Willesden might seem an unlikely place to find a shrine to Our Lady. In fact, when we think of shrines and pilgrimages, we tend to think of long, often expensive journeys and exotic locations like Fatima, Loreto or Guadalupe.

Yet for centuries Our Lady has been honoured at sanctuaries much closer to home. Situated in one of London’s most multicultural areas, right on the edge of Central London, the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden is a veritable ‘sign of contradiction’ and a powerful witness to the Christian Faith in the Third Millennium.

A short history follows, but if you want a more detailed survey we recommend ‘Our Lady of Willesden: A Brief History of the Shrine and Parish’ by Rev’d Nicholas Schofield. This can be obtained for £6 (inc. p&p) from:
Our Lady of Willesden, 1 Nicoll Rd, London NW10 9AX. Please make cheques payable to: Our Lady of Willesden

Origins
The origins of the shrine at Willesden are obscured by the mists of time. It was originally located in the church of St Mary’s, Willesden ­ which may go back as far as the tenth century and is now served by the Anglican Communion.

A Visitation report of 1249 mentions the presence of two statues of Our Lady. It seems that the locals particularly honoured one of these statues ­ there may even have been a vision or a cure in the distant past, though the evidence is sparse. It seems that the church also boasted a ‘holy well’, which was thought to possess ‘miraculous’ qualities (especially for blindness and other eye disorders). Indeed, the very name ‘Willesden’ probably means ‘spring at the foot of the hill’ and this spring was recently rediscovered and renovated. The Vicarage of St Mary’s must be one of the few in the country to dispense bottles of holy water to those who ask for them ­ the nearest thing Middlesex has to Lourdes!

There is little evidence of pilgrimages to Willesden until the end of the fifteenth century. Devotion to Our Lady of Willesden may have been promoted by St Paul’s Cathedral (which owned the parish) in order to raise money for essential repairs ­ thus combining economic necessity with the promptings of Divine Grace.

The Tudor Heyday (c.1475-1538)
Willesden’s rise to fame was rapid. Already by May 1502 it was attracting the attention of the Queen (Elizabeth of York), who sent an offering of 30 pence during her seventh and final pregnancy. Londoners flocked to the shrine in the years leading up to the Reformation ­ making the pleasant journey along the Harrow Road, through the fields and woods of Middlesex. The pilgrimage was also an excursion into the country ­ the Vicar of Croydon even complained of the ‘bawdy’ behaviour of some of the pilgrims to Willesden!

Destruction (1538)
However, despite her popularity, Our Lady of Willesden’s days were numbered. Henry VIII’s break with Rome saw the emergence of a new orthodoxy, which frowned on the Kingdom’s shrines and images. In 1538 Our Lady was removed from Willesden and taken to Thomas Cromwell’s house in Chelsea. That autumn she was burnt on a great bonfire of ‘notable images’.

Or at least we think she was. One of the other statues that was supposedly burnt that day was Our Lady of Ipswich. However, the Italian coastal town of Nettuno ­ just outside Rome and famous for the shrine of St Maria Goretti ­ claims the medieval statue of ‘Our Lady of Grace’, once honoured at Ipswich. The story goes that Catholics secretly saved the statue from the fires of Chelsea and smuggled it overseas to safety, eventually ending up at Nettuno around 1550.

What’s equally possible is that it was sold by Cromwell’s men, thus getting rid of the unwanted ‘idol’ and making a comfortable sum at the same time. Though no foreign sanctuary claims her, was ‘the ladie of Wilsdon’ also saved from the bonfire of 1538 and is she still venerated today, albeit anonymously, far away from her original home?

According to a contemporary document, Our Lady appeared to a priest devotee of the shrine, a certain Dr Crewkehorne, around the same time as this bonfire. She said that she wished to be honoured at Willesden as she had in times past. Although Our Lady was not forgotten in Willesden - there is evidence of Catholics existing in the parish into the mid seventeenth century - the shrine was not restored until the close of the nineteenth century.

The Second Spring (1885 onwards)
It was in 1885 that Mass was once again celebrated in Willesden by a young priest called Bernard Ward, who later became a respected Church historian and the first bishop of Brentwood. The following year a Catholic Mission was established in Harlesden to meet the demands of the growing population.

With the help of the newly founded Convent of Jesus and Mary, devotion was fostered to Our Lady of Willesden and a new statue blessed by Cardinal Vaughan in 1892. This image was carved in wood from an oak tree that had stood in the graveyard of St Mary’s, the original site of the shrine. From humble beginnings with twelve parishioners the parish began to flourish, two temporary churches were built and a beautiful Romanesque church was finally opened in 1931 as both parish church and a ‘National Shrine’ for English Catholics.

The Modern Shrine
Our Lady of Willesden’s greatest hour came during the Marian Year of 1954. According to the Encyclical Letter, Fulgens Corona (1953), Pope Pius XII said that every diocese should have a special shrine at which the Virgin Mary received fuller homage.

Willesden was made the centre of Westminster’s celebrations for the Marian Year and throughout 1954 some 60,000 pilgrims visited the shrine. On 3 October 1954 a Marian Pageant was held at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 94,000. The climax of the celebrations came when Cardinal Bernard Griffin crowned the statue of Our Lady and she was carried back in procession to Willesden.

Our Lady’s shrine remains the focus of the parish to this day. In 1995 the shrine was refurbished and the church was made a centre of devotion for the Holy Year of 2000, where pilgrims could gain the Jubilee Indulgence.

In 2002 the ‘Guild of Our Lady of Willesden’ was set up, under the Presidency of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, in order to revive the shrine as an active sanctuary of prayer for the needs of London.

The Saints of Willesden
There can’t be many English shrines that boast two canonised saints among her devotees ­ and, what’s more, two saints who have a particular relevance for the mission of the Church in the twenty-first century. Both were trained as lawyers and both are remembered for what they teach us about the dignity of the lay vocation:

St Thomas More: This great scholar, Lord Chancellor and martyr had a very personal interest in Willesden: his adopted daughter, Alice, was married to a local landowner, Sir Giles Alington. Though the exact location of his house is unknown, it is clear that St Thomas was a frequent visitor. Indeed, it was in Alington’s private chapel that both Elisabeth and Cecilia More were married on 29th September 1525. St Thomas would thus have known the nearby shrine of Our Lady of Willesden. This familiarity is expressed in some of his polemical writings where he defends the practice of pilgrimages (citing Willesden as an example) against the attacks of reformers like Thomas Bilney. St Thomas’ last visit to the shrine was in 1534 (probably in early April), just before his arrest. We can imagine the saint praying for strength and perseverance at the foot of the statue. He was beheaded in 1535 and canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

St Josemaria Escriva: The Founder of Opus Dei often visited Willesden during his trips to London. On 15th August 1958 he made a private pilgrimage to the shrine, where he re-consecrated Opus Dei to the Name of Mary (as he did every year). He returned on 17th August 1962, this time with his future successor as Prelate, the Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo. They recited the Holy Rosary and bought some images of the statue to distribute to members of Opus Dei in Hampstead. St Josemaria died in 1975 and was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002. On 15th August 1980 Fr del Portillo returned to Willesden for the annual re-consecration and he added a medal of Our Lady of Willesden to his rosary beads. Every year, on the Feast of the Assumption, members of Opus Dei living in London make private pilgrimages to Willesden, tracing the footsteps of their saintly Founder.