New nuns

My Norbie friends have just gone to check up on those new nuns who came over the Tiber a few weeks back from Walsingham.


They look like they're doing OK, which is good.

Today some of the confreres had the great joy of welcoming to the Priory Sr Jane Louise, Sr Carolyne Joseph and Sr Wendy Renate, who have joined the newly established Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Ordinariate, set up by the Holy See to welcome former Anglicans into communion with the Catholic Church, also allows for communities of religious to come under its jurisdiction.

I would go into all the cosmic implications of three nuns, women consecrated to pray for the things that Walsingham is supposed to be about, coming over to the Religion of the Real, but really, I'm just too lazy and generally fed up with the whole business. So, I'll let y'all work it out for yourselves.

Weep, weep, O Walsingham
Whose days are nights,
Blessings turned to blasphemies,
Holy deeds to despites.
Sin is where Our Lady sat,
Heaven turned into hell,
Satan sits where Our Lord did sway,
Walsingham, oh farewell!

Walsingham, Oh farewell!

Pray for the conversion of England.

From the Walsingham Project

Weep, weep, O Walsingham
Whose days are nights,
Blessings turned to blasphemies,
Holy deeds to despites.
Sin is where Our Lady sat,
Heaven turned into hell,
Satan sits where Our Lord did sway,
Walsingham, oh farewell!

England was not to remain merry for long. In 1538, twenty years after his last visit, Henry VIII saw to the proclamation of his Oath of Supremacy, thereby tearing England from the Holy See of Rome. The Protestant Revolution exploded on the continent. Needing funds, Henry turned and crushed any opposition from the monasteries and religious orders. Walsingham was one of the first to capitulate to the king's commands, and the canons who surrendered the Walsingham lands were awarded generous pensions. Only two canons refused. They were promptly martyred.

But Henry and Cranmer were not satisfied. Accusing the shrines of idolatry, the soldiers of the king pillaged the holy places of England and Wales, carting the statues and sacred articles back to London. In 1538, military divisions were sent into Walsingham to destroy it. The canons and Grey-Friars tried to defend the shrine, desperately pleading their immunity. All in vain. The priory was torn down, the buildings ravaged. The monks and canons who continued to resist were hung, drawn and quartered on a field now known as Martyr's Field.

* ~ * ~ *

In a happier vein:

Mary in Monmouth is a blog I've just discovered about the Christian history of Wales.

A site tracing the Catholic life and history of the Ancient Kingdom of Gwent, now known as Monmouthshire,UK from Silurian times. Linked to Mary in Monmouth download free from iTunes Store or RSS feed at end of this blog.Also MaryinMonmouth Group of Face book. Photographs of interesting places. Some Catechesis. Strength of site is in tracing obscure Gwentian saints and martyrs and digging out gems from forgotten sites.

Apocrypha

Saint Etheldreda (also known as Audrey, Æthelthryth, Ethelreda, Edilthride, Ediltrudis, Edeltrude)

Queen of South Gyrwe, Queen of Northumbria, Abbess of Ely
Born: AD 630 at Exning, Suffolk - Died: 23rd June AD 679 at Ely Abbey, Cambridgeshire

She was the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia and Queen Hereswide of England.

17 years after her death her body was found to be incorrupt. The linen cloths in which her body was wrapped were as fresh as the day she had been buried. Her body was placed in a stone sarcophagus of Roman origin, found at Grantchester and reburied.

At the Reformation, all their shrines were destroyed and the incorrupt body parts dispersed. When her shrine at Ely Cathedral was destroyed, the saintly Queen Etheldreda’s hand was preserved by a devout Catholic family. The still incorrupt hand was enshrined, some 400 years later, when a little Catholic Church was re-established in Ely.

An apocryphal story relates how the present Queen [Elizabeth II], on a tour of the cathedral, met the crusty Irish priest of the little Catholic Church. She asked him if it wouldn’t be a ‘nice gesture’ to return the hand of St Etheldreda to the cathedral; he replied that it would be a nice gesture for her to return the cathedral to the Catholic church.

The Walsingham Project

In 1854, the famous Curé d’Ars was talking to Archbishop Ullathorne, of Birmingham, England, when suddenly the saintly curé interrupted him and said:

"Mais, Monseigneur, je crois que l’Eglise d’Anglaterre retournera à son ancienne splendeur."

"But, Monsignor, I believe that the Church in England will recover her ancient splendour."