Our Lady and the Martyrs

[Sr. Janet]

Lourdes is only one shrine where there is a long-established tradition
of healing. For centuries, pilgrims travelled to the shrine of Our
Lady and the English Martyrs at Fernyhalgh in Lancashire. The
miraculous cures through the waters at Ladyewell date back to at least
the fourteenth century…Of course, then the dedication of the chapel
had nothing to do with martyrs.

For many, many years, old and young, men and women, sick and healthy,
strode across the open fields of Lancashire, enjoying, perhaps, a
brief rest on the banks of the River Ribble which then, as now, flowed
through Preston. Even the Romans used this beautiful river, flowing
through both Yorkshire and Lancashire and, at one time, forming the
natural border of the ancient Kingdom of Mercia.

Time passed and the day dawned, in 1536, when Henry VIII ordered the
stripping and destruction of monasteries and chapels across England
and Wales. Some of the more remote chapels managed to survive
unscathed, but not so Ladyewell. In 1547, it was destroyed.

…and yet it was not gone forever. The tiny shrine survived, secretly
cherished by those who needed to keep their commitment hidden from the
rest of the world, offering an easy escape across the fells and dark
forests of the Trough of Bowland. Risking their lives, heavily-
disguised priests, travelling around the country, would make their way
to Fernyhalgh and secretly pray there with the beleaguered Catholics
of the area.

Secret messages would have been sent around before the priest appeared
on the scene: perhaps only an arrangement of washing hung out to dry
would be the pre-arranged signal. There was always the danger of spies
and blood-money.

The penalties for going to Mass were heavy: fines were the least of
the people’s worries. The real threat was the charge of treason, for
that incurred the terrible penalty of being hanged, drawn and
quartered. There was no problem with being a Catholic. The problem was
with practising Catholicism, for that was seen, in those days, as
adherence to a foreign power: that of Rome.

The days of the Reformation are past, but the memory lingers on. The
shrine of Our Lady has been rebuilt and reinstated, but with an ‘added
extra’. Some of those priests of days gone by were subsequently
martyred. In their honour, the shrine at Ladyewell is now known as
that of Our Lady and the Martyrs.

Around the walls of the church are the names of some of the many
Reformation martyrs of England and Wales, some of them probably secret
visitors to this tiny shrine ‘in the middle of nowhere’.

Mary, Queen and Mother, grant that your children may be as ready to
dedicate their lives to your Son as were our ancestors. However small
we might be in the eyes of the world, we know that we are important to
him. Help us to live our lives in his presence.

God bless,
Sr Janet