Pilgrimage will follow in the footsteps of St Felix

Now the modern-day Bishop of Norwich is set to follow in the footsteps of St Felix, who set out to bring Christianity to the region almost 1,400 years ago.

Felix set sail from Burgundy to bring the religion to the Kingdom of the Angles in around 630AD but his ship got into trouble in the estuary of the Babingley River, near King's Lynn.

Part of the village sign at Babingley (Image: Ian Burt)

The River Babingley, where Felix's ship foundered (Image: Mark Capron)

The legend of the beaver which swam to save him is recorded to this day on the village sign at Babingley, close to the remains of the first church he founded.

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

Modern-day pilgrims will walk between Castle Rising and Sandringham and then on to Shernborne, where the saint founded his second Norfolk church.

The ruins of the first church founded by Felix, at Babingley (Image: Ian Burt)

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 Babingley 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.

Revd Mark Capron pictured after a recent abseil at his church in Dersingham (Image: Chris Bishop)

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 Revd Capron.

“It is thought he founded the first Christian church on a site that is now occupied by the ruined Norman church dedicated to him.

A painting of St Felix in Ingoldisthorpe Church (Image: Mark Capron)

“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 walk on Thursday, June 20, beginning at 10am at Castle Rising church and arriving at Sandringham war memorial around 11.30am.

Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher (Image: Diocese of Norwich)

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, where 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 church at Shernbourne which was founded by Felix (Image: Mark Capron)

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.)