Tea at Trianon: Return to Walsingham

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Return to Walsingham

From The Catholic Herald:

Franciscan friars have returned to England’s national Marian shrine for the first time since the Reformation. Three Greyfriars – members of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor – arrived at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in June. Fr James Mary McInerney, the guardian of the community, said: “It’s a great joy for us. We feel we’ve come home.” He and two other Franciscan priests will welcome pilgrims, hear Confessions and oversee a daily Holy Hour, as well as assist in the work of the shrine in whatever way is needed.

Franciscans first came to Walsingham in the 14th century. They ministered there for 201 years, looking after lepers and giving poor pilgrims a place to stay. During that time the shrine became one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in Europe, but in 1538 it was dissolved. The Holy House was burned to the ground and the priory attached to it was left in ruins. The site has never been restored and the present-day Catholic shrine is at the 14th-century Slipper Chapel, the final “station” chapel for medieval pilgrims a mile away from the priory ruins. Fr James Mary said he and other friars had been moved by their visits to Walsingham in recent years and had longed to return. “People would see us and say: ‘When you are coming back?’

“You can imagine what went through our hearts when we saw the ruins,” he said. “We prayed about [returning] and we longed for it.” Fr James Mary made clear their desire to Mgr John Armitage, the rector, who then offered them a property where they could live. The chapter of the Greyfriars in Great Britain and Ireland later met and voted almost unanimously to start a new foundation at Walsingham. (Read more.)