Three hymns that once were lost have now been found at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, England. The forgotten texts to the hymns were discovered in the last surviving copy of the Walsingham Breviary. The last time they would have been performed in Church was prior to the Dissolution of Monasteries, in the 16th century.
According to the Tablet, the discovery was made by a former parish priest of Walsingham, Fr. Michael Rear, while he was working on a second edition of his book, Walsingham: Pilgrims and Pilgrimage, which celebrates Walsingham’s 950th anniversary.
The hymns
The hymns are altogether unique and the texts do not appear in the breviaries of other Augustinian religious houses. As the pieces are isolated in the Walsingham Breviary, they are believed to have been written by a hymnist who lived at Walsingham. These hymns were most likely never sung outside the 11th-century shrine.
It is not known exactly how old the hymns are, but they refer to Our Lady of Sorrows by the much older moniker, Our Lady of Pity. The lyrics are written from Mary’s perspective and address the sorrow she felt upon witnessing the Crucifixion. Fr. Rear told the Tablet that the monks, who were living through the Dissolution of Monasteries, may have found the hymns especially poignant:
Revival
Walsingham reported on its website that the congregation revived the hymns on September 15, 2021. There, on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the hymns were heard for the first time in centuries. With only the text to work on, the hymns were set to melodies used for other hymns, as is tradition. Walsingham listed the melodies they used:
Fr. Rear said that he hopes the hymns can become “as widely known as they are beautiful,” as they reenter the Catholic songbook. He has made sure they won’t be forgotten again by publishing them in the appendix of his book’s new edition.
The shrine has not indicated that it has any plans to record them. Walsingham, however, has been the topic several albums worth of hymns in the past. The discovery of three 16th-century hymns could well be the impetus for another recorded collection in the future.
