A Tale of Two Cities

IPSWICH is a typical English town of some 128,000 souls in Suffolk, in the East of England, about two hour’s drive from London. Nettuno is situated about 60 kilometres south of Rome, along the Tyrrhenian sea, and has a population of about 43,000. Both cities, however, boast an ancient heritage.



Nettuno was founded by the Saracens in the 9th century. It is a popular tourist destination today, where there are a well-preserved old quarter, the Borgo Medievale, with mediaeval streets and small squares, and the Forte Sangallo, a castle built in 1503 by Renaissance architect Antonio Da Sangallo Il Vecchio. Ipswich, instead, is one of England’s oldest towns, and took shape in Anglo-Saxon times as the main centre between York and London for North Sea trade to Scandinavia and the Rhine.



The people of Nettuno are Roman Catholic, those of Ipswich are mainly Anglican. Despite these differences, there is one thing that unites the two cities: deep devotion to Our Lady.



To explain this connection we must trace our way back to a wooden statue that was carved in 1182. This statue was, until 1538, venerated in a beautiful shrine in Ipswich, after which it disappeared. There is, however, strong evidence to suggest that the lost statue of Ipswich is the same statue that is now venerated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace in Nettuno.



The extraordinarily story of the lost state of Ipswich is set against the turbulent backdrop of the English Reformation. It is a story of schism, hatred, misunderstanding, painful persecution and, finally, reconciliation and love.



“Here in Nettuno, the Virgin Mary is invoked with the title of ‘Nostra Signora delle Grazie’, which is the Italian for ‘Our Lady of Grace’, exactly the same title used for the statue that was venerated at Ipswich, and everyone here has great devotion for her,” says Mario Mazzanti, Prior of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Grace.



Mazzanti is a highly respected and active member of the city of Nettuno, and was only too glad to explain to me the story of the extraordinary statue.





When do you celebrate the Feast of Our Lady in Nettuno?



We celebrate her feast on the first Sunday of May, and it is the chief religious festival of our city. The week-long celebration is enthusiastically attended by the whole populace.



An image of Our Lady hangs in practically every family home, and is invoked with faith and affection. This devotion started in the middle of the sixteenth century, and has grown ever since. Christianity may be moribund, but here in Nettuno devotion to Mary certainly isn’t.



Confraternities are public associations of faithful whose task it is to promote local devotions. These associations are, however, regulated by Canon Law. They are established with the express purpose of promoting pubic devotions, works of charity, and to organise cultural events.



Our Confraternity is dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, the patroness of Nettuno, and consists of 300 members, 180 men and 120 women, who represent practically all the families in the city. In conjunction with the Church, we organise all the events having to do with Our Lady, in particular the May feast.





So how did the statue wash up on your shores?



I’ll try to cut a long story short. In November 1534, the Act of Supremacy was passed by the British Parliament. This Act completed the gradual process of the break with Rome.



This break had been initiated by the fact that King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to wed Anne Boleyn. Pope Clement VII, however, had refused to cave in to Henry’s wishes, so the King, who was absolutely determined to marry Anne, after a long series of political manoeuvres, compelled Parliament to declare himself Head of the Catholic Church in Britain, thus effectively separating the Anglican Church from the Roman hierarchy.



After Anne Boleyn, who was eventually executed at Henry’s behest, the King went on to marry four other women, and set in motion a brutal suppression of any Catholic in his kingdom who dared oppose his power: he despoiled the monasteries, stripped the altars, and removed from churches any objects evoking ‘popish’ fidelities in his subjects. With the exception of his daughter Mary, this suppression of anyone or anything that challenged the monarch’s authority in secular and religious matters continued unabated under Henry’s successors.



Even the wooden statue of Our Lady of Grace at Ipswich was in line for destruction. The shrine at Ipswich had been so important in pre-Reformation England that in 1297 the daughter of Edward I, Princess Elizabeth, married the Count of Holland in the shrine, and between 1517 and 1522, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon paid separate visits to it.



After the break, however, Henry’s mind had changed, and in 1538 he ordered Thomas Cromwell, his chief minister, to despoil the Ipswich shine. It appears, however, that Cromwell wanted to save the statue from the flames, either because he believed in the legend that attributed to it miraculous powers, or more simply to profit from the sale of it, so the statue ended up in his private chapel in London. However, when the anti-Catholic fury came to a head under Edward VI, devotees of the statue, fearing its imminent end, managed to smuggle it on board a ship bound for Naples.



During the voyage, the ship ran into a storm, so the sailors were compelled to drop anchor at a cove between Anzio and Nettuno. Once the storm was over, they set sail again, only to be rebuffed by a return of stormy weather. These attempts were repeated a number of times until the ship finally capsized. The sailors fell into the perilous waters but, to their great surprise, soon found themselves safely ashore, wondering how this could have happened. At this point they recalled how the statue was said to have miraculous powers, and concluded that the sacred object had saved them, and that the Virgin Mary wanted the statue to remain in that place.



The sailors saw a small chapel nearby, and informed the locals that they believed the Virgin Mary wanted the statue to remain there.



Overjoyed, the locals took the statue in all pomp to the nearby chapel. After the statue was installed in the church, the sailors resumed their trip to Naples.



Devotion to the statue grew over the centuries until, in 1854, the year of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius IX proclaimed Our Lady of Grace patroness of our city.





Did the statue remain in that chapel?



The chapel was renovated and extended a number of times because there was never enough space for the increasing flux of pilgrims.



