WALSINGHAM DOWRY TOUR - TODAY

With apologies to our gentle Readers for the late notice, but we append below some information about the visit of Our lady of Walsingham to St George's Cathedral, Southwark,  this weekend, beginning this evening.

This is part of the preparations for the Rededication of England as Dowry of Mary by our Bishops in  2020.

The Tour begins with Rosary at 6pm this evening, Mass is at 7pm, followed by devotions.  The full programme may be read HERE.

For those for whom this is too short notice, Our Lady's Statue will be returning to London on 29th March, and indeedthe Order of Malta Monthly Recollection on 30th March at the Assumption Warwick Street will take place in Her presence.

This is Your Dowry, O Pious Virgin!

In 1399 Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to his suffragan bishops:

“The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation has drawn all Christian nations to venerate her from whom came the first beginnings of our Redemption. But we English, being the servants of her special inheritance and her own dowry, as we are commonly called, ought to surpass others in the fervour of our praises and devotions.”

So, the title of England as ‘The Dowry of Mary’ was definitely in use by the end of the fourteenth century, but Archbishop Arundel’s letter seems to indicate that at the time of his writing it was already in common use, indicating an earlier origin.