By IHE Scholar Miriam Pritschet
The IHE England pilgrimage was an unparalleled experience. Accompanied by a flock of faithful, joyful, intellectually curious fellow pilgrims and surrounded by the stunning architecture of Gothic spires and baroque facades, I could hardly believe how blessed I was to be experiencing the riches of the faith in Our Lady’s Dowry.
Awash in the rich history of the land, we experienced the life of the Church in England firsthand, marveling at its age and beauty. We prepared for months, reading through the lives of saints whose relics we would encounter and studying the genesis of the Anglican break from the Church and the horrors of the persecutions that followed. As our journey in England progressed, an abstract grasp of historical facts gave way to an immanent, personal connection to a country and people rent by suffering, yet showcasing heroic virtue in the battle for holiness.
The pilgrim’s experience is a profoundly embodied one, a tangible encounter with holiness. We stood in the places where martyrs were welcomed by heavenly choirs, walked the halls where saints lived the daily practice of holiness, and gazed at the same stained glass and stone arches that generations of monks prayed beneath.
It drove home for me the reality of the lives of these faithful witnesses to Christ, and of Christ’s abiding presence with them — the beauty and majesty of God’s providential working in the hearts of England’s saints. These saints, into whose lives we had the privilege of stepping, whose books we perused, whose dining halls we shuffled through, whose very bones we venerated and kissed — these saints befriended us in a concrete, human, enduring way. The stories of Saint John Henry Newman gradually transformed into accounts of a dear friend. The courage of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher shone with the added reverence we feel for the perfections of a loved one. The ingenuity of Saint Nicholas Owen in crafting priest hides became a shared secret with a companion in whose fight we were called to take part.
The England pilgrimage was filled to overflowing with blessings for which I will be forever grateful, but chief among them was this sense of intimacy and real friendship with the incredible English saints to whom and with whom we journeyed.
Holy men and women of England, pray for us!
