Walshingham, not Washington, should be our model of thanksgiving.

Roland Flores
3 days ago
8 min read

Ave María! May our Lady of Walshingham, the Immaculate Queen of England and all English domains, with her loving child bless us, and together with St. John Wall and All Saints, pray for us! In October 1863, US president Abraham Lincoln officially declare the holiday of thanksgiving: “ I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, …to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.” President Lincoln was not the inventor of Thanksgiving however, that was the first US President. In 1789 president George Washington declared November 26th as a national day of “thanksgiving” and in 1808 President James Madison declared thanksgiving a national day of prayer. As Catholics we are obligated to pray for our nation, and though I see no evil in eating Turkey and watching football, we should never allow ourselves to look upon Puritans or Freemasons as models of prayer or thanksgiving. In a sense, Thanksgiving is celebrating the foundation and eventual triumph of Puritanism within the US. These Puritans, who despite being saved from starvation by Catholic Indians in 1621, would later begin a punitive campaign against French Catholics. Just 8 years before the famous meal in 1613, Puritans had already stormed the Jesuit missions among the Abenakis on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The Puritans killed Jesuit brother Du Thet and arrested two Jesuits priests, carrying them off to Virginia in chains. The Thanksgiving meal in 1621 did little to change sentiments. Just thirty years later in 1654, Puritans would expel all Catholics from Nova Scotia and they would murder Capuchin Father Leonard of Charters. Later on these same Puritans would bring the “Glorious Revolution” to our shores and revolt against the proprietary government led by the Catholic Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore in 1689. One of the chief reasons for this revolt was Calvert’s attempt to preserve Maryland's Catholic identity. The Anglicans of the southern colonies (future Episcopalians) would do the same to the Spanish Catholics in Florida starting in 1702, killing close to a dozen Franciscans and thousands of Missions Indians.

Later expeditions by the Puritans in North America would see the murder of Jesuit Father Sébastien Râle and over 80 of his Catholic Indians in South Madison, Maine. This deeply rooted hatred of Catholicism was not new to the Anglo Protestants and enlightened in North America. This hatred was brought over from England itself, a nation that had already persecuted the Church for over a century by the time of the first Thanksgiving. In fact Puritanism was a reaction against the Anglican Church for being to Catholic. There is no clearer sign of this persecution and hatred of Catholicism than the ruins of Our Lady of Walshingham, the holiest place in all of England.

Our Lady of Walsingham, from her foundation to her expulsion and her return.

The history of Our Lady of Walshingham begins in 1053 AD, with a Chapel called the Holy House. This chapel was established after Richeldis de Faverches, a devout English noblewoman, experienced a series of visions from Our Lady. Richeldis was shown Our Lady’s former home in Nazareth, where she was raised by her parents and where the Annunciation occurred. Our Lady commissioned Richeldis to build a replica of her home in Walsingham, England as a place of pilgrimage. Our Lady promised: 'Whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty-handed.” According to tradition, the construction initially faced difficulties but one night, Richeldis heard singing and stepped into her garden. There she she discovered that the little house had been miraculously completed. As she looked on, she saw what she believed to be angels departing from the newly finished building. In 1061 AD, the Holy House and a separate Chapel was consecrated a shrine. The reasoning for the establishment of this Holy House became apparent in 1071 AD, when Jerusalem was captured by the Seljuk Turks and taken from the Islamic Fatimids Calipahte. The Fatimids had respected Christian Sites, and treated pilgrims well, viewing them as an important part of the economy. The Seljuk Turks however, persecuted Christians and expelled all priests from Jerusalem. This situation, among many others, led to the first Crusade and made it extremely difficult for Christians to visit the Holy Land, especially the area of Our Lady’s house. As the decades passed, The Holy House in Walsingham became an important pilgrimage site not only for England but all of Christendom. In 1169 the site was given to the Augustinian Canons by Geoffrey de Favraches, the son of Richeldis de Faverches. By 1340, a tradition existed where pilgrimage would pray at the towns Parish, St. Cathrine of Alexandria Chapel, then walk a “holy mile” barefoot to Walsingham Priory and Holy House.

