Please accept this invitation to join me on a Pilgrimage to England this September.

I have designed the itinerary for this unique one-of-kind and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the sites and shrines associated with the English saints and martyrs, as well as places associated with famous Catholic literary figures.

I will be present on the pilgrimage for its entirety, as a guide to the places, the history and the cultural context. I will be available from breakfast until dinner every day, enabling me to get to know my fellow pilgrims.

I will give talks each day, as the bus travels from one place to the other, on the history of Catholic England and on its saints and martyrs, on the evidence for Shakespeare’s Catholicism, and on the Catholic Literary Revival and its leading figures, such as Newman, Hopkins, Belloc, Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, Waugh, and others.

I will supply a Recommended Reading list, ahead of time, so that pilgrims can prepare themselves for the trip, should they wish to do so.

I will be leading the pilgrimage with my friend, Father Greg Bierbaum, ensuring that the holy sacrifice of the Mass will be offered every day and in many exciting locations.

Highlights will include:

London

We will visit the Tower of London and see the cell of St. Thomas More and other English martyrs, continuing to Poets Corner and the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey, and to other historic churches, including the Jesuit church in Mayfair which has literary connections to Edith Sitwell, Evelyn Waugh, and Sir Alec Guinness. We will enjoy a private tour of the Tyburn Convent, near the site at which so many of the English Martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered. There will be an evening at leisure in which you might like to accompany me on a visit to the Olde Cheshire Cheese, a quaint centuries old pub associated with many literary figures, including Dr Johnson, the Romantic Poets, Chesterton and Belloc.

Canterbury

We will visit Canterbury Cathedral where St. Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170 and the house across from St. Dunstan’s Church where St. Thomas More’s eldest daughter, Meg, lived with her husband, William Roper. It is said that the family vault contains the head of St. Thomas More.

Ely and Walsingham

Upon arrival in Ely, we will enjoy a tour of its splendid and unique cathedral and also the nearby St. Etheldreda’s Church which contains the relics of St. Etheldreda herself, a beautiful and holy queen who became a nun. Her body was found to be incorrupt fifteen years after her death, and years later, in 1106, her body was once again found to be incorrupt when the Normans moved it to the present Cathedral. We will then drive to the famous Oxburgh Hall and Gardens, a Catholic moated aristocratic manor house, with one of the best surviving priest-holes and associations with Mary, Queen of Scots.

Walsingham and Cambridge

The highlight of the pilgrimage for me will be the opportunity to return to Walsingham, England’s Nazareth, the site of a Marian apparition in 1061, which became one of the main pilgrimage sites in the whole of Christendom in the Middle Ages. For centuries, numerous pilgrims, including kings and queens, removed their shoes at the famous Slipper Chapel before walking the Holy Mile to the shrine of Our Lady. The shrine was built following three visions granted by Our Lady to a holy woman named Richeldis de Faverches, during which the exact dimensions of the house of Nazareth were given. In the afternoon, en route to Cambridge, we will visit the beautiful medieval village of Castle Acre, visiting the ruins of the Cluniac Priory, which was destroyed by Henry VIII, and the ruins of the Norman castle.

Stratford-upon-Avon

On the motor-coach for the drive to Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford-upon-Avon, I will speak on the evidence for Shakespeare’s Catholicism. We will visit Shakespeare’s birthplace on Henley Street, his grave at Holy Trinity Church, and will have time, hopefully, to attend an optional afternoon or evening play.

Oxford

Spending a day in Oxford, we will visit sites associated with St. John Henry Newman, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, and Hilaire Belloc. Pilgrims can join me for a pint in the famous Eagle and Child pub, at which Tolkien and Lewis met with their friends, and perhaps we might be able to follow in their footsteps by walking to the Perch, a beautiful pub on the river which Lewis and Tolkien also frequented.

Highclere Castle

We will visit Highclere Castle, the location for the filming of the popular TV series, Downton Abbey.

Arundel

Our final day will be spent on a trip to the historic Arundel Castle, home to the Dukes of Norfolk, the longest-standing Catholic family in England. One of its most notable residents, St. Philip Howard (13th Earl of Arundel), died in the Tower of London after being imprisoned by his cousin, Elizabeth I, for his adherence to the Catholic Faith. We will then return to Oxford for a farewell dinner. Please do consider joining me in England this September. See the full details here.

https://www.ctscentral.net/trips/england/stmark-bierbaum-england-202209/
Joseph Pearce