Page 15, 16th September 1938

16th September 1938

Page 15

Page 15, 16th September 1938 — THE SLIPPER CHAPEL TRUE S RINE The Vicar General Of Dort ampton Shows Why
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THE SLIPPER CHAPEL TRUE S RINE The Vicar General Of Dort ampton Shows Why

IT IS OUTSIDE THE GATES It Is A Martyr's Shrine
The Slipper Chapel, situated in the village of Houghton-in-the-Dale, outside the town of Walsingham, was consecrated on Thursday, September to, and the ceremonies reported on page Ir of this number of the CATHOLIC HERALD. But the site of the Shrine is disputed.
THE VICAR-GENERAL OF THE DIOCESE OF NORTHAMPTON, THE RIGHT REV. MGR. PROVOST FREELAND, OF GUNTON, NEAR LOWESTOFT, WRITES FORETELLING THAT THIS CHAPEL WILL BECOME THE TRUE CENTRE OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM.
By a strict enquiry into the meaning of the word shrine, and a close argument from analogy he defends the Sii?per Chapel as the true Shrine of Our Lady, " outside the walls," who was martyred in her revered image in the Town of Walsingham.
By MGR. PROVOST FREELAND, Y.G.
The Consecration of the small Chapel outside the Holy City of Walsingham is a notable and stable commencement of what will develop, so far as human foresight can judge, into the future Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
At present there is no Shrine there, There are Chapels, both Catholic and Anglican, at Walsingham, as well as scattered up and down the country, using the nomenclature of the ancient Shrine; but a Shrine, according to the Catholic and ecclesiastical meaning of the word, does not come into being simply by saying that it is a Shrine. The essence of a Catholic Shrine is Presence.
A Presence Constitutes a Shrine
This Presence does not necessarily suppose, or derive from a natural existence, in such a place, of some Sacred or Holy Person, such as That which has formed the entire Holy Land into a Shrine, or made the Holy House of Loreto really a little piece of ancient Nazareth.
The origin of the Presence we have here in mind, is quite preternatural. The commencement of it may be an apparition. It may have made itself felt by means of a picture. Miracles may show that it has virtually taken possession of a statue. Or finally, and this is all important for our present purpose, the Presence may owe its inception to the relics of a Martyr or of a Confessor.
It is in this last respect or circumstance, the circumstance that among those enumerated as causing a place to be a Martyry or Confessio or Witness, that we claim for the Slipper Chapel, as it is called, the right to be regarded as in very truth a Shrine, instinct with at least the virtual Presence of Our Blessed Lady of Walsingham, one of the English Martyrs, indeed Queen of the whole band of them.
Martyrs' Shrines Are " Outside the Gates "
The Slipper Chapel is " Outside the gates," to begin with. Outside the gates or walls, is a very important phrase in this matter. It is used by St. Paul, or whoever was, if not he, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, to describe the most illustrious Shrine in all the earth, Calvary. There the King of Martyrs died; there the relics of His sacred Passion were deposited; there a finer l=ane than the Temple was erected; thither the nations did, and still do, go up to worship their Redeemer. And as St, Paul puts it in exhortation, they went up " together with Him, bearing His shame."
It is Chrysostom who sees in this little phrase the reason (there are others, of course) why he had to lead, or rather follow, the processions " Outside the gates " on Holy Saturday. Christ had died Outside the gates. The Martyrs that followed Him in dying had done the same. And just as with Calvary, so was it with the places where the servants of the Crucified laid down their lives or were buried—a noble Church was raised over the Shrine or scrinium containing their relics.
St. Peter's is outside the old gates of Rome; so is St. Paul's; so is St. Laurence's; so are all of those. Martyrs' Shrines mentioned by Chrysostom in his Panegyrics or by St. Augustine in the Civitas Dei. Calvary and the King of Martyrs set the pace in the matter, Rome and other cities simply followed. The " Green Hill, far away," becomes a glorious Shrine.
OUR LADY WAS MARTYRED Her Image was Defamed in England
But, what about the Queen of Martyrs? Has she no shrine? And what about our Lady of Walsingham, who, as Queen of the English Martyrs, bore her spiritual and mental sufferings mostly in that little city? Is she to have no Shrine " outside the gates "? Let us see.
Our Lady was English; English not by race or nation, of course, but English in consequence of her Iong residence in our
midst. Her nationalisation was so complete that, so it was piously thought by the whole country, she belonged to England, and England belonged to her. To St. John of Rochester, to St. Thomas More, to the Holy Martyrs of the London Charter House
this idea was an inspiration. Mary for them was English, and Mary for them was already the Queen of Martyrs.
Not Merely in Effigy—in Image
How much more than an inspiration was she to the Martyrs in England who followed these most illustrious Saints! She became English in her very sufferings. She bore in the mind and the spirit that which our Martyrs bore in the mind and the body. She in her Martyrdom became a Leader.
Where did it all begin? It began, and she suffered, at Walsingham. Out from her House, in the streets, outside the city gates and a long, long way beyond them, she was in effigy derided, insulted, and sent " about her business." Even more than in mere effigy; for it was done to that very representation of her which had made everyone entering her Shrine aware of the fact that there she herself sat and received her English children.
What was done to that representation was done to her. Was it honoured and glorified? Then Mary was honoured and glorified. As it sat there holding the Divine Child, did it speak? Things have their speech; silence has a hundred tongues; and the very sight of the statue told how our Lady of Walsingham was at Home there together with the Lord of all the earth.
But " there are tears for things," too. Certainly; and when a thing standing for a person is outraged, it is the person who sheds the tears because it is the person who suffers the outrage. The Statue was cast out of Walsingham, burnt to ashes, and Mary, a second time, becomes the Mater Dolorosa.
IF THEN MARTYRED AT WALSINGHAM Our Lady Must Have a Martyr's Shrine
It is evident from analogy and from traditional custom, as well as from that indefinable sentiment described as " the proper thing," that our Lady of Walsingham, Queen and Leader of the English Martyrs, must have Her Martyry, Her Shrine, near to the city in which she bore " the manifold disgrace." The King of Martyrs thus possesses His: the Princes of the Apostles in this manner possess theirs. For Calvary is near to Jerusalem, and the Vatican is in proximity to ancient Rome. The Slipper Chapel is near to Walsingham; and that Chapel witnessed (for things have their vision too) the tragedy, in the little city hard by, of Mary's bitter sorrow of soul, " even unto death."
Outside the Gates of Walsingham But the Chapel must be, and is, " outside the gates," for so was Calvary; and in the matter of Martyry Shrines we are reminded by Chrysostom that Calvary sets the pace.
So that our Lady of Walsingham, the Queen of Martyrs, has a Martyr's Home, at present lowly, insignificant, and " bearing its reproach," because so, at the commence
ment, was it with the King's. It will become all glorious, that Home ! The centre of many buildings and of pleasant places all connected with it, Our Lady's " Place " in the vale and the dell at Walsingham, will become like Our Lord's " Place," on the " green Hill far away."
For when we think much of Mary and Christ' together we cannot help feeling not only that, as Dante puts it, " Her face was most like His," but that their precious things, often, but not always, identical, develop along the same lines, and reach a climax of similar glory,




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