In 1914 the chapel was demolished and a larger church was built in its place, and the statue was placed behind the main altar. Later, the body of Maria Goretti was laid to rest in one of the lateral chapels. Goretti was a girl from Nettuno who died from multiple stab wounds at the age of 11. They were inflicted by her attempted rapist after she refused him because of love of Jesus and her loyalty to God’s commandments. She was canonized by Pius XII in 1950.





What evidence is there to prove that the statue venerated at Nettuno is the same as the one that was venerated at Ipswich?



The evidence is circumstantial, but well documented. There is evidence in the Netunno archives that a statue arrived here from Ipswich in 1550.



Regarding the statue, Thomas Cromwell’s steward wrote to him that he had received it, with ‘nothing about her but two half shoes of silver’.



The statue in Nettuno was classified as being in the English iconic style in 1938 by Martin Gillett, an historian of 13th century iconography. Although the statue had been altered (a throne had been replaced and the posture of the Christ child had changed), details such as the folds in the material and Christ’s position on the right rather than the left knee suggest that the statue came from England.



Moreover, during restoration work on the statue in 1959 an inscription was found on its back with the words IU? ARET GRATIOSUS, a rendition of the Marian phrase, ‘Thou art gracious’ –  Ipswich was, in fact, the only Marian shrine in England dedicated to Our Lady of Grace. Even more striking, when Martin Gillett examined the statue, it was wearing two half shoes made of English silver, just like those described by Thomas Cromwell’s steward 400 years before.





What traces remain in Ipswich of the original shrine?



Veneration for Our Lady of Grace has always remained in that city –  people continued to pray to her there. The original shrine has all but disappeared, but the street where the shrine used to stand is now called Lady Lane. On the exact spot along Lady Lane there is a statue of Our Lady.



On 10 September 2002 a modern replica of the Italian statue, carved by Robert Mellamphy, was blessed and installed by the Anglican Bishop of Richborough in the church of Saint Mary at the Elms. The ceremony was attended by the Anglican Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Roman Catholic Dean of Ipswich and representatives of the Orthodox and the Methodist churches.





Are you in contact with the city of Ipswich?



Absolutely. Our Confraternity has visited Ipswich several times. In 1987, the Guild of Our Lady of Ipswich was founded by people from the Catholic church of St Pancras and the Anglican church of St Mary at the Elms. Their two aims have been: to pray for Christian unity and to plan and achieve the re-establishment of the shrine of Our Lady of Grace at Ipswich. We are in constant contact with the Guild of Our Lady of Ipswich, and are working together with them in the hope of bringing about full reconciliation between the Anglican and the Catholic Churches.



These contacts have gradually intensified, and now we can practically say that there is a sort of ‘spiritual twinning’ between Nettuno and Ipswich. In August 2005 a delegation from our Confraternity went to Ipswich and remained there for a week. It was an unforgettable experience.





Unforgettable? Why?



Because of what we saw, heard and felt. It was quite moving to see the places where our statue originated – where it had been venerated for centuries. It was also very interesting for us to get to know Anglican people, and to learn that they love the Virgin Mary just as much as we do. It was great to learn that they share with us the dream of becoming brothers and sisters in one faith, as we are all sons of the same Mother.



We were given a very warm welcome by the town authorities, first and foremost by the mayor. We were guests in the homes of the people of Ipswich. A particularly emotion-filled moment was when our parish-priest Fr. Carlo celebrated a mass in the Anglican church of St Mary of the Elms. It was the first mass celebrated by a Roman Catholic priest in that church since the Reformation, and the landmark liturgical event was attended by both Anglicans and Catholics.



“We wish to place our two communities, that of Nettuno and Ipswich, under the protection of Our Lady of Grace,” said Fr. Carlo. Even Fr. Haley Dossor, Vicar of St Mary of the Elms, highlighted the importance of the event.



That evening a procession was organized along the streets of the city similar to the ones we hold in Nettuno in May. The procession was probably similar to the ones which were held in Ipswich before the Reformation.



For our Feast here in Nettuno there is a delegation of Anglicans from Ipswich which comes to celebrate with us and, at the end of May, a delegation from our city goes to Ipswich to celebrate with them. Last year we had about 70 Anglicans from Ipswich, and we expect a similar number this month, accompanied by their parish priest and by two bishops.



This spiritual twinning which started 4 years ago is a sign, albeit a small one as yet, of that great ideal of unity among Christians we are all hoping for.





MIRACULOUS STATUE



A miracle at the shrine of Our Lady of Ipswich is recorded by none other than Saint Thomas More (1478-1535) in his book The Supplication of Souls, and he had news of it on first-hand knowledge. More was beheaded in 1535 when he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that declared King Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England.



The miracle in question was bestowed on Anne Wentworth, the 12 year old daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth, a friend of More’s. Anne suffered from seizures in which she spasmed, blasphemed and was said to be able to utter prophesy ‘vexed and tourmented by our gostly enemye the devyll’. After a vision in which she beheld the image of Our Lady of Grace at Ipswich, she was taken to the shrine and ‘layde before the ymage of our Blessyd Lady... grevously tourmented and in face, eyen, loke and countenance so grysely chaunged... that it was a terrible syght to beholde’. There in the presence of the whole company, she was restored ‘perfytely and sodeynly’. Anne, in grateful recognition of the miracle, took the veil and became a nun.



More was canonised by Pius XI in 1935, and his feast day is celebrated on June 22.