From Rome to England: The landing of St. Augustine of Canterbury      

After breakfast in the hotel, we will depart for the coastal city  of Ramsgate and the Shrine of St. Augustine of Canterbury, known as the “Apostle to the English.” It was here where St. Augustine first landed in England in 597 to begin his journey of converting Britain to the Faith at the request of Pope St. Gregory the Great. We will attend Mass celebrated in the Extraordinary Form at the shrine. 

After Mass, we will travel south for a short drive to the White Cliffs of Dover for lunch, overlooking the English Channel. We will see the white cliffs from the restaurant. If it is a clear day, we will be able to see the country of France, which is only 20 miles across the Channel. Late afternoon and evening will be free to explore Canterbury on your own. 

Overnight in Canterbury. Dinner on your own.  Breakfast and Lunch included.

Canterbury, Eastminster. Mystical Life of the High Middle Ages, Thomas à Becket through the Reformation

After breakfast, we will tour the Canterbury Cathedral which was originally founded in 597 by St. Augustine. The Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest Christian churches in England. Canterbury has been an important spiritual center since the time of St. Augustine; however, it became a major pilgrimage destination after the martyrdom of St. Thomas à Becket in 1170. This is perhaps most famously demonstrated in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, which revolves around a group of pilgrims journeying to see the holy relics of this great saint in the Canterbury Cathedral. The cathedral continues to play a central role in English Christianity today as it functions as the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England. 

The Roper Chapel, located at the Anglican St. Dunstan’s church, is our next stop, where we will venerate the severed head of St. Thomas More, before attending Mass at the only Catholic parish in Canterbury, St. Thomas of Canterbury church. In mid-afternoon, we will travel a short distance to Eastminster to encounter the Benedictine nuns of Minster Abbey for tea and Vespers.

Overnight in Canterbury. Breakfast and Dinner are included. Lunch is on your own.

Aylesford, Walsingham. Mary’s gift of the Brown Scapular

After breakfast, we travel toward Our Lady’s Shrine in Walsingham, stopping along the way at the Carmelite Shrine at Aylesford. This shrine was founded in 1242 when the first Carmelites arrived from the Holy Land. They came under the patronage of Richard de Grey, a crusader who gave them a small piece of land at his manor of Aylesford. Our Lady appeared here to St. Simon Stock in about 1251, giving him the brown scapular with her promise of final perseverance to all who wear it with devotion. Here we will attend Mass and spend time in prayer at the shrine before lunch. Then we continue north for Walsingham to check in to the Dowry Retreat House for the next three nights.

Overnight in Walsingham. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are included.

Walsingham, Quidenham, Norwich. An Interior Life of Prayer

After breakfast, we will depart for Norwich, the city of Saint Julian of Norwich, the 14th-century English anchoress and an important Christian mystic. Her book, Revelations of Divine Love, written around 1395, is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. 

Inspired by divine love, Julian made a radical decision. Like an ancient anchoress, she decided to live in a cell located near the church called after St Julian, in the city of Norwich — in her time an important urban center not far from London. – Pope Benedict, 2010 

We will visit her shrine, which was built on the site of her original cell. There we will be drawn into the interior life of this woman of prayer. We will attend Sunday Mass at the Catholic Cathedral in Norwich. 

Lunch will be in Norwich’s city center at a wonderful local English restaurant. We will have time to walk around this medieval town with its cobbled streets, alleys and courtyards, and a river at its heart. It is the only English city in a National Park, the Norfolk Broads. 

Time permitting, we will depart for the Carmelite Monastery of Quidenham, where we will encounter modern day mystics.

Overnight in Walsingham. Breakfast and Dinner are included. Lunch is on your own.

Feast of the Assumption

After breakfast, we will explore the village of Walsingham, which is often referred to as “England’s Nazareth,” after Richeldis de Faverches, a devout English noblewoman, in 1061 had a vision of the Virgin Mary in which she was shown Mary’s house in Nazareth. Mary requested Richeldis to build a similar house in Walsingham. A monastic community still exists there today, and the nuns have undertaken an interesting journey from the Church of England to the Catholic Church. On this, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, we will attend Mass at midday at the Chapel of Our Lady of Walsingham, and pray in the restored “Slipper Chapel” where medieval pilgrims used to leave their shoes before walking the “holy mile” into the village where the original shrine was situated. 

