Hope Patten

Alfred Hope Patten (17 November 1885 in Town Brewery, Sidmouth 11 August 1958 in The College, Little Walsingham), known as Pat to his friends, was an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Church of England, best known for his restoration of the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Life

An introspective only child, he became an Anglo-Catholic in Brighton whilst still a teenager, becoming interested in not only the medieval church but also the religious life, visiting the Anglican Benedictines at Painsthorpe in 1906 and being profoundly influenced by their abbot, Aelred Carlyle. After attending Lichfield Theological College he was ordained deacon in 1913 at Holy Cross Church in the St Pancras area. After three other curacies, including the Good Shepherd church, Carshalton, in 1921 he became vicar of Great and Little Walsingham with St Giles' Houghton. Within months of arriving, he had a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham modelled on the medieval priory's seal and placed it in the parish's main church, St Mary's. He also started Marian devotions in his church and - aided by the League of Our Lady (later the Society of Mary) - the first pilgrimages from London. His bishop opposed the statue and Hope agreed to move it out of the church, using this as a chance to rebuild the Holy House in 1931 (rebuilt in 1938 to accommodate rising pilgrim numbers). On his death he was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's.

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