2025 Diocesan Pilgrimage to Walsingham
The 2025 Northampton Diocesan Pilgrimage to Walsingham will take place on Saturday 14th June 2025.
Watch this space for further information.
About Walsingham
The Shrine at Walsingham was established in 1061, when Richeldis de Faverches had a vision of the Holy Family’s home at Nazareth and undertook to build another one like it, to honour the Annunciation. It became a hugely popular pilgrimage site — one of the four great shrines of medieval Christendom, along with Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago da Compostella.
The original Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was destroyed in 1538, and pilgrimages ceased. However, in 1896 Charlotte Pearson Boyd purchased the 14th century Slipper Chapel, just a mile outside the village of Walsingham for the use of the Catholic Church … and in 1897, Pope Leo XIII restored the Slipper Chapel as a shrine and pilgrimages began again that same year.
A new statue, copied from the seal of the medieval Priory, was made in 1922. And in 1954, the Papal Nuncio crowned the statue with a golden crown on behalf of Pope Pius XII.
In 2005, the Catholic Church in the village of Walsingham was rebuilt to accommodate the large number of Catholic pilgrims to Walsingham.
On the Feast of the Holy Family in 2015, Pope Francis conferred the title of “Minor Basilica” on the Shrine.
Pilgrimages:
Pilgrimages have always formed an important part of Catholic Devotion and our Parish has a long and rich history of making pilgrimages to Lourdes, Fatima and Rome, as well as joining in the annual Diocesan Pilgrimage to Walsingham.
It is good for all Catholics to try to make at least one pilgrimage a year.
