Alfred Hope Patten (17 November 1885 in the Town Brewery,

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 13,258 in 2021, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

– 11 August 1958 in the College, Little Walsingham), known as "Pat" to his friends, was an

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, best known for his restoration of the

Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is a Church of England shrine church, built in 1938 in Walsingham, Norfolk, England. It was established as part of the revival of pilgrimage devotion led by Father Alfred Hope Patten in the 1920s. ...

Life

An introspective only child, he became an

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

whilst still a teenager. He became interested in not only the medieval church but also the

religious life Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life (religious and sec ...

, visiting the Anglican

Benedictines The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...

at Painsthorpe in 1906 and being profoundly influenced by their abbot, Aelred Carlyle. After attending

Lichfield Theological College Lichfield Theological College was founded in 1857 to train Anglican clergy to serve in the Church of England. Uniquely at its foundation, the college did not require a degree, and non-graduates made up the majority of its ordinands. The college ...

he was ordained deacon in 1913 at Holy Cross, Cromer Street, in the St Pancras area of London. After three other curacies, including the Good Shepherd church,

Carshalton Carshalton ( ) is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated around southwest of Charing Cross and around east by north of Sutton town centre, in the valley of the Rive ...

, 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 Our Lady of Walsingham is a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus, venerated by Catholics and high-church Anglicans. According to tradition, the title is linked to a Marian vision experienced in 1061 by Lady Richeldis de Faverches, an Angl ...

modelled on the medieval priory's seal and placed it in the parish's main church, St Mary's. He also started

Marian devotions Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...

in his church and—aided by the League of Our Lady (later the Society of Mary)—the first pilgrimages from London. His bishop in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Bertram Pollock Bertram Pollock (6 December 186317 October 1943) was a Church of England bishop, schoolmaster, and author. Born in Hanworth, Middlesex, on 6 December 1863 to George Frederick Pollock — a barrister and Queen's Remembrancer, Remembrancer to Qu ...

, opposed the statue and Patten agreed to move it out of the church, using this as a chance to rebuild the Holy House in 1931. The Holy House was rebuilt in 1938 to accommodate rising pilgrim numbers and became the

. In 1930, Patten led a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Egmanton."History", The Society of Our Lady of Egmanton
/ref> On his death he was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Walsingham.

Works

*''Pilgrims' Manual'' (1928) *''England's National Shrine of Our Lady Past and Present'' with Enid Chadwick (1939) *''Mary's Shrine of the Holy House, Walsingham'' (1954) *''Our Lady's Mirror'', a quarterly paper set up in 1926 by Hope for the members of the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patten, Hope 1885 births 1958 deaths People from Sidmouth English Anglo-Catholics Alumni of Lichfield Theological College Anglo-Catholic clergy Clergy from Brighton People from Walsingham