Shrine of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury

According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea built a church when he came to this area of England, but it has been a historical fact that there was a very early Christian settlement in Glastonbury.


During the Middle Ages, Glastonbury was an outstanding centre of pilgrimage. 400 years after Henry VIII dissolved the nearby Abbey in 1539, a small church was built across the road from the Abbey and dedicated to Our Lady.

In 1955, a statue bearing the ancient title, Our Lady St. Mary of Glastonbury was blessed and the Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury was canonically restored by the Holy See.

I had the privilege of attending Sunday Mass here today, the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time while visiting some friends here, Andrew & Debbie. They had long told me about their "traddie" parish priest, Fr. Kevin Knox-Lecky. Unfortunately, Fr. Kevin was away this weekend, but I was very satisfied with the mass celebrated by stand-in Fr. Raymond Hayne.


As you can see, 6 candles were laid out on the altar, also they bowed at the words "et incarnatus est", the priest very reverently said the words of consecration, bowing low and saying it in a very solemn but audible voice, and he genuflected 3 times! In addition to that, he gave quite a sermon on the roles of stewardship...

Anyway, just a little more history of the church as you can see form the picture. I have taken some of these descriptions from the leaflet given to me.

The statue was designed by Mr. Philip Lindsey Clark, F.R.B.S. from the representation of Our Lady in a l4th century metal seal of the Abbey. The crowned statue of Our Lady bearing the Holy Child on her left forearm has a flowering bush on her right. This is probably nothing to do with the Glastonbury Thorn, which is not heard of until much later but is meant to signify Virgin Motherhood.

The two-part Tapestry which is either side of the Statue was woven in 1965. Five weavers took a total of 240 hours to complete. It depicts the three Glastonbury Martyrs (Blessed Richard Whiting, Blessed John Thorne, Blessed Roger James) with St. Dunstan who was born at Baltonsborough, near Glastonbury and was an Abbot there and later became Archbishop of Canterbury. Also represented are St. Joseph of Arimathea, St. David, St. Patrick, St Brigid and Blessed Richard Bere, all of whom are said to have lived for a time at Glastonbury.


The church also recently installed new stained glass windows, which unfortunately you will have to view sideways,until such a time where I can figure out how to rotate pictures on my MacBook.