Margery Kempe: a 'woman in motion'

Anne E Bailey • November 14, 2023

Margery Kempe, who worshipped in Kings Lynn Minster (pictured above), was an extraordinary woman and an indefatigable medieval pilgrim.

Walkers passing through the town of Oroso in Spain on the Camino Inglés will meet one of England’s most famous medieval pilgrims. Far from her home in Kings Lynn, Margery Kempe has been immortalised in stone close to the bridge she would have crossed on her way to St James’s shrine in Santiago de Compostela. But who was Margery Kempe and why is she commemorated so far from her native county of Norfolk?

Margery is one of those colourful personalities who attracts a variety of different responses. To many she is an acclaimed mystic, to others she is an intrepid pilgrim, and to some she is a religious fanatic given to loud, public displays of weeping and wailing. Her overly emotional behaviour has been pathologized as, among other things, postnatal psychosis and Jerusalem syndrome.

These modern perceptions of Margery are not so different from those of her fifteenth-century contemporaries. Although Margery had many supporters, others were unimpressed by her noisy religiosity, suggesting she had drunk too much wine or was possessed by a wicked spirit. A friar alleged she had a heart condition rather than a gift from God, while less generous detractors wished she were “put out to sea in a bottomless boat”.

Despite her famed eccentricities, Margery is today perhaps best known as a pilgrim. Born in 1373 and married at the age of twenty, she took up religious travel later in life leaving behind fourteen children and several failed business ventures. She travelled widely across England, visiting many of the country’s foremost pilgrimage destinations including Canterbury, York, and Walsingham. Her overseas journeys took her to the celebrated shrines of Wilsnack and Aachen in Germany, to Rome and Jerusalem and, of course, to Santiago de Compostela where she followed the Camino Inglés and passed through Oroso.

Considering her lack of formal education, one of Margery’s greatest achievements was to author, with the help of scribes, a book narrating her life story. The Book of Margery Kempe – which might be described as a free-thinking, religious autobiography in homely Middle English – is the main medium through which we get to know this extraordinary medieval woman and learn about her numerous pilgrimages. While Margery was not the only female travelling on pilgrimage in the fifteenth century, she is unique in that no other woman of her time recorded her journeys with quite so much passion and in such detail.

As well as telling us much about pilgrimage in the late Middle Ages, Margery’s Book highlights some of the challenges faced by women on long-distance journeys. Margery herself comes across as a tough, determined, and resilient traveller. She took her first pilgrimage in her forties and, at the age of sixty with a painful leg, she made her way across eastern Germany sleeping in barns and valiantly trying to keep up with her younger companions. She was also fearless, instructing the Archbishop of Canterbury to rebuke his household for swearing, and brazenly telling the Archbishop of York – who had apprehended her for questioning – that she “had heard tell” that he was “a wicked man”. However, we also glimpse Margery in her more vulnerable moments: we witness her terror at sea during a life-threatening storm, and her constant worry of sexual assault as a lone female pilgrim.

Margery, of course, is no ordinary pilgrim and her pilgrimages are all the more hazardous because of her unconventional behaviour. On a visit to Canterbury, her exuberant weeping not only annoys the monks and priests; it also embarrasses her long-suffering husband, John, who disowns her for a day. Things get worse when Margery entertains a street crowd with stories from Scripture. How did an illiterate woman have access to these religious texts, people ask? Surely she was either a heretic or possessed by the devil? All alone outside the gates of Canterbury, Margery trembles with fright as people shout, “Take her and burn her!” She is eventually rescued by two men who escort her safely to her lodgings.

The pilgrimage which receives the most attention in Margery’s Book is her journey to the Holy Land. Like other late-medieval pilgrims, Margery spends her time touring the popular Biblical attractions such as the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the River Jordan, and the Mount of Temptation. Needless to say, her trip is far from trouble free. Her noisy weeping and her habit of constantly talking about God – even at the dinner table – makes her very unpopular with her companions. On the voyage out, her fellow pilgrims try to abandon her and, when that fails, they attempt to shame her by forcing her to wear foolish clothing. Their spiteful bullying continues all the way to Jerusalem: they threaten to turn her maidservant against her, they steal her money, and they confiscate the bedding necessary for her sea passage.

