Ipswich retraces Cardinal Wolsey's route to Marian shrine

Source: Diocese of East Anglia/ICN

Ipswich is celebrating 550 years since the birth of Cardinal Wolsey in the town. A pilgrimage walk, organised by the ecumenical Guild of Our Lady of Grace, will take place on Sunday 3 September, and will follow a route which Wolsey first inaugurated. Starting at 3pm, participants will gather at St Peter's CoE Church on the Quay and proceed to the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in St-Mary-at-the-Elms via Lady Lane, the shrine's original location.

The Shrine to Our Lady of Grace at Ipswich, was first mentioned in 1152 and was for centuries a popular pilgrim destination, said to be second to Walsingham. In 1297, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, married the Count of Holland in the shrine. Between 1517 and 1522, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon paid separate visits to the shrine, as did St Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey.

Born in Ipswich in 1473, the son of a butcher, Cardinal Wolsey, became a very influential figure in the Church and in King Henry VIII's court as the King's almoner. Between 1526 and 1528, he returned to Ipswich to establish the Cardinal's College of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He planned a procession from his college to the shrine, which took place in September 1528.

Wolsey fell from grace and was arrested for treason when he failed to obtain an annulment of the marriage of the King to Catherine of Aragon in 1530. He died in that year, on the journey to London and is reported to have said: "..if I had served God as diligently as I have done the King, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs."

Wolsey's college was dismantled, the shrine was destroyed and its famous statue was taken on 20 September 1538 to Chelsea to be burnt. The site of the original shrine is marked by a plaque in Lady Lane, a short distance from St Mary Elms.

The pilgrimage walk was reinstated on September 1978, exactly 450 years after Wolsey's first procession and has taken place every year since. During the walk there will be hymns, prayers, and recitation of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.

The Thomas Wolsey 550 project, which began in March 2023, features various events to commemorate Wolsey's life and contribution to Ipswich. A highlight this year is the 'Wolsey's Ipswich' exhibition at The Hold, which runs until October 29. Among the exhibits is Wolsey's cardinal's hat, borrowed from a University of Oxford college.