The Maidens of Walsingham

1834, England.

From the old, stone church came a disorderly chorus of voices singing an Anglican hymn of praise to the accompaniment of a bad-sounding old organ. It was vespers. The village of Walsingham never missed a divine mass.

The village, forgotten by God and decaying for hundreds of years, had long ago become a "rotten place," as it was called in the Parliament of England. The inhabitants of this "rotten place" were one hundred and fifty-one people, mostly women and children. Here lived the most ordinary peasants, differing from the rest of the English peasantry in one feature only: they were hideously poor, but in this poverty they cherished their lives, families, and souls as the apple of their eye. Poverty did not embarrass them, for their Anglican faith and veneration of the Virgin Mary of Walsingham gave them strength and meaning to their lives even in the midst of this terrible, repulsive poverty. The landlord of the part of the county of Norfolk in which Walsingham was situated seemed to have forgotten, or perhaps simply did not know, that this isolated society of deeply religious and pure-hearted peasants was nestled on his land.

– Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray to our Father.

The parishioners offered their prayers diligently and sincerely to God, then the pastor blessed the people, they got up from the cracked, black wooden pews and went home.

It had been like this for centuries: as soon as the service was over, the peasants hurried to their stone houses to milk the horned cattle, feed the poultry, and tidy up their miserable dwellings, and only after these labours to feed themselves and their children. Before going to bed, the head of each family read the Holy Scriptures in syllables, and when the small light of the tallow candle died out, the families prayed and went to bed on old straw-stuffed bunks on the dirt floor to ward off the voracious bedbugs all night long.

But tonight was no usual evening: in the morning a rumour had spread among the people of Walsingham that they had a new landlord, but no one knew who he was, but they were happy to share their speculations with their neighbours and savour the news like a treat. People passed on to each other their own expectations of how the new lord would tidy up the village and the church, which was the centre of this little universe, for he, the new lord, would undoubtedly be an honest fellow and deeply interested in the fate of his peasants. The new aspirations and hope for change became food for the peasants' minds, who had almost forgotten to dream, even though the venerable Pastor Glowford urged them not to dream too soon: for if the Lord is to do good through the new landlord, it will happen, and if not, it is His will. At vespers it was announced to the peasants that the new landlord himself would be arriving for Sunday service tomorrow morning, so many were unable to sleep that night, wondering about the future.

Despite his own sober exhortations, Pastor Glowford himself was full of hope: he knew that the new landlord would bring either much happiness or much grief to the village, so he and his family prayed to God that by the landlord's hand He would bring the peasants of this poor, almost barren land relief from their hard labour.

Pastor Glowford enjoyed great authority and respect in the village: he was a minister of God, a deeply religious man, a spiritual counsellor of the peasants, always ready to help his parishioners in all their troubles. After graduating from the Theological Seminary, a young educated man with great ambitions was sent to this wilderness, but Pastor Glowford quickly accepted his fate, became even more zealous in his faith, married a local, poor, uneducated, but kind and beautiful girl Emma Jones, and gave birth to three daughters with her, like the sun illuminating his approaching old age. Now, however, his loving wife of seventeen years had slept her eternal sleep under the shade of a mighty oak tree in the public village cemetery. The pastor helped the poor (though the rich and even the well-to-do did not exist here), sometimes healed them, and also taught basic grammar classes to his parishioners so that they could read the Scriptures and the New Testament. The pastor was loved for these qualities and kindness: the parishioners expressed their love and respect for him by giving his family foodstuffs, as they had no livestock of their own, nor did they have any other animals. The Glowford family grew cereals on a small plot of land, but not enough to feed four adults. The sale of coarse homespun cloth, which the Glowford girls did, brought little or nothing, and the parson himself was as poor as his parishioners.

The Glowford girls were no less loved than their father. Catherine, the eldest of them, was twenty-six years old, the cleverest of the sisters, and after the death of her mother, from the age of nine, had been responsible for the house, becoming a full mistress of it, so that even her father dared not cross her. Catherine was loved for her calm, judicious character, her sober mind, and her ability to help in reading and interpreting the Scriptures (although the pastor was not happy with this liberty). Despite her young age, the girl deliberately did not marry, although many village men offered her marriage, but Catherine had a good reason – she could not "leave" her father and sisters, especially the younger Cassie. Catherine was like her father – sensible, as deeply religious, kind, hardworking, patient, and even in appearance could not be doubted in her origin: quite tall, thin, with a beautiful face, on which stood out chiselled cheekbones and large brown eyes. Her wavy, dark hair was never loose, but carefully hid it under a bonnet. Catherine was not only a hostess, but also a glorious daughter and sister: after the death of her mother, she raised her sisters, and family was everything to her, after faith, of course.

The pastor's middle daughter Christine differed from her older sister in everything: she was a little lazy, did not like physical labour and was often reluctant to do what Catherine demanded of her. Christine especially did not like to take care of their younger sister Cassie, who she considered a burden and undeservedly absorbed the amazing beauty. Christine pushed Cassie away from her and, despite the fact that deep in her heart loved her, could not forgive her for "killing" her mother. The girl was rather selfish and narcissistic, but very beautiful, and this fact was known to her: slim figure, dark brown eyes framed by long thick lashes, wavy dark hair. Like her older sister, Christine took after her father, but unlike Catherine, who did not pay much attention to her good looks, Christine knew how to emphasise her beauty even in the desperate poverty of Walsingham, which she hated. In her twenty-three years, like Catherine, she was unmarried but for selfish reasons. But, even knowing her capricious nature, the Walsingham people loved Christine: she was too beautiful.

The village was especially fond of the youngest Glowford girl, Cassandra, who everyone affectionately called Cassie, a lovely seventeen-year-old girl with unruly, curly, golden hair, like her mother's, and almost dark blue eyes. She was a ray of light in the grey life of the village: playful, cheerful, awkward and kind, Cassie was embarrassed by strangers, and this gave her a special charm. She loved Catherine dearly, but was afraid of Christine. Cassandra's favourite pastimes were playing with her doll, gazing at the flowers and the bugs on them, and in summer running around the neighbourhood in the company of the local children.

The Glowford sisters attended all the services their father conducted, but each of the girls felt differently about church: Katharine listened reverently to her father's voice, followed the Scriptures when he referred to them, and sang hymns with enthusiasm; Christine, on the other hand, felt that she was wasting her time and thought about anything but God during the services, while Cassandra often slept sitting in the pew with her head covered with a white bonnet on Katharine's shoulder, and when she woke up she always laughed at the obscure words and funny, in her opinion, phrases of Scripture.

Life in Walsingham was as quiet as a nearly dried-up brook: the people lived immersed in their own little world, in their own community, but the appearance of a new face in it, the Landlord, stirred them, and they looked forward to the Sunday mass of tomorrow.

– And why is everyone so eagerly awaiting this lord's arrival? – Catherine asked her father as the Glowfords went to bed.

The Glowfords' cottage was old and small, but the sisters and their father lived in separate rooms: with Cassie's birth, the parson had divided the large room into two, leaving the daughters the larger one, while he contented himself with a corner that contained his sleeping mat, a chest of belongings, and a large wooden crucifix on the wall. The rooms were connected by a roughly carved doorway, and the family could communicate from room to room.

– Because their hearts are filled with hope," the pastor replied briefly to the daughter's question, interrupting her prayer for an answer.

– But why is he coming now, in the spring, when we have already gone through a terrible winter? – Catherine asked, not satisfied with her father's answer.

– Because God sends him when he is most needed," the pastor replied with a sigh.

– Will