Very Rev Canon Michael Bayldon, parish priest of St Paulinus’ Church, Guiborough, spoke at the recent ecumenical service of Vespers and the blessing of the icon of Our Lady of Guisborough saying,

‘The success of obtaining a new Catholic church for Guisborough spurred us on to do two things. First of all to reinstate the Shrine of Our Lady with all the canonical rights and recognitions to which it should be entitled. That is principally why we have invited the two bishops here this evening. Eventually this shrine will be moved, or translated as the correct term tells us, to the new church in 2010, or whenever it is finished, opened, and blessed for use. We also wanted to complement the work begun by Fr Arthur Mercer who commissioned the statue of Our Lady of Guisborough in 1949, and who brought Bishop Brunner here for its placement when the parish was erected, and he became our first parish priest. So far have we travelled in good church relations for the last 50 years that now we are privileged to make this an ecumenical occasion, and both of our local bishops have generously responded and are here tonight. It was suggested that all of this be commemorated by the creation and blessing of a 21st century icon of Our Lady of Guisborough. So the second reason for our coming together this evening on the festival of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is to ask our bishops to bless and dedicate the icon.

‘Originally the Priory of Guisborough was dedicated to St Cuthbert, and hidden on the back of the icon is the cross of St Cuthbert, not on view to spoil the iconography of the Blessed Virgin, but a reminder to all of us of our Saxon Catholic heritage, and especially dear to me, as I grew up and went to school and seminary at Ushaw, which itself is dedicated to St Cuthbert. The links between Cuthbert and Paulinus in our diocesan history are cemented by a reference to St Bede, with whom I have a particular personal admiration and affinity as a Christian historian, theologian and biblical scholar and hymnologist.

‘It was Pope Callistus who first took Guisborough into the patronage of St Peter, and the first shrine to Our Lady of Guisborough appeared in the 12th century, and the place soon became famous for pilgrimages. One of the most famous recorded pilgrims was St Malachy of Armagh, to whom St Bernard of Clairvaux attributes the cure of a young girl of Guisborough from cancer at the intercession of Our Lady. Like many medieval shrines, Guisborough became a place of high esteem, and survived until the Reformation. Fr Arthur Mercer, himself a convert to Catholicism in later life, uncovered much of the history of the shrine, and this led to his devoted action in 1949, and he dedicated the new Lady Statue in thanksgiving to Our Lady for a safe delivery of the town from the ravages of war. He re-established the ancient tradition dating from the 12th century of keeping a light burning at the image of Our Lady, and that light (more recently with the aid of modern technology) has been continuously burning ever since.

‘Guisborough Priory, once under the patronage of Robert de Bruce, was a model of the ancient practices of justice, and the original charter which enabled the townsfolk to live free and unfettered civic lives was one of the models which was used in the drafting of the Magna Carta, which many regard as the foundation of England’s traditions with regard to good citizenship.

‘Tonight we gather together here in a place of prayer. In recent times Ron Stephenson, who has done the lion’s share of putting all of this together for us over the years, has established a website under the patronage of Our Lady of Guisborough, and we now have prayer petitions crossing the world, and which we draw together in our weekly offerings. The image of the Lady Statue, the Icon, and its associated spiritual meanings are supported by the Honorary Guardians of the Shrine, the two bishops and Val Button, who designed and executed the icon; the Rector of the Shine, the parish priest of Guisborough; and two priest guardians, Canon Edmund Gubbins and Fr Adam Gaunt, with the Deacon Guardian Patrick Thomas. These are supported prayerfully by the Warden of the Shrine, Ron Stephenson, and the Guardians, Edna Hunneysett, Eleanor and Mike Garrity, Sandra Hallett, Felicia Hood, Maureen Davies, Margaret Fenelly, Lynne Green, Theresa Robinson and Gel Heagney.

‘Thanks and appreciation:

‘There are many people to thank this evening.

‘One person who cannot be here, but who would have loved tonight’s event, is John Carter. A renowned artist in his own right, he looked forward to designing and executing the proposed engraved interior panels in our new church. But that was not to be. However, dear Louisa has given us three of his monochrome works to mark this occasion. One we would like to present to Val Button in great admiration for her generosity, prayer and kindness in making our Icon.

‘We would like to offer the second to Bishop Robert, to commemorate this evening. Alongside this there is a perhaps more useful gift which we trust him to use wisely.

‘The third of John’s works we offer to Bishop Terry. This is his first visit to Guisborough. I hope he will be as frequent a visitor to us as dear Bishop John was, and that he will soon come so close to us that we can entrust him with the secret numbers to the combination lock to the doorway to the Shrine. Together with this etching, there is also a gift for the Bishop’s personal use from a grateful, yet expectant community of Catholics here in Guisborough. We respectfully offer you our prayerful support in your ministry among us.

‘To members of our own community, I am extremely grateful. There have been some pretty grim and dim days over the last few years, and our community has been raised up in hope, and thrashed down in disappointment. But there have been the ever-faithful, ever-generous supporters. To all of them, whomsoever they are, it is appropriate to say a thank you for tonight, not least to our sacristan, our flower arrangers, the organist, and those ladies who hopefully will ply us with tea or coffee and what I think you will agree with me are the best gourmet scones in North Yorkshire. Our thanks go to you all, we go forward in good faith, with confidence in the good things we can do, and pray that God will keep us safe from all harm and shower upon us his abundant blessings.’

The photograph above and others taken at the blessing of the icon can be found in the galleries section of the Middlesbrough Diocesan web site.