St Werburgh's Roman Catholic Parish, Chester
The Pilgrimage of the Relics of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes
Saint Bernadette Relic Tour 2022
As you know, the relic of Saint Bernadette is visiting England and Wales starting next month.
Canon Chris Matthews, Episcopal Vicar for Worship and Dean of our Cathedral has overall responsibility for organising the visit to our Diocese.
He has written to all Parishes about the programme at both our Cathedral and here at St Werburgh’s and I thought I would share the programme with you as it is now emerging.
Fr Paul Shaw
St Werburgh’s Church, Chester
Canon Matthews writes:
Dear Fathers, Deacons, Sisters and Parish Secretaries,
The relic will be in our Diocese on Tuesday 13th to Wednesday 14th September and the programme for the visit is as follows:
Tuesday 13th September - Shrewsbury Cathedral
- 10.30 am to 2.30 pm - Programme for schools organised by SYMT
- 1.00 pm - Relic arrives at the Cathedral
- 2.30 pm to 7.00 pm - Public veneration of the relic
- 7.00 pm - Mass
- 8.00 pm – 10.00 pm - Public veneration of the relic*
*It is hoped to have an event for young adults in the evening running alongside the public veneration.
Wednesday 14th September - Shrewsbury Cathedral
- 7.00 am to 9.00 am - Public veneration of the relic
At 9.00 am the relic will leave Shrewsbury Cathedral to travel to St Werburgh's, Chester
Wednesday 14th September - St Werburgh's, Chester
- 9.30 am to 12 noon - Programme for schools organised by SYMT
- 10.00 am - Relic arrives at St Werburgh's
- 12.15 pm - Mass
- 1.00 pm to 4.00 pm - Public veneration of the relic
Although not essential, we are strongly encouraging all those who want to venerate the relic to book a time via the national website http://www.stbernadette.org.uk This is to reduce the amount of time people may have to queue outside. We would also encourage parishes or LMA's to join together in organising transport and booking group slots for the veneration.
During the public veneration Confessions will be available, as will times of prayer.
The Masses at The Cathedral and St Werburgh's are open to all but will be on a first come basis until the capacity of the church has been reached, when we will then have to stop admission. Both Masses will hopefully be live streamed and more details of this will follow.
I am delighted we are able to offer a programme for our young people in our schools and we are grateful to Sandy Fairley and the SYMT for making this possible; we have had a phenomenal response so far from our schools.
Resources to help us to prepare for the visit are being produced and will hopefully be sent to parishes in time for the beginning of September; these will also be made available on the Diocesan website. Resources for schools are also being produced.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact the Cathedral Office: Tel 01743 290000 or email admin@shrewsburycathedral.co.uk
With every good wish,
Canon Christopher Matthews
Very Reverend Christopher Canon Matthews ChLJ BA (Hons) MA
Episcopal Vicar for Worship
Cathedral Dean
I am pleased to be able to forward the national publicity materials provided for the pilgrimage of Saint Bernadette’s relics which will come to our Diocese on 13th and 14th September this year. The relics will be with us at the Cathedral from 1.00 pm on Tuesday 13th September until 9.00 am on Wednesday 14th September, when the relics will travel to Saint Werburgh’s, Chester until 4.00 pm that same afternoon.
A private visit of Saint Bernadette’s relics to Carmel in Birkenhead will follow, however on this occasion, it will not be possible for anyone outside of Carmel to visit the relics.
A booking system is being developed and this will be available shortly along with other information about the pilgrimage on the national website https://stbernadette.org.uk/ It is expected to go live at the end of July.
Our own diocesan website will also have more specific information about the timings of the visit to our diocese and will be available shortly. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Canon Christopher at the Cathedral admin@shrewsburycathrdral.co.uk
Please use the links below to access the documents (they open in a new window)