The Augustine Camino

James Bogle with a Canterbury tale of traditional pilgrims

Photographs by Raja and Jeremiah Wolstenholme

When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root… Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage… Of England they to Canterbury wend, The holy blessed martyr there to seek… (Geoffrey Chaucer, TheCanterburyTales)

After April, May is the time for pilgrimage.

April has fulfilled its role of piercing to the root the drought of March, all the wildflowers are freshly out - daisies, buttercups, bluebells, St Anne’s lace and the haw is white on the hawthorn bush – the orchard blossoms are in bloom and the fattening lambs gambol in the fields, bleating plaintively, an image of the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God.

More importantly, it is the month of Mary and we have not long since crowned her with blossoms as Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May. Thus, it is only fitting that we should celebrate her by going on pilgrimage, in time-honoured fashion, to the shrines of England, her ancient dowry.

Anglia dos Mariae, dos tua Virgo pia haec est, "England the dowry of Mary, this is thy dowry, O Holy Virgin", as reads the famous altarpiece from the time of King Richard II and the Wilton Diptych of 1395. It was a devotion that helped sustain the recusant Catholics of England during the Penal times, when Catholics were so cruelly persecuted by a deeply hostile Protestant government.

Even more importantly, it was the Feast of Whitsun, happily coinciding with Mary’s month of May this year, for it is at Whitsun that many traditional Catholics in Britain gather together to travel to France for the annual pilgrimage from Notre Dame de Paris to Notre Dame de Chartres, a trip that many of us have been doing since the middle 1990s.

For this year and last year, on account of the Covid virus and the lockdown, we have been unable to attend the Paris to Chartres pilgrimage organised by our good friends and fellow pilgrims at Notre Dame de Chretienté (Our Lady of Christendom), the French foundation which organises the Chartres pilgrimage.

Last year, our leader of 20 or more years, Francis Carey, together with our leader on the day, Timothy O’Callaghan, organised a one-day pilgrimage from St Augustine’s, Ramsgate, to Canterbury.

It was such a success that, this year, it was decided that we would be a little more ambitious and attempt a three-day imitation of the Chartres pilgrimage, on English soil, from St Augustine’s, Ramsgate, via Canterbury Cathedral and the shrine of St Thomas Becket, to the Friars, Aylesford, ancient home of the English Carmelite Friars.

This friary is where St Simon Stock, our English Carmelite, was Prior, he who, in a vision, had received the Brown Scapular of our Lady of Mt Carmel, from the hands of our heavenly Mother herself.

This meant, once again, following what they now call “the Augustine Camino”, named after St Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle of the English, but using the name the Spanish give to their famous pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago.

This time we had some 80 pilgrims, all joining us at short notice since we were not sure until the last minute that the authorities would allow us to undertake the journey.

We had three chapters – Our Lady of Walsingham, the Juventutem chapter of St Alban, and a French chapter of Notre Dame de France.

We also had with us four of the Marian grey friars from the Diocese of Portsmouth, including Rev. Fr Faustinus Timpe and Rev. Fr Philomeno Gilfoyle, our own Geordie priest.

We began at St Augustine’s Church, Ramsgate, the famously splendid and authentic 19th century neo-Gothic church built by the great Catholic architect, Augustus Welby Pugin, famous pioneer of Gothic revival architecture and designer of our Houses of Parliament in the same style.

St Augustine’s Church is a neo-Gothic masterpiece, as is St Augustine’s Abbey, next door, also built by Pugin in the same style, as was his own home, the Grange, directly opposite.

The Grange remains in private hands, but the Benedictines have since left the abbey which is now home to the Vincentians.

The Parish Priest of St Augustine’s church is our own Rev. Christopher Basden, previously PP of St Bede’s, Clapham Park, and a longstanding supporter and participant in the Chartres pilgrimage. He exchanged parishes with Rev. Marcus Holden, previously PP at St Augustine’s and now PP at St Bede’s.

Fr Christopher permitted us to have a High Mass in the church and our scratch choir sang the Mass of Whitsun Eve without a hitch, ably led by our French choirmaster, Colonel Gregoire Bondet de la Bernardie.

Our Royal Navy “liaison officer”, Commander Neville McNally, kindly came all the way up from Portsmouth to join us and sing and our contingent of grey friars also sang, together with Timothy O’Callaghan and myself.

With Mass over, we were off and marching, heading for St Augustine’s Cross, near Cliffsend, some three miles and an hour’s walk away.

After a brief stop, we began again heading for St Mildred’s Convent, Minster, home of the Benedictine sisters whom we have visited in previous years.

Next, we set out across the countryside via Monkton to our lunch stop at the curiously-named hamlet of Pluck’s Gutter. We were handsomely looked after at the Dog and Duck Inn.

Then came our afternoon trek across the beautiful Kent countryside to the walled city of St Thomas Becket.

Upon arrival we were taken, in groups, on a tour of the famous church of St Martin, the oldest church building in Britain and the oldest parish church in the English-speaking world.

Indeed, it had been a Roman and Celtic church for centuries before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and evidence of the terra cotta tiles used by the Romans for building are still extant. It was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent before St Augustine arrived in 597 AD.

Bertha was the Frankish princess who married Anglo-Saxon pagan, King Aethelberht and eventually converted him to Christianity.

St Bede the Venerable says that the building had been in use in Roman times but had fallen into disuse and was restored by Queen Bertha and dedicated to St Martin of Tours, a city near her birthplace in France.

St Augustine used the church as his mission headquarters and baptised King Aethelberht there.

We were shown round by two very informative and kind Anglican ladies who seemed very happy to have some pilgrims visiting.

Our French chapter and the braver souls camped in the Canterbury camp site, whilst others took the comfort option at the Premier Inn.

Next morning, we were up with the lark in preparation for the great Feast of Pentecost.

Thanks to the persuasive powers of both Francis Carey and Fr Basden, we were permitted by the Cathedral authorities to celebrate this great feast with a Mass in the ancient Cathedral chapter house. Our altar was placed in front of the ancient stone seat of the archbishops of Canterbury perhaps used by the great martyr St Thomas, himself.

Chapter House

Mass was sung by Fr Philomeno who also preached a barnstorming sermon reminding us both of the great Feast of Pentecost and of the many visions and prophecies that seemingly are being realised in our time.

It must be some time since the great Golden Sequence (Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Sequence of Pentecost) has been sung in that chapter house and it was a great joy and privilege to be able to hear it there.

The Golden Sequence is attributed to either Pope Innocent III or, much more likely, Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Thus, it could hardly have been more appropriate to be singing it now in his own chapter house.

Fittingly, in a corner of the chapter house was his stained-glass image which more than made up for the stained-glass images of King Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer which featured in the main window.

That morning took the pilgrims through some of the most beautiful Kent countryside, through woods and orchards and spring-flower-lined country roads.

Stopping briefly at a pub or two en route, the pilgrims passed Faversham and made their way on to the night’s stop at Doddington, south of Sittingbourne.

At Doddington, we were greeted by Graham, the owner of the Palace Farm Hostel and campsite, who, being a Christian himself, was very pleased to be hosting us pilgrims, not least our party of grey friars. The nearby Chequers Inn very kindly made room for all of us to dine and looked after us wonderfully.

After a stormy, windy night, we were again up early and off on our travels, heading in the direction of Maidstone across more glorious Kent countryside.

With a little advance negotiation, the Black Horse Inn at Thurnham, north of Leeds Castle, allowed many of the pilgrims to use its beer garden for a lunch stop whilst others sat on the grass.

Soon the weary pilgrims were on their way again for the last stretch of the journey, passing the M20 on the way to Aylesford.

Meantime, at Aylesford Friary the main outdoor altar, but rarely used, was set up for High Mass celebrated by Canon Martin Edwards, Fr Basden and Fr Timothy Finigan.

After another cracking good sermon, this time from Fr Finigan, the sun broke through and shined upon all of God’s pilgrims as they gave thanks to God, His Mother and foster father, St Joseph, prayed for the graces of the pilgrimage and – as ever – concluded the holy journey with our old favourite song from Chartres to our Lady, Chez nous soyez Reine – “In our homes, be Queen”.

It was once again a foretaste, remembrance and happy augury presaging our return next year on pilgrimage with our Lady of Christendom.

Our Lady of Christendom pray for us all!