Pilgrim Ways

Mary. The infant‟s soul was melted when Mary spoke. Let them, the angels, also melt with joy, now that they will both hear the voice and possess the presence of Mary.”

During the same century, St.Aelred says that Mary is the Eastern Gate, “for a gate which looks towards the East is the first to receive the rays of the sun.” His contemporary, Archbishop Baldwin, wrote a meditation on the prayer, the Hail Mary. He says that the salutation - Ave Maria - “was spoken by the angel, to be repeated by ourselves, as a jubilation to the hearts that conceives it and a sweetness to the mouth that speaks it.” He continues that “the more she was magnified by God, the more she did magnify God. The more she was magnified, the more did she dwell on her own lowliness.” All generations would call her blessed; the Lord would be seen to be with her; and she would be blessed amongst all women.

The most common devotion to Our Lady in Old England was to Mary‟s joys but pilgrims would also meditate on her words, on her sadness and on her glory. Here are the origins of the “mysteries” on which Catholics set their hearts as they say the rosary. In the thirteenth century, St.Edmund said that she might apply to herself the words of the prophet “Call me not beautiful, but rather call me bitter; for the Lord Almighty has filled me with bitterness and with great grief, (Ruth: 1.20) The Tudors By the fifteen century hymns and carols were regularly dedicated to Mary: “Mother and maiden was never none but she; Well might such a lady God‟s mother be”. Another, the “Alma Redemptoris Mater”, draws on St.Luke‟s gospel narrative of the angel Gabriel‟s dramatic intervention in Mary‟s life. In the sixteenth century, sacred drama, intended to be represented on the afternoons of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, again recalled Simeon‟s prophecy and places Mary standing at the foot of her Son‟s cross. Typical of these are the Chester Plays, which include “The Lamentation of Mary”: “I pick out thorns by one and one, For now lieth dead my dear Son dear”.

While Bishop of Rochester, St.John Fisher (see Chapters 4 and 13, Cathedrals and The Tower), gave the funeral address following the death of Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond (mother of Henry VII). In it he describes how this devout woman began her devotions at five in the morning, starting with the Matins of Our Lady, and continued thoughout the day to use the Office of Our Lady. Fisher says “The Lady Margaret in these devotions followed in the footsteps of her patroness, St.Margaret Queen of Scotland who, during Advent and Lent, after a short sleep she would rise at midnight, and going to the church, she would say alone Matins of the Most Holy trinity, Matins of the Holy Cross, and lastly Matins of Our Lady.”

After Fisher‟s execution and the Reformation, secret devotion to Our Lady continued. In the register of criminal proceedings in 1569, Thomas Wright, vicar of Seaham, admitted that he said daily in his house, with certain others, the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Breaking Of The Chain Before these devotions were forced underground England had openly and enthusiastically celebrated the feasts and the fasts of Our Lady. In Anglo-Saxon times, four feasts were celebrated: The Purification (February 2nd); the Annunciation (March 25th); the Assumption