Once in Jerusalem, however, Margery comes into her own. As was the custom, she and her pilgrim companions spend twenty-four hours in the Church of Holy Sepulchre and are shown around by their Franciscan hosts. Margery follows them with her candle, weeping without restraint. When they reach Calvary, Margery collapses, writhing and crying aloud, claiming she could see the Crucifixion and Christ’s body punctured with “more holes than any dovecot”.

The pilgrimage we hear about the least is, ironically, Margery’s journey to Santiago. We know she took ship from Bristol, reached Santiago in seven days, and stayed for two weeks. She must have passed through the town of Oroso as she followed the “English Way” from the port city of La Corũna to Santiago, but the only trace of her today is the modern statue in which she smiles benignly at travellers passing across the town’s medieval bridge.

One reason we hear so little about Margery’s Santiago pilgrimage is because the Book of Margery Kempe is a spiritual memoir rather than a travel account. Margery’s main purpose was to inform her readers about her mystical visions, her special relationship with Christ, and her religious conversations and musings. In this respect, some of her most striking pilgrimages are not geographical but spiritual. Margery had the ability to travel in her mind, and her Book includes several episodes in which she effectively time-travels back to first-century Palestine and interacts with some well-known Gospel characters.

One of the most vivid of Margery’s virtual pilgrimages occurs during an Easter spent at home in Lynn. While in contemplation in her parish church, she is spiritually transported to Jerusalem where she witnesses Christ’s passion. She sees Christ arrested, and then tortured and beaten. After Christ’s burial, Margery accompanies the Virgin Mary home, and there follows a touching scene where the grief-stricken Mary lies on the bed and Margery comforts her by making her a hot drink of spiced wine.

Despite her extensive wanderings, Margery’s life was anchored at home in the Norfolk town of Lynn, now Kings Lynn. It was to Lynn where Margery always returned after her travels, and it is here where she dictated her Book to her two scribes, close to the parish church of St Margaret’s where she experienced her Easter vision.

In many ways, it is more fitting to commemorate Margery in her hometown rather than on a road in Spain, and another statue of Margery now stands in what was once her parish church, Kings Lynn Minster (see images above and below). Entitled, “A Woman in Motion”, the sculpture by Rosemary Goodenough nicely captures two sides of Margery’s personality. Head bowed in prayer, she is static and rooted in her parish church. And yet, at the same time – and dressed in swirling pilgrim attire – she is off and away to her next pilgrimage destination.

Anne E. Bailey

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'A Woman in Motion' sculpture by Rosemary Goodenough in Kings Lynn Minster

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The National Pilgrimage of Hope is starting!

By Joe Northam • August 27, 2025

Joe Northam explains how she came to be involved in the Pilgrimage of Hope. She is walking the St Matthew's Way from Cardiff to Nottingham. When I heard about the Pilgrimage of Hope, a walking Pilgrimage which will mark England and Wales with the sign of the cross, I really wanted to get involved. At that time, I didn’t imagine that I would end up being a perpetual pilgrim walking (nearly) all 210 miles of the Western route. I offered to help recce the planned route. I love walking and I was looking for an opportunity to spend time alone with God, and checking the route seemed to bring those things together. However, as soon as I met with Phil, who has planned the Pilgrimage , and voiced my enthusiasm for the project I felt that, perhaps, I could do more. I just needed a bit of flexibility to accommodate the needs of my family, and being assured of that I began to discuss with my husband just how involved I could get! The first of my preparatory walks along the route began from my neighbouring parish in Harborne back in December 2024. Nine months later we prepare to embark from Cardiff. The journey ahead feels just daunting enough that we know that God needs to lead us. By we, I mean both the team of perpetual pilgrims - Phil, Faith, Jim, Dave, Catherine and myself - and the many day pilgrims who will join us for part of the way. Our ‘ St Matthew’s Way ’ takes us from the coastal paths of Wales, through the Wye Valley and across the Malvern Hills to Worcester. Then to Birmingham and from there to Lichfield and along the canals to Nottingham. It will be beautiful, varied and deeply ingrained with Christian heritage. When we met in London in May, we as a team shared our desire to meet God on the journey, not just in the glorious cathedrals and the splendour of nature, but in other people. For myself the opportunity of spending two weeks in community with the perpetual pilgrims is a challenge and a privilege. I began my Catholic life as a part of a youth community in the Nottingham Diocese and I know that the formation and growth of a shared life is not like anything else. Each day pilgrim will become a part of this sharing, bringing a unique life experience. Some may bring a testimony of God’s call on their life, others may arrive simply interested by the concept of pilgrimage and unaware of the hand of God in their life. My prayer is that each of us finishes our journey more hopeful than we began. Something I learned at the start of this liturgical year, this year of Jubilee , is that hope is a theological virtue. My understanding is that this means that it is a ‘supernatural’ virtue rather than a ‘natural’ one, something imparted by God, rather than something we attain by a muscular effort. So when we feel hopeless, it seems to me, all that we can do is to create the conditions in which God can give us his gift. For me, openness to God never seems more possible than when I am walking. A combination of being in wild spaces, knowing that I am part of the creation and the rhythm of walking, putting one foot in front of the other strips away what distracts me like so much dross. At the start of this Jubilee Year Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to consider undertaking a pilgrimage. For me there is something special about making a pilgrimage on foot but for some people that will not be possible. However, the intentional following of God to a place of prayer is something which is open to everyone. May our encounters with him on the way give us hope and allow us to bring hope to others. Joe Northam is a parishioner of Our Lady of Good Counsel and St Gregory the Great, Bearwood, Birmingham. This blog was first published on the website of the Archdiocese of Birmingham . In the Archdiocese of Birmingham the Pilgrimage will include visits to St Joseph, Malvern; St George, Worcester; St Peter, Bromsgrove; St Mary, Harborne; Holy Trinity, Sutton Coldfield; Holy Cross, Lichfield and SS Mary & Modwen, Burton on Trent (between Thursday 4 and Thursday 11 September). Please pray for all those taking part.

