| Thursday October 15th 1931: the events of the day, pieced together from contemporary accounts | ||
| There is no order of service or events in the archives (one may survive in someone's private collection) but the following timetable has been compiled from various contemporary accounts. |  the new shrine decorated ready for the procession |
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| Saturday October 10th: the blessing and baptism of the bells by Bishop O'Rorke, in the Shrine garden [photograph] - regarded by Fr Patten as the beginning of the celebrations. | Thursday
October 15th: 7 am Blessing of the new Shrine and first Mass; 11.30 am Pontifical High Mass at St Mary's; Luncheon at the Stella Maris hospice; 2.30 pm Oration, Benediction and Procession with the image to the new Shrine; 6 pm Rosary and evening devotions for the first time. |
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| 7
am the new Shrine |
Blessing
of the Holy House, The Litany, said votive Mass of the Annunciation (with
Gloria and Creed) |
| 11.30
am St Mary's |
Pontifical
High Mass of the Incarnation (Bishop O'Rorke, Fr Patten, Fr Leeds) Processional hymn at entry: Faith of our Fathers Address: Fr Ernest Underhill (text: "The Word Made Flesh") |
| Stella Maris | Luncheon at the Hospice of Our Lady, Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) |
| 2.30
pm St Mary's |
Oration:
Fr Alban Baverstock (text: "I have compared thee, O my love, to a company
of horses in Pharaoh's Chariots." Cant.1, 9.) Benediction |
| Procession of the image from St Mary's to the new Shrine, through the village, singing the Pilgrim Hymn [an earlier version of what is sung today] accompanied by the Wells Town Band | |
| the new Shrine | Procession halts in the forecourt outside the Shrine; the bells ring out; censing of the image and singing of the Magnificat; procession reforms and enters the Shrine to Salve Regina; the image is enthroned in the niche prepared above the altar; the relic of the tomb of Our Lady, and the casket containing the Golden Book, are placed on the altar; two deacons simultaneously sing the Gospel for the Feast of the Annunciation: one in the Holy House and one at the entrance to the Church; everyone in the procession files through the Shrine; proceedings end with the Te Deum |
| 6
pm the new Shrine |
Rosary and devotions [continued from that day] |
| It
was reported that around one thousand people, each carrying a candle [lighted
taper], took part in the afternoon procession, which was over half a mile
long. Three hundred people came by train from London. The order of the procession
was described as being as follows: Crucifer and acolytes :: Walsingham children in white :: members of guilds of Our Lady in blue and white veils :: the image, carried by four deacons of honour, and surrounded by five guardians, Fr A H Baverstock, Fr H J Fynes-Clinton, Fr E H Lury, Fr H Whitby and Sir William Milner :: eighty priests :: the Abbot of Nashdom and Bishop O'Rorke :: pilgrims. [closer scrutiny of the photographs changes the order slightly, and there was also a contingent of religious in the main procession] |
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