By 1500 AD, Walshingham was one of the greatest religious centres in England and Europe. Walsingham received vista from the following kings Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Henry IV, Edward IV, Henry VII, Henry VIII and also Queen Catherine of Aragon, who was a regular pilgrim. ironically, Anne Boleyn announced that she planned to make a pilgrimage there but never did. After King Henerh left the church, Father Richard Vowell, prior of Walsingham, signed the king's supremacy act hoping to save rhe place, this did not save Walshingham. In 1536, Walshinham came to an end, when Thomas Cromwell closed the site while enforcing the Suppression of Religious Houses Act. The priory buildings were looted then destroyed, and 11 were hung for plotting to defend the Walshingham. The main statue was dethroned, along with all the other sacred images in then area, and taken to London to be destroyed. British officials claim that the statue was burned but local tradition claims that a miracle had occurred by the statue after it had been carried away to London. This lead to the statue being rescued and hidden away. On 23 December 1925, a medieval statue of Our Lord and Our Lady, was purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum. As early as 1931, some suggested that the statue could be the original image from Walsingham. The statue, bears a striking resemblance to the image's depiction on the medieval Walsingham Priory seal. In 2019, the English art historians Michael Rear and Francis Young, having studied the provenance and damage to the statue, published their conclusions that it is actually the original statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. Though the holy places were destroyed, the devotion and memory of Our Lady of Walsingham persisted in the hearts of English Catholics. As centuries passed this devotion saw a grand revival in the mid 1800s among the many English converts, including St. John Henry Newman. In 1895, Pope Leo XIII sent an Apostolic Letter to the English people “to pray for the return of the English nation to the Church.” In this letter, while he did not mention Walsingham once, he wrote a prayer for England to the Blessed virgin. In 1896, Charlotte Pearson Boyd, a wealthy local woman and convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism, purchased the old Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria. After the dissolution in 1538 the chapel had been sacked used as a barn but Boyd restored the chapel and donated it to the Benedictines of Downside Abbey. In 1897 the newly opened Annunciation Church in King's Lynn opened a Chapel of the Holy House of Walsingham. Pope Leo XIII officially established the holy house chapel as as the shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham. He blessed a statue of the Maryand it was put in the Lady Chapel. It arrived on 19 August 1897 and was processed from the train station to the church. The following day, on 20 August 1897, the first public pilgrimage to Walsingham, since the Reformation, was done by a group of 40–50 people. It was from the church in King's Lynn to St. Cathrine of Alexandria in Walsingham. In 1934 Pope Pius XI moved the shrine from Annunciation church to St. Cathienes in Walsingham. On 15 August 1954, Pope Pius XII delegated his Papal nuncio, Monsignor Gerald O'Hara, to crown the venerated image of the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Walsingham in his apostolic name. On 27 December 2015, Pope Francis elevated the sanctuary to the status of a minor basilica, along with the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Today the Holy Hosue has not been rebuilt, though pilgrims still visit the ruins.

Walsingham, our perfect model for thanksgiving.

In todays world, the devotion of Our Lady of Walsingham has spread throughout the Catholic English speaking world. An annual pilgrimage is held in Walsingham by the Latin Mass Society UK. There are several shrines across the US and Canada dedicated to this devotion. Just a few months ago I visited one in Houston Texas. It’s quite a beautiful place and historically, it’s stand to tell a very powerful message.The Church in Texas has its foundation in the first Spanish Missions and frontier chapels. The first was Mission San Francisco de Los Tejas, established by Franciscans in 1689, from there the state got its name. However after centuries of saving souls, these missions would be seized by the Mexican Government in 1823 and later destroyed by US settlers. The last Franciscan of the Spanish Missions, Father Antonio Díaz OFM, would be killed in 1834 by US Settlers just 30 miles from San Francisco, the site of first Texas mission. Anglo aggression towards Catholicism, much like in Florida, would stomp out Church from society in Texas. In 1840, the sacraments would return to Texas through French missionary priests. Just four priests to care for three parishes and over 25,000 Catholics. These priests, the Oblates of Immaculate Mary, would re-establish the Church and her sacraments in revolutionary Texas. These priests also faced extreme persecution from the Protestant and Freemason Anglo populations. Brave priests like Father Anoine Borias OMI, who was nearly beaten to death in 1856 not far from Houston, would suffer to ensure the sacraments in Texas. This Anti-Catholic sentiment in Texas continued until World War II, climaxing in the 1920s with the two priests being tarred and feathered. It is here, in this state where priests were killed and driven away, Churches were sacked and sacred images destroyed, that Our Lady of Walsingham desire to have a shrine established. A message of hope from our Lady. That in this once Catholic landscape, dominated by the puritan empire, that Our Lady of Walsingham says: I am not defeated. Our Lady, a pillar and refuge of our Faith, will never be destroyed. What a grand occasion to give thanks for. First that we have the Holy sacraments of God despite. The second it that we have such a powerful patron and mother to give us hope.In the North America and Europe alike, our Lady and the Catholic Faith has undergone extreme persecutions. However, despite this Our Lady snd the Church remains. “Our soul overflows with joy and our tongue with exultation. We give, and we shall continue to give, the humblest and deepest thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord, because through his singular grace he has granted to us, unworthy though we be, to decree and offer this honor and glory and praise to his most holy Mother.” Pope Blessed Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus- The Immaculate Conception 1854.

Prayer by Pope Leo XIII 1895 from the Apostolic Letter Amantissimae Voluntatis-To the English People.

To THE Blessed Virgin. Prayer for England.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy “Dowry” and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. By thee it was that Jesus our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world ; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross. O sorrowful Mother! intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the supreme Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee, in our heavenly home. Amen.