Deepertruth: The Our Lady Of Walsingham Story 1146

In 1061 Richeldis de Faverches, Lady of the Manor of Walsingham, was saying her prayers when she received a vision of the Virgin Mary. This was followed by a twice-repeated vision of St. Joseph, Mary and the Child Jesus at Nazareth, during which the Lady of the Manor was commanded to build a replica of the Holy House, in which the Annunciation took place, on her own land for the use of the Crusaders as a focus for devotion. Richeldis gave instructions for the edifice, but the following night she was awakened by singing: she investigated and saw Angels departing and the Holy Hose had been miraculously built. Soon pilgrims began to arrive; Augustinian canons and Franciscan friars established houses by 1130 to care for the needs of visitors, both commoners and royalty. King Henry III became a patron of the Shrine in 1226. All along the road chapels were erected, the last of which, in the fourteenth century, dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, patron Saint of the Holy Land pilgrims. This was known as Slipper Chapel. Here pilgrims, out of respect, would take off their boots and approach the Shrine either in slippers or barefoot.

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Revolution swept across northern Europe and resulted in widespread iconoclasm. In 1538 the Shrine at Walsingham was destroyed and its statue of the Virgin transported to London and burnt. Subsequently the Slipper Chapel was used as a poor house, a forge, a cowshed and a barn.