Saint
The Weeping Madonna
Monks found a statue that cried, and pilgrims came.
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- What's there
- 14th-century pilgrim chapel with wall paintings, priory earthworks
- Legend from
- Medieval, 1340s
- Tone
- Curious
In the middle of Milton Keynes stands a tiny medieval chapel, built for a statue of Mary that monks said could cry.
Bradwell Priory, founded around 1154, was in decline by the fourteenth century. Then, in the 1340s, one of the monks is said to have found a statue of the Virgin Mary just outside the priory walls, and it was said to weep. Rumoured to heal, it drew pilgrims from across the country, and the monks built a chapel of St Mary to house it. The chapel's walls were painted with religious scenes, including a row of kneeling pilgrims holding offerings, one with a crutch, perhaps in thanks for a cure. The statue vanished at the Reformation, but the chapel and its paintings survive amid Milton Keynes.