In the afternoon, we will return to the village center to see the old abbey ruins of the Augustinian Priory of The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was one of the oldest shrines to Our Lady in England before its dissolution in 1538. Time permitting, we will take a short drive to see the coastline and have tea at Holkham Nature Reserve.

Overnight in Walsingham. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are included.

Walsingham, King’s Lynn, Ely, London. Faith in the Middle Ages

We will attend Mass in the morning, followed by a talk describing the life of a medieval friar, given by Fr. James Mary, a Franciscan friar currently in residence in Walsingham. 

Afterwards, we depart Walsingham and drive to London with stops along the way, including King’s Lynn to visit the church dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham that began this devotion, and the historic Ely Cathedral. 

The Ely Cathedral was founded by Etheldreda (d.679), queen, foundress and abbess of Ely. Her shrine was a popular destination for medieval pilgrims; however, it and the monastery were destroyed by King Henry VIII in 1539. This is the third largest church in England, blending several architectural styles, and is known for its music ministry. 

We will enjoy an al fresco lunch at Ely Cathedral overlooking the gardens and cathedral. Some may want to visit Oliver Cromwell’s house located next door. 

After arriving in London, we will enjoy dinner at a family-owned-and-operated pub known for its traditional fish and chips!

Overnight in London. Breakfast and Dinner are included. Lunch is on your own.

To the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, the National Gallery and London Oratory

Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the largest Catholic church in England, begins our day in London. The Cathedral is only three short blocks from our hotel. Among the exquisite pieces of art and architecture there, we will find a bas relief of the English martyrs, St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. Additionally, there is a famous statue formerly known as Our Lady of Pew (now Our Lady of Westminster) before which St. Thomas More would often pray. 

Afterwards, we will walk just half a mile to Westminster Abbey for lunch and a tour. Westminster Abbey was originally built as a Benedictine monastery by St. Edward the Confessor in 1065. All the British monarchs have been crowned in Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066, and it is here that St. Edward the Confessor is buried; we will be able to vernerate his tomb, which is normally closed to the public. 

Westminster Abbey is dedicated to St. Peter and Eastminster (St. Paul’s Cathedral) is dedicated to St. Paul. During St. Thomas More’s public service in 1504, Parliament met in the Charter House of Westminster Abbey, which was later dissolved in 1540 by King Henry VIII. 

After our time in Westminster Abbey, we will walk by the famous Downing Street and Trafalgar Square on our way to the National Gallery to view the famous Wilton Dyptich. This painting is of most significance because it is one of the earliest depictions of England being presented by the King to Our Lady as a gift, her “Dowry”... afternoon and evening free to explore London on your own. 

A possible excursion in the late afternoon: taxi to the London Oratory. It is the church of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Popularly, but incorrectly, known as “Brompton Oratory,” it is the second-largest Catholic church in London. St. Philip Neri (1515-1595) founded the Congregation of the Oratory in Rome and it has spread throughout the world, now numbering some seventy houses and five hundred priests. Soon after converting to Catholicism in 1845, Saint John Henry Newman became an Oratorian and founded the first Oratory in the English-speaking world.

Overnight in London. Breakfast is included. Lunch and Dinner are on your own.

Catholic London and Literary London

After breakfast, we will take a walking tour of London. The streets will come alive as Kevin Turley peels back centuries of Catholic history telling stories of Catholic and Literary London. We begin at Charterhouse learning about the Carthusians coming to London continuing on to St. Bartholomew, the oldest catholic parish in London, and St. Etheldreda for Mass. 

Lunch will be at the famous Fleet Street Pub, one of the oldest in London. Dine where Dr. Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens (who referred to it in A Tale of Two Cities), Yeats, Wilde, and Thackeray frequented. 

Afternoon we will learn more about literary London and the Pre reformation Catholic history to present day Chesterton. Time permitting, we will walk down the embankment to Tower Hill and London Bridge. 

Our day will finish at Tyburn Convent for tea with Sisters. Tyburn Convent commemorates the many Catholic martyrs, including St. Edmund Campion who were executed nearby. We will have a tour of the crypt where we can venerate relics of the martyrs, and we will attend Vespers and meet with the sisters in residence here. Tyburn is a place of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, so we will also have the opportunity for personal prayer here. 

Our farewell dinner will be our opportunity to gather one last time around a table, sharing a meal and conversation.

Overnight in London. Breakfast and Dinner are included. Lunch is on your own.

After breakfast and farewell, a private transport will take you back to the airport for your return home. Farewell to all our fellow pilgrims, our friends, until we meet again…

Breakfast is included.