Our Lady of Walsingham to be given place in Westminster Cathedral

Our Lady of Walsingham is to be given a place in Westminster Cathedral.

In a ceremony on December 8, presided over by Bishop John Sherrington, a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham will be enthroned in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs.

Cardinal Bernard Griffin, the sixth Archbishop of Westminster, commissioned the Cathedral Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in the Marian Year of 1954.

Described as “England’s Nazareth”, the Marian shrine of Walsingham dates back to medieval times. Erasmus visited Walsingham in 1513 and said: “You would say it is the abode of saints, so brilliantly does it shine with gems, gold and silver.”

However, the site was destroyed during the Reformation and not restored until the 20th century. In 1934, Cardinal Francis Bourne led a pilgrimage of 10,000 people to the Chapel and declared it to be the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady.

The ceremony takes place in Westminster Cathedral on December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Mass at 5.30pm is followed by the Procession and Blessing of the new Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham.