Procession of Our Lady of Willesden

The annual candlelit Procession of Our Lady of Willesden will take place on Sunday, 13 October at 7pm, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, 1 Nicoll Road, London NW10 9AX. Join pilgrims praying the Rosary for London. The preacher will be Fr Richard Biggerstaff.

There has been a shrine and a holy well dedicated to Our Lady at Willesden for more than a thousand years. Little is known about the origins of the shrine, though it seems to have been connected to the church of St Mary, mentioned in a royal charter as early as 939.

A Visitation report of 1249 mentions the presence of two statues of Our Lady, one of which must have been the 'Black Madonna' which was burnt in 1538 by order of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's Vicar General for Ecclesiastical Matters.

Among the pilgrims who visited the shrine, was St Thomas More.