Join the Pilgrimage of Hope final celebrations in Nottingham!

By Phil McCarthy • August 20, 2025

Join the Welcoming Liturgy and concluding Solemn Mass Whether you walk or not, come to the Cathedral on 13th September and enjoy a fitting celebration of the Jubilee Year. Meet pilgrims who arrive throughout the afternoon from 3.00 p.m. The Cathedral will be hosting Heritage Open Days with tours, a mini-pilgrimage of the building, and CAFOD’s Jubilee Icon on display. At 5.00 p.m. join Bishop Patrick in a welcoming liturgy to give thanks for the safe arrival of those who have travelled far. Having spent two weeks walking from different corners England and Wales, the four groups of pilgrims will have completed their ‘Sign of the Cross’ over the country. The Pilgrimage will culminate at 11.15 a.m. on Sunday 14 September with Solemn Mass in the Cathedral for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Refreshments are available afterwards in the Cathedral Hall. All are welcome. The Welcoming Liturgy and concluding Mass will be livestreamed here .

A Self-Guided Pilgrimage through Birmingham City Centre

By Emily Pugh • August 15, 2025

Go into the heart of Birmingham on a reflective journey created by Father Hudson’s Caritas!

Join the Pilgrimage of Hope!

By Phil McCarthy • August 4, 2025

The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. A small group of 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and day pilgrims can register to join for stages. NB Day pilgrim registration will close on 21st August 2025. Watch the short video below to find out more.

Walking Through Scripture: A Resource for Pilgrims Today

By Fleur Dorrell • August 1, 2025

'Walking through Scripture' is a free and creative new resource by Fleur Dorrell.

Another Day in Paradise, but "Why are we walking?"

