On Sunday, August 15, 1937, in the presence of some four thousand people, Our Lady of Sudbury, after a lapse of hundreds of years, will once again receive the love and homage of her faithful children.
Until the Reformatioff her Shrine stood in the great church of St. Gregory in Sudbury, and it is recorded in the famous History of Sudbury. by 'Hodson, that Elizabeth Plantagenet, the Queen of henry VII, had a marked devotion to Our Lady ueder this title, and in consequence lavished splendid gifts upon the Shrine. It was already at that date many hundreds of years of age. It is thought that soon after Elizabeth ascended the throne the figure itself was, in view of the dangerous situation rapidly . developing, concealed by a little band of faithful persons. The Shrine was, of course, pulled down; and the lovely chapel within the great church shorn of many other priceless objects of devotion and rare value.
ENGLISH MADONNA
Now it came about that the present priest of Our Lady and Saint John— Fr. Ralph Gerard Moir—met during the Coronation year a Catholic from Cihicago who was attracted towards the Church, and deeply in sympathy with the desire of the bishop of the diocese to give back to Our Lady es many as possible of her ancient honours manifested in Shrines dedicated to her glory. He had recently returned from Walsingham, of whose fame he had heard in the States. When, therefore, he was told of the oncetime famous Shrine at Sudbury he determined to restore it with the warm approval and kindly encouragement of the bishop, the Rt. Rev. Laurence Youens, D.D. But curiously enough Our Lady in his case took the will for the deed; for within a few weeks he met his death with tragic suddenness, before any plans had been passed or mgrey allocated. Almost immediately, however, one who, though not a Catholic, had a deeply-rooted love for Our Lady asked to have the privilege of being responsible for the work necessary. At length, by the Feast of Our Lady in the Harvest, as her Assumption is termed in East Anglia, a very beautiful Shrine and figure were in readiness for dedication.