Fr
Patten and animals and birds
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Fr
Patten and animals and birds |
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| animals and birds Although he owned dogs himself, Fr Patten was insistent that no pets of any kind were to be brought to the Shrine, as some pilgrims did in the early days: see this instruction in Our Lady's Mirror Summer 1932; the majority of pilgrims were accommodated in villagers' houses, and their hosts sometimes objected to housing pets as well and refused to take any more pilgrims; Fr Patten's favourite dog was Caesar, brown in colour, and Fr Lingwood's black dog was called Wizard and can be seen on the south wall of St Hugh's chapel mural; nowadays dogs, other than assistance dogs, are not allowed in the Shrine grounds; cats: when Fr Colin Stephenson became Administrator he kept cats, the most famous being High and Low, who roamed the grounds and were often found in the Shrine church; he frequently wrote of their doings in the Walsingham Review; birds: Fr Patten left this instruction below in the sacristy for the Sisters who worked there; tortoise: Fr Patten owned a tortoise which after his death was looked after at St Hilary's. |
