Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

The Story

The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, often called "England's Nazareth," stands in the Norfolk countryside of eastern England. According to the traditional account, in 1061 the noblewoman Richeldis de Faverches received a vision of the Virgin Mary, who asked her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth, the home where the Annunciation took place. The Holy House that rose at Walsingham became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of medieval Christendom, ranked alongside Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. Kings of England walked the final "Holy Mile" barefoot, pausing at the fourteenth-century Slipper Chapel, the last of the wayside chapels on the pilgrim routes, where travelers traditionally removed their shoes. The shrine was destroyed in 1538 during the Reformation, and its famous statue of Our Lady was burned. For three centuries pilgrimage ceased, until Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham was quietly revived in the nineteenth century. In 1934 the restored Slipper Chapel was declared the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady for England, and a separate Anglican shrine was also re-established in the village. Today Walsingham draws large numbers of pilgrims each year. The shrine's story of destruction and rebirth has made it a symbol of the endurance of Marian devotion in England, and its central image, the seated Virgin presenting the Christ Child, continues to draw hearts to the mystery of the Incarnation.

Church Recognition

The Slipper Chapel was declared the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady for England in 1934, and in 2015 Pope Francis raised the shrine church to the dignity of a minor basilica, the Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Catholic Teaching

Walsingham centers on the Annunciation and the Incarnation, the moment the Word became flesh in Mary's home at Nazareth (CCC 484-486); devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham expresses the Church's veneration of Mary as Mother of God and her maternal intercession (CCC 971).

Plan Your Visit

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Practical

1 Additional Information ▾

Both Catholic and Anglican shrines welcome pilgrims at Walsingham.

Go Deeper

The official website of the Catholic National Shrine, https://www.walsingham.org.uk, offers history and pilgrimage resources; readers may also explore the Catechism on Marian devotion (CCC 963-975) and St. John Paul II's encyclical Redemptoris Mater.