank holiday (in late May), which attracts Christians from all over the UK and around the world.
Cardinal Roche said he hoped that the new Feast day would strengthen the faithful:
“May this yearly celebration be a source of renewed grace and evangelical endeavour for the Church in England and Wales, as, imitating Mary, the faithful may ever more become disciples of her Son, receive the message of the Gospel, treasure it in their hearts and reflect on it in their minds”.