Marian devotion
Our Lady of Caversham is the advocation linked to the ancient Marian shrine of Caversham, today remembered in the Catholic Church of Santa Ana, in Reading. His history brings together medieval documentation, a regia pilgrimage and a modern Catholic restoration; the continuity of the cult should not be confused with an approval of apparitions or miracles that do not contain.
Where is he?
The present shrine is located at St Anne's Catholic Church, South View Avenue, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, England. The position of the map corresponds to the building of the Catholic parish identified by OpenStreetMap; the exact location of the medieval chapel next to the Thames is not recorded in the historical source consulted.
Documented history
According to the Reading Museum, the sanctuary was entrusted in 1162 to the Augustine canons of the Notley Abbey. During the Middle Ages pilgrims came and left offerings before an image of the Virgin. On July 17, 1532 Catherine of Aragon visited the place to pray before Our Lady, at a time when Henry VIII was pressing for the annulment of his marriage. The closing of the sanctuary came in 1538, during the English Reformation, and with the passage of time the exact location of the ancient chapel was even lost.
Devotion began to revive in 1897. In 1958 the parish priest William O'Malley decided to raise a new sanctuary in the church of Santa Ana: a stone chapel was built and a wooden statue of the Virgin with the Child was acquired. The renewed sanctuary was dedicated that same year by Archbishop Francis Grimshaw of Birmingham. This restoration explains the relationship between the present place and the memory of the medieval sanctuary without claiming that the ancient image is preserved.
Tradition and Legend
The medieval image was attributed to favors and tradition describes it as a silver image, but the historical record consulted does not preserve an ecclesiastical process of miracles. There is also no safe foundational account of apparition. Therefore, the historical existence of the sanctuary and its pilgrimage is separated from devotional powers that cannot be documented with the same degree of certainty.
Ecclesial State
It is a diocesan Catholic sanctuary with allowed veneration. There is no canonical coronation or pronunciation of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith on an apparition or on a specific supernatural. The tab does not present as approved the favors attributed to the image.
Prayer
Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, accompanies those who pilgrim and pray in Caversham. Pray for us and teach us to seek Christ with trust, humility and charity. Amen.
Sources
From the sanctuary next to the Thames to the current chapel
The record of the Reading Museum describes the origin of the medieval sanctuary as mysterious and places its chapel next to the Thames River. In 1162 he was entrusted to the Augustine canons of Notley Abbey, and during the Middle Ages the pilgrims came and left votive offerings before the image. The visit of Catherine of Aragon on July 17, 1532 is collected as a concrete historical episode; the source does not convert the offerings or favors attributed to the image into formally recognized miracles.
The closing of the sanctuary in 1538 caused the exact location of the ancient chapel to be lost in time. The renewal of devotion began in 1897 and reached a stable form in 1958, when priest William O'Malley promoted a new stone chapel at St Anne's Catholic Church, on South View Avenue. There a wooden statue of the Virgin with the Child was acquired and Archbishop Francis Grimshaw of Birmingham dedicated the renewed sanctuary.
Therefore the map point of this sheet corresponds to the current building of St Anne's, not to an exact location of the medieval chapel that the source does not allow to fix. The continuity is expressed in the title and memory of the pilgrimage, while the material identity of the ancient image and any specific supernatural remains unrecorded.
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