Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham stands in the village of Walsingham, Norfolk. It is a Church of England shrine church built in 1938 to revive pilgrimage devotion. The site’s history begins with Lady Richeldis de Faverches, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to tradition, experienced a Marian vision in 1061. She was said to have been shown the house in Nazareth where the Annunciation took place and asked to build a replica in Walsingham. The original Holy House became a major pilgrimage destination in medieval England, drawing visitors alongside Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. The shrine’s revival in the early 20th century followed Father Alfred Hope Patten’s arrival in 1921. He commissioned a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the priory’s medieval seal and placed it in St Mary’s Church. Pilgrim numbers grew quickly, leading to the opening of a Pilgrim Hospice and the dedication of a new Holy House in 1931. By 1938 the church was enlarged to form the present shrine, and the annual pilgrimage has continued ever since, now known as the National Pilgrimage held on the Spring bank holiday. Visitors find a holy well with healing water, gardens, chapels and a refectory. The grounds include a visitors’ centre, Pilgrim Hall and residential blocks for pilgrims. The shrine church contains the statue of Our Lady, and water from the well is often taken home. Three Sisters of the Society of Saint Margaret arrived in 1947 to assist, and the Priory of Our Lady was founded in 1955. The shrine remains a place of prayer, hospitality and devotion, welcoming guests from around the world.