By Eddie Gilmore • July 21, 2025

I was in the north of Italy recently on the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage path to Rome that begins in Canterbury. My wife, Yim Soon and I were with a group from L’Arche in France who are walking to Assisi in one-week sections. It was the second day, we were going up an interminably steep hill, it was hot, and we had ‘slept’ the night before on a floor, and with that motley group of twenty-five sharing two toilets (one of which had a door with no lock!). Yim Soon turned to me and asked, “Why are we walking?” The pair of us had done a lot of walking up until that point, and we had a lot of hiking still to come, so that was a very reasonable question to ask. One immediate answer was that we had the unexpected gift of time. I had moved to Ireland at the end of 2023 to take up a new job but things hadn’t worked out and I left in August 2024. We’d let out our house in the UK until June 2025 so Yim Soon had said to me, “Let’s walk!” I’d immediately agreed and our plans quickly took shape. We would do the Camino in Spain in October, the Lycian Way along the Turkish coast in February and March; then in April and May, we would follow the Way of Francis to Assisi and Rome. We also had an invitation to spend the winter with an old friend of Yim Soon from Korea who was now living with her family near Atlanta. This would include spending Christmas at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, the Trappist monastery of Thomas Merton that I’d always dreamed of visiting. There is a pleasing simplicity to life on the road. You scrunch your sleeping bag and the rest of your stuff into a rucksack in the morning and you walk. That's it! A lot of the usual worries of life seem to drop away and the biggest anxiety becomes making sure you don't get lost! Or where the next café con leche is going to come from! There's just something calming and centring about the age-old act of putting one foot in front of the other. There is also something about it that brings people together and draws out their story. And what incredible people we met on our various walks, and what wonderful stories we heard. And how we laughed with one another. The beautiful scenery is therapeutic too. In Turkey we were treated to one amazing view after another as we paced up and down the mountains that fringe the Mediterranean. In Italy we passed each day through yet another stunning medieval fortified hilltop town. And since we were doing all 500 miles of the Camino Francés, we would see the stark changes in landscape as we crossed the north of Spain: from the Pyrenees and the mountains near Pamplona, through the flat, arid meseta, then into the verdant hills of Galicia as we neared Santiago. There is a heightened awareness of the natural world: the sunrises, the sunsets, little wild flowers that appear as if out of nowhere. Food is deeply appreciated and I don't think that a meal at a Michelin restaurant could have satisfied me as much as the bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber I ate one day on a beach in Turkey, which we'd reached by a rocky and slightly hair-raising trek down a mountain. On the Camino I developed the art of the second, or even third breakfast. We had earned it! I also loved the shared international meals, and there’s one that particularly stands out. I’d been looking forward to returning to the municipal albergue (pilgrim hostel) at a town called Nájera because of what had happened there nine years before when I’d been doing that same walk. I’d got in with a group of Koreans, partly on account of having a Korean wife, and they’d prepared a banquet and invited myself and my Australian friend James to join them. We’d also got in with the Italians and they wanted to feed us as well. Then a Spanish guy Gerado offered us food. We could have eaten three meals that evening, and I was determined that on this next visit it would be me doing the cooking for some of the lovely people we’d met on the way. I got to work in the kitchen, with a little help from my international friends, and a large group of us sat and shared a feast. There were people from different countries and continents and speaking different languages; there were twenty-year-olds who seemed happy to hang out with those of us who were three times their age; and there was a range of backgrounds and beliefs and reasons for walking. It was utterly joyous. And after we’d eaten I picked up a guitar and started the singing, and various members of the group took a turn, and we were joined by others in that very diverse dining-room. The first song I did was one I’d written after that first Camino in 2015 and I told the story of how it had been inspired. James and I had been sitting on a bench outside the albergue in the early morning, waiting for the water to boil for our tea. The sun was just starting to rise above the trees and there was the sound of rushing water from the river, as well as the first birdsong. We were sitting there in companionable silence and then James said, “Another day in paradise.” Those words became the title of a book about pilgrimage which I wrote years later. They are also the first line of the chorus of my song ‘El Camino’ which I sang in that same albergue in Nájera in October, 2024. And I was so touched when one of the young people in our group, Lucy from Croatia, remarked at the end, “Wouldn’t it be cool if one of us came back here in nine years’ time and cooked for the other pilgrims and kept this story going!” Why do we walk? Well, yes, it’s the food, the fellowship, the fun, the breathtaking scenery, the little daily miracles and random acts of kindness, and the opportunity to live a bit more simply and to discover that we can be very content with very little. But it’s also, as my friend James observed one morning when sitting with me on a bench outside a pilgrim hostel in Spain, an opportunity to give thanks for another day in paradise. Eddie Gilmore is a Hearts in Search of God project collaborator. For more about Eddie and his books click here .

Become a Pilgrim of Hope for a (Shorter) Day!

By Phil McCarthy • July 20, 2025

Registration for Day Pilgrims is open and on some days there are shorter sections. Registration will close on 21st August 2025, so REGISTER NOW to avoid disappointment! The theme of the 2025 Jubilee is ‘pilgrims of hope’ and this has inspired a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways, named after the Evangelists, SS Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to register to join for stages. On some days there are opportunities for shorter walks.

The Pilgrimage of Hope is open for day pilgrims to register!

By Phil McCarthy • June 5, 2025

Registration for day pilgrims to join the 2025 National Walking Pilgrimage of Hope is now open! The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and Southwark, London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes are named after the Evangelists and use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to join for day stages. Stretches which are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies have been be identified. There will be opportunities for non-walkers to provide enroute support, hospitality and prayer. There are possible feeder routes to the four main Ways from all the other Catholic cathedrals of England & Wales for keen long-distance walkers, so people from every diocese can organise their own pilgrimages. More information and registration Information about how to support the Pilgrimage with prayer and hospitality and how to register to walk stages as day pilgrims can be found here . Wishing you every blessing and joy during this Jubilee year, as we strive to become ‘pilgrims of hope’. I hope to meet many of you in Nottingham on 13th September. Buen camino! Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

Walking in the steps of London's saints

By Colette Joyce /ICN • June 4, 2025

A group of 25 pilgrims gathered at the English Martyrs Church by Tower Hill last Thursday morning, Feast of the Ascension, to take part in the Westminster Way Jubilee Year Pilgrimage, led by Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Colette Joyce. At each station we prayed and reflected on saints connected to London and the inspiration they continue to be for us today: St John Houghton and the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, the missionary St Augustine of Canterbury, St Anne Line who sheltered priests and held secret Masses in her home during the Elizabethan persecution, St Erconwald, St Ethelburga and St Etheldreda. We remembered the scholars of the 7th century who brought learning and education to both men and women, and St John Henry Newman whose own spiritual journey of conversion and prophetic sense of the nature of the Church had a profound influence on the 20th century leading up to the Second Vatican Council. From the church we walked past the Tower of London, where so many Catholic martyrs met their fate during the Reformation, stopping to pray at the site of the scaffold where St John Fisher and St Thomas More were executed. Our next stop was Mary Moorfields, the only Catholic Church in the City of London. From here we walked to the Charterhouse, once a Carthusian priory and home to the first martyrs of the Reformation. The Prior, St John Houghton and Companions were hung and quartered for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Watching from his cell window, St Thomas More witnessed the monks being dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London on 4 May 1535. He is said to have admired their courage and faith as they went to their deaths, viewing them as "Cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage." From here we walked to St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, one of the oldest Catholic churches in London. Built around 1250 as the town chapel for the bishops of Ely. After the Reformation It had several owners . For a a time it was used by the Spanish ambassador as a private chapel. During Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, it was used as a prison and a hospital. The Rosminians bought St Etheldreda's in 1874 and have restored it beautifully. As we were walking during Laudato Si' Week, pilgrim leader Colette Joyce invited pilgrims to reflect on the flora and fauna of London on our way. London is a surprisingly green city, blessed with around twenty percent tree coverage - which makes it technically a forest! We are especially grateful to the Victorians who planted the ubiquitous London Plane trees which can be found in streets and parks all over the city, while there are more than 400 other species of tree to discover. "The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us." (Laudato Si', 84-85) After a stop at Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden - where former parish priest Fr Francis Stanfield wrote Sweet Sacrament Divine and Mgr Ronald Knox preached his famous homilies on the Blessed Sacrament - we made our way down the Strand, past Traflagar Square, through Whitehall, down to Westminster Cathedral. On our arrival, we weary walkers were greeted by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Slawomir Witoń. We ended our pilgrimage with prayers in the Martyrs Chapel and a reflection from Fr Slawomir on the life and witness of St John Southworth, patron saint of clergy in the Diocese of Westminster. The pilgrims received the final stamp in their Pilgrim Passports and a blessing before returning home. Colette Joyce, Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Read more about the Westminster Way: https://westminsterjusticeandpeace.org/2025/06/02/walking-the-westminster-way/ This article was first published on Independent Catholic News: Independent Catholic News Image: Pilgrims at Westminster Cathedral (Archdiocese of Westminster)

The Psychology of Pilgrimage

By Phil McCarthy • June 3, 2025

In this podcast I discuss the psychology of pilgrimage, especially as it relates to visiting First World War battlefields and cemeteries.

Margery Kempe: a 'woman in motion'

'A Woman in Motion' sculpture by Rosemary Goodenough in Kings Lynn Minster

PILGRIM WAYS