1 September to 4 October is the Catholic Church’s ‘Season of Creation’ – but in this Holy Year of Jubilee and tenth anniversary of the Laudato Si’ Encyclical, here in the Diocese of Leeds, we are celebrating God’s creation in all FOUR Seasons with our Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimages!
The Autumn Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimage will be at St Benedict’s Catholic Church in Garforth on Saturday 4 October. The date is the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, declared Patron Saint of Ecology and Environmentalism by Pope Saint John Paul II.
At 11am, there will be a Blessing of the Animals service by Parish Priest Fr Henry Longbottom. Bring a packed lunch and then – weather permitting – there will be a short country walk of less than three miles across to some of the lesser-known locations connected with our Catholic history and heritage.
All our walking pilgrimages are on public transport routes; St Benedict’s is just a two-minute walk from Garforth Railway Station and there is a regular ‘bus service back into Leeds from the nearby village to which we will be walking in the afternoon.
As with all our Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimages, please sign up with your name, parish and a mobile contact number by emailing communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk
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Our Summer Laudato Si’ Mini-pilgrimage took place in August and was a visit to the beautiful North Yorkshire town of Knaresborough…
Pilgrims of all ages travelled from right across the Diocese and were welcomed at St Mary’s Catholic Church with a Mass celebrated by Parish Priest Canon Gerard Kearney. The glorious weather meant we could eat our packed lunches in the church’s beautiful garden, before setting out on a walk to visit St Robert’s Cave and the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag.
Cllrs Margy Longhurst and Helen Westmancoat are last year’s and this year’s Mayor of Knaresborough respectively and generously suggested that four of their Knaresborough Town Guides could accompany pilgrims on their walk with information about the town’s religious heritage and natural environment. The Voluntary Guides were knowledgeable and great fun and they all greatly enhanced the experience!
Pilgrims heard about the key role played by the navigable River Nidd and the railway, and about the Castle Mill which had once manufactured linen for all Queen Victoria’s royal households. We were regaled with the stories of the Royal Forest of Knaresborough and how what was once King John’s hunting ground is now being rewilded and brought into public ownership as Knaresborough Forest Park.
One of the most significant saints of the C12th was St Robert, the Hermit of Knaresborough. The cave where he lived and the ruins of the tiny chapel where he was initially buried in 1218 are on the banks of the River Nidd. As a hermit, his life defined ‘Living Simply’ and he spent his days caring for those who were outcast or disadvantaged. Upon receiving 40 acres of Forest as a gift from King John, St Robert – a direct contemporary with St Francis of Assisi – showed his care for creation by taming the wild deer, even putting them to the plough so he could cultivate the land to feed the poor.
Walking back along Abbey Road, the pilgrims’ last destination was the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, where pilgrims were greeted by Anna Dimond, a parishioner, school lay chaplain and one of the Trustees of the early C15th wayside shrine. We heard how the tiny chapel was excavated and carved out of the cliff face by John the Mason, in thanksgiving to the Blessed Virgin for saving his young son from a rockfall in the quarry above the crag.
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