July 6, 2022 marked the centenary of the revival in the Church of England of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, which centuries earlier had made a small Norfolk village the most important centre of pilgrimage in pre-Reformation England after the Virgin Mary appeared to Richeldis de Faverches there in 1061. On that day in 1922 the young and personable Anglican vicar of Walsingham, Alfred Hope Patten, set up an image of Our Lady in his parish church. It was very soon adorned with flowers and other devotional aids which made it look as if it were in Belgium or France rather than in East Anglia – which was exactly what he intended.

From that small beginning, renewed devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham grew in the Church of England. Following problems with the Bishop of Norwich, in 1931 a dedicated shrine building was opened in the village and the image was moved to it. It was enlarged in 1938 and has been further expanded since. Patten himself died dramatically after collapsing during a service in 1958. In his later years he was preoccupied with what would happen when he was no longer in Walsingham; his successors have since broadened its appeal and attracted many Anglicans from outside the narrow constituency which was involved with the shrine during his time.

Patten was an Anglican Papalist, a position which was and remains incomprehensible to many Catholics. He believed that the Church of England should adopt the liturgical and devotional practices of the Council of Trent and the moral teachings of the contemporary Catholic Church of his day. He sincerely thought that if that happened, then in due course it would be seamlessly merged back into it and the Latin Church would once again be whole. His protégé John Shepherd says that the night before he died his mentor told him that it was time to go over to Rome; Shepherd later did so (twice).

Had Patten himself converted, it would have represented a severe blow to the small segment of the Church of England of which he was a part. It is worth noting that although he assiduously followed the ceremonies and teachings that came from Rome, he actually knew very few Catholics personally. There is no doubt that the growth of the Anglican shrine was attributable to his single-mindedness and power to inspire. Some thought him humourless (which was not true) or cold (which was equally untrue). He devoted himself unreservedly to the cause in which he believed, and had no interest at all in the news, or sport, and not much in eating and drinking. He rarely, if ever, read a newspaper.

The relationship between the Anglican and Roman shrines is complicated and in more recent times cooperation and friendliness has replaced the rancour and bitterness which was once apparent. The Slipper Chapel, where medieval pilgrims used to take off their shoes before completing the last mile of their journey barefoot, was purchased in 1894 by a pious and newly-wealthy Anglican woman named Charlotte Pearson Boyd. Her intention was to revive the devotion, nearly 30 years before the erection of the image in the parish church. Before the transaction was completed, however, she became a Catholic.

Had the transaction been conducted in a less-dilatory fashion, then the history of the revival of the devotion might have been very different. As it was, Boyd passed the chapel to the Benedictine community at Downside. There is no doubt that she wanted them to revive the pilgrimages, but the Bishop of Northampton (in whose diocese North Norfolk then was) insisted that the focus of prayer should continue to be the Catholic mission at King’s Lynn, where Leo XIII had given permission for the Walsingham devotions to resume in 1897.

Boyd died in 1906 without seeing her dreams for Walsingham realised; it would not be until 1934 that Catholics once more returned on pilgrimage to the site of the original shrine. Once this long-delayed step had been taken (which was commended at that time by Patten as only likely to increase devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham) the Catholic Church was able to mobilise very large numbers of pilgrims and somewhat outshine the established Anglican devotion.

This was compounded by a refusal to understand Patten’s views, and to ignore or disparage his efforts. A small chapel was opened in the village; the first priest, Fr Bruno Scott James, was himself a former Anglican and a man of considerable gifts. Nevertheless he was also abrasive and tactless. There was very bad feeling on both sides for a number of years, which culminated in an absurd dispute about the local authority signposts to the respective sites.

After the Second World War, during which Walsingham was in a restricted area and pilgrimages ceased to both shrines, relationships gradually improved. A great deal of credit for that belongs to Fr Gerard Hulme, who was tactful where his predecessors had been provocative. It is of some significance that when Patten and Hulme appeared together on Wilfred Pickles’ Have a Go radio programme on January 6, 1954, it was regarded as an important ecumenical gesture: both men said that they were able to cooperate.

From that small beginning, relationships began to improve; the change was particularly marked after the Second Vatican Council. Patten had disliked even the mild liturgical changes introduced before the Council and he would have hated those that came in its wake. However, the ecclesiastical separation which had largely applied to relations between the Churches came to an end and that important change of attitude, on both sides of the Tiber, had many beneficial consequences.

There have been practical benefits, too. Facilities to put up pilgrims are now exchanged in a way that once would not have been countenanced, and friendships between respective clergy and pilgrims have blossomed in recent years.

Since Patten’s death there have been many instances of cooperation between the shrines, which would have appeared impossible 60 years ago.

Michael Yelton’s biography of Alfred Hope Patten originally appeared in 2006; a revised and updated edition has been published to mark this year’s centenary.

Pope Leo XIII’s Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham celebrates its 125th anniversary this month. A Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated at the church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, King’s Lynn, at 7 pm on Friday August 19, at which the preacher will be Mgr John Armitage. On Saturday August 20 at noon a recreation of the first Catholic pilgrimage of modern times will take place at Walsingham; a procession from the old railway station to the Slipper Chapel will be followed by Mass.

The post An ecumenical matter appeared first on Catholic Herald.