On the morning of the third annual diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage for Vocations ‘In Fr Brown’s Footsteps’, the weather forecast was for ‘all four seasons in a single day’. How accurate that usually inexact science of meteorology proved to be!
The pilgrimage is walked in March, the month when back in 1904, GK Chesterton first met Fr John O’Connor, Diocese of Leeds priest and Curate of St Anne’s in Keighley, who walked with him on the Roman Road over Ilkley Moor to the house of their mutual friend, Francis Steinthal. That walk on the Roman Road set Chesterton on the path to Rome, and Fr O’Connor received Chesterton into the Catholic Church some years later – but not before he had been ‘immortalised’ as the real-life inspiration for GK’s most famous creation, Father Brown. Both the actual and the fictional priest were scholarly and possessed a shrewd understanding of our natural human propensity to sin, as well as a truly holy person’s humour, warmth, forgiveness and generosity of spirit towards all humanity – an ‘ideal’ priest, worthy of having our annual diocesan pilgrimage for vocations named after him!
This year, a diverse group of 21 people had initially signed up to walk from parishes across Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Haworth, Huddersfield, Ilkley and Burley-in-Wharfedale: several ‘regulars’ as well as some new people who were experienced walkers, and also a couple of men discerning a vocation to the priesthood. However, in the days and hours before the walk, a combination of colds and ‘flu, old rugby injuries and a flat car tyre sadly meant that some had to drop out – and in the end it was 15 of us who walked all or part of the pilgrimage, with prayers for those who this time were unable to make it!
After welcoming pilgrims at the start of Mass at St Anne’s Church, Mgr David Smith was also missing from the usual group photograph – but also for very legitimate, even hopeful, reasons. So many people were standing in line for him to hear their confessions, that we were delighted to leave him to his sacramental shriving …
Before setting off walking, we prayed the Bishop’s Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood:
Our Lady of Unfailing Help! Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send labourers into His harvest and that He will grant an abundance of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life within the Dioceses of Leeds, Hallam and Middlesbrough – and throughout the world. Amen.
The walk through Keighley and along Bradford Road is less than picturesque – but this ends at the gates of East Riddlesden Hall, where pilgrims turn uphill and cross the canal. Of all the steep roads heading towards Ilkley Moor, the steepest of all is the cobbled Unity Street …
With the ‘North Face’ of Unity Street scaled, the streets give way to open countryside on the route up to Ilkley Moor …
… and in this Year of St Francis of Assisi ‘Brother Sun’ even smiled upon us from time to time …!
Although levels of fitness and experience on our pilgrimage walks may vary slightly, everyone encourages and waits for one another, and at 12 Noon, we pray the Angelus wherever we happen to be. This year, we were at the roadside in relative shelter, instead of at Cowpers Cross at the summit of Ilkley Moor, where the sunshine disappeared, the temperature dropped, and freezing hail began to sweep horizontally across the moorland: a truly penitential Lenten experience!
The squall blew over mercifully quickly, and by the time pilgrims began the steep descent into Ilkley, the sun shone on us once more!
The destination for Chesterton and Fr O’Connor had been St Johns: a beautiful Arts and Crafts mansion owned by the Chesterton’s close friends, who were members of Bradford’s German Jewish community. The house, like the nearby St Margaret’s Anglican church, was designed by the famous architect Richard Norman Shaw and still exists, although it has been flats since the 1950s.
In his 1937 memoir Fr Brown on Chesterton, Fr John O’Connor remembered that day in March 1904, when Frances Chesterton met him and her husband at the Steinthal’s house with a hot meal of shepherds pie. The shepherds pie detail is interesting (as are all pies, of course!) particularly because it actually gives us an insight into the possible date of that first meeting. At that time, as a Catholic priest, Fr O’Connor would have fasted from meat throughout Lent – except on Sundays which are always feast days. The March 1904 Sundays were 6, 13, 20 and 27 – but it is unlikely that the walk would have taken place on Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday), so that narrows it down considerably. Perhaps this happy meeting may have taken place on Laetare Sunday?
However, journey’s end was not yet quite in sight for the 21st century pilgrims – and although there was no prospect of shepherd’s pie, packed lunches and a meeting with those joining at Sacred Heart Church in Ilkley was next on the agenda. Although Fr Tim Swinglehurst was away, our parishioner friends Cecilia, Helen and Sarah at Sacred Heart welcomed us with tea, coffee and biscuits, with Sarah looking forward to being welcomed into the Catholic Church herself at the Easter Vigil.
In a day so full of both light and shade, though, not all our Sacred Heart hospitality pilgrims were there to greet us; very sadly, Mark Joyce who had, despite his motor neurone disease, supported some of our wearier pilgrims with lifts in his car up to Myddelton Calvary last year, had died just a few months before. May his dear soul rest in peace.
Joined by two more pilgrims, we gathered outside Sacred Heart on the last stage of this Lenten pilgrimage of faith and hope and contemplated the final mile uphill to Myddelton Grange.
Our destination was the Calvary and Stations of the Cross in the atmospheric woodland clearing at Myddelton Grange. Each pilgrim led one of the Stations of the Cross, as once again we prayed that God will ‘send more labourers into His harvest’.
Although more freezing hail threatened, only a few drops fell as we finished praying Stations of the Cross at three o’clock, with plenty of time to reach Ilkley Railway Station, as Father Brown’s Footsteps, in common with all our diocesan walking pilgrimages, encourages sustainable travel and is easily accessed by public transport.
The pilgrimage ended with the Prayer of St Jean-Marie Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests:
God, please give to your Church today many more priests after your own heart. May they be worthy representatives of Christ the Good Shepherd. May they wholeheartedly devote themselves to prayer and penance; be examples of humility and poverty; shining models of holiness; tireless and powerful preachers of the Word of God; zealous dispensers of your grace in the sacraments. May their loving devotion to your Son Jesus in the Eucharist and to Mary his Mother be the twin fountains of fruitfulness for their ministry. Amen.
Our next Annual Diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage Walk for Vocations will be on Saturday 20 March 2027. To get an idea of the route, learn a little more about the Diocese of Leeds priest who was the ‘real’ Fr Brown, and for Vocations Promotion Team contact details if you’re a man contemplating whether you may have a vocation to the Sacred Priesthood, here’s the Information Booklet issued to pilgrims this year:
St Joseph: pray for us!
St John Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests: pray for us!
St Charles Borromeo, Patron Saint of Seminarians & Bishops: pray for us!
