Our Lady of Ransom/Walsingham

Update: If you want some complete coverage of this feast, go to Pro Ecclesia!

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Ransom. The history of this feast originates in Spain (read all about it at The Catholic Encyclopedia). Yet, it also has a history in England, now replaced on the calendar by the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham....

In 1993, the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales presented to Rome proposals for a new liturgical calendar for England and Wales. These were finally approved by the Vatican to take effect from Advent 2000. Among the changes is a new feast of Our Lady of Walsingham to be celebrated as a memorial (a feast in East Anglia) on September 24th.

The feast replaces the old feast of Our Lady of Ransom, which was the only feast of Our Lady proper to England. Devotion to Our Lady of Ransom came to express the desire of Catholics in England to restore her Dowry (England) to Mary.

The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom has long connections with the Shrine and it is unlikely that the old title of Our Lady of Ransom will disappear altogether nor will the title, Our Lady of Mercy, which is also associated with September 24th.

The new feast was celebrated at the Shrine on September 24th (2001) for the first time. (From the website of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham )

Of course, our very first release, Witnesses to the Holy Mass, is a series of sermons first preached in 1904 to inspire a re-conversion in England. Thus you could say we have a connection here.

Our Lady of Mercy (Ransom) is also invoked for those Christians suffering under Muslim rule (see origins in top link above.)

Both these causes (return of England to the Blessed Virgin Mary & for Christians suffering under Muslim rule) are relevant today. So we invoke her:

Our Lady of Ransom...Ora pro nobis!

The Daily Prayer said by Ransomers in England
Jesus, Convert England
Jesus, Have Mercy On This Country.
(Dying Prayer of Blessed Henry Heath OSF)
*
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners
now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen
*
Our Lady of Ransom & Walsingham, Pray for us
St Gregory the Great, Pray for us
St. Augustine of Canterbury, Pray for us
St. Thomas Becket, Pray for us
St. John Fisher, Pray for us
St. Thomas More, Pray for us
St. Margaret Clitherow, Pray for us
Blessed Henry Heath, Pray for us
Blessed English Martyrs, Pray for us