Pilgrimage to Bury St Edmunds - Ancient and Modern

Luke O'Brien • May 2, 2023

Bury St Edmunds is a historic market town in rural Suffolk. It is a town with a strong Catholic heritage and community. I attend St Edmund’s church which is a restored classical church built in 1857 around an original chapel dating from 1760. I have lived in Suffolk all my life. I was born in East Suffolk near the coast and now I live in the West, so I have always taken an interest into our local history, environment and Suffolk’s many churches. I am also keen on the preservation of Suffolk’s many historic churches and buildings.

The whole nation has a long and rich history that needs preservation, and churches in particular tell very personal stories with the many names remembered in plaques and stain-glass windows that are dedicated to loved ones or benefactors. I sometimes feel that Suffolk is overlooked and somewhat neglected, so in this short article, please allow me to bring Suffolk to your attention.

Bury St Edmunds is named after Saint Edmund who was a Christian martyr and king of East Anglia during the mid-9th century, at the same time as the Viking invasion of 865. Edmund was martyred on the 20^th of November, 869. It is not known when he was canonised but in 1020 King Canute established a Benedictine Abbey around his resting place. It is a little-known fact that King Edmund was the original Patron Saint of England until 1350, when he was replaced by St George. There have been local campaigns to restore St Edmund as the patron saint but I wouldn’t propose changing the English flag because both saints deserve recognition.

The Abbey of St Edmund was a pilgrimage destination for people from all over Europe, including kings and nobles who helped the Abbey to grow in wealth, which unfortunately drew resentment and made it a prime target for Henry VIII. The abbey was closed in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries and although it was eventually dismantled the ruins of the Abbey still stand. In 1959 a church that existed in the grounds of the Abbey was extended into an Anglican Cathedral. The tale of the Abbey is a lesson of what happens when historic monuments and buildings are destroyed: they are lost to history and their loss has wider effects on the surrounding town’s economy and reputation forever more.

Last year we celebrated the 1000^th anniversary of the Abbey, postponed from 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The celebrations involved an entire year of events including three pilgrimages to St Edmundsbury Cathedral from Ely Cathedral, St Benet’s Abbey in Norfolk and Chevington village just outside of Bury St Edmunds. The celebrations culminated with the Feast of St Edmund on the 20^th of November along with a light display that projected images telling the story of the Abbey onto the Norman tower besides the cathedral. A twenty-minute documentary about the Abbey 1000 celebrations was made and can be watched here.

The Abbey 1000 events demonstrated another aspect of my town: the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics. In Bury St Edmunds we come together, celebrating our joint history and heritage that we both hold so dear. This is something that is important to me as I feel myself to be a communion of Catholic and Anglican, for I was baptised a Catholic but confirmed in our local village Anglican church.

I feel that if history was different, if the Abbey had not been closed and dismantled, if it had remained intact till this day, then Bury St Edmunds would be a different place and its reputation as a pilgrimage destination in England and Europe would still be strong. So Bury St Edmunds is worth a visit when making a pilgrimage to Walsingham. We do not have a Catholic cathedral, but the Anglican St Edmundsbury Cathedral lists local pilgrimage options as well as a virtual tour where you can learn about the life and history of the Abbey.

Close by and across the border to Norfolk is Thetford, where you can see ruins of Thetford Priory and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. These ruins not only tell the history of East Anglia but are poignant reminders that England has suffered a turbulent history, first under Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, then again from the iconoclasm during the English Civil War.

So please remember Bury St Edmunds the next time you plan your pilgrimage and take some time to appreciate our history. St Edmundsbury Cathedral has a very good restaurant called the ‘Pilgrim’s Kitchen’, and if you arrive early enough then I thoroughly recommend ‘Eggs Benedict’ for breakfast! Further information about the Abbey of Saint Edmund can be found at:

Bury St Edmunds Abbey | English Heritage

Abbey of St Edmund Heritage Partnership

St Edmundsbury Cathedral

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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.

Walking the St Wulstan Way

By Peter Chisholm • May 31, 2025

Pilgrims joined Fr Gerry Walsh tracing St Wulstan’s life and legacy, from Worcester Cathedral to Clifton Cathedral as part of the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope” celebrations. Participants explored their faith while journeying through stunning landscapes and historic locations.