Our Lady of Walsingham

Pilgrim badge from the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham at Walsingham Priory. This thin, copper alloy badge is stamped with a scene depicting the Annunciation (the moment when the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to give birth to Christ). Mary sits at a table on the left-hand side of the scene with an open book in front of her. The Angel Gabriel descends from Heaven on the right-hand side. In between the figures is a large lily growing out of a pot, which symbolises Mary’s purity, innocence and the immaculate conception of Christ. Wrapping around the lily is a scroll which bears an inscription of some of the words Gabriel spoke during the Annunciation. This flat badge would have been sown onto a pilgrim’s clothes or hat, or stitched onto the pages of a prayer book.

The shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk was a popular pilgrimage destination in the medieval period, especially after Henry III made a series of pilgrimages there in the 13th century.