West Norfolk pilgrims follow St Felix footsteps

On June 20 the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, will follow in the saint’s footsteps through west Norfolk as part of a pilgrimage visit.

When St Felix was guided to safe harbour by a beaver, in the west Norfolk village of Babingley almost 1,400 years ago, the holy man is said to have ordained the beaver as a bishop before setting out on his mission to bring Christianity to the county. The legend is celebrated on the wooden village sign which features a beaver with a mitre and crook above a carving of St Felix.

Historians are on firmer ground with St Felix himself, who is also still celebrated here, where he established Norfolk’s first Christian church around 630AD and became the first (human) bishop of the kingdom of East Anglia.

On June 20 the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, will follow in the saint’s footsteps through west Norfolk as part of a pilgrimage visit.

Focusing on St Felix’s mission to the ‘Kingdom of the East Angles’ the modern-day pilgrims will walk between Castle Rising and Sandringham and then on to Shernborne, where the saint founded his second Norfolk church. The bishop will then travel to other parts of the Heacham and Rising deanery, which stretches from Brancaster to Hunstanton along the west Norfolk coast and south to include Heacham, Docking, Dersingham and Sandringham.
There are plans to stitch paths and lanes together to make a permanent pilgrimage route, the St Felix Way, from Castle Rising to Walsingham, including the churches Felix founded at Bablingley and Shernborne.

“It will re-awaken a route of pilgrimage and give Felix the missionary saint recognition for bringing the Good News of the Christian faith to East Anglia,” said Revd Mark Capron, rector of Dersingham.
Felix was invited to spread the gospel by the King of the East Angles (modern-day Norfolk, Suffolk and the eastern Fens) and became first bishop of the kingdom.

“Felix may have been shipwrecked at the time of his arrival on the then eastern shoreline of The Wash, at or near to an Anglo-Saxon community at Babingley,” said Mark. “It is thought he founded the first Christian church on a site that is now occupied by the ruined Norman church dedicated to him.

“The achievements of this missionary man are undoubted as he spread the Good News of the Gospel throughout this earthy geographic kingdom. It is therefore rather appropriate that we will have the Bishop of Norwich retracing the steps of the very first Bishop of the Kingdom of the East Angles.”

All are invited to join Bishop Graham on the pilgrimage walks on Thursday June 20, beginning at 10am at Castle Rising church and arriving at Sandringham war memorial around 11.30am. The second part of the walk will leave the war memorial at 1pm, arriving at Shernborne church for a short service at 2.30pm.

Bishop Graham will then travel to Ingoldisthorpe, possibly in a tractor to highlight the rural nature of the area. Here he will meet pupils at the primary school and there will be a chance for the bee-keeper bishop to admire the bee hives in the village churchyard.

At Heacham the bishop will climb the tower to see the cupola, beautifully restored by local craftsmen, where a new coronation bell is to be hung in September.

The day will finish with Songs of Praise and an informal Q&A with the bishop in the wild meadow area of Snettisham churchyard at 7pm (inside the church if wet.)

The pilgrimage prayer of St Felix:
God our Creator,
you called your servant Felix to serve Christ, with courage and compassion
among the people of East Anglia:
be with us as we walk his path through Heacham and Rising Deanery
that filled with your Spirit we may proclaim afresh
the Good News of Christ to all we meet. Amen.

Pictured: Pilgrimage route view across River Babingly to the ruins of St Felix Church. Picture by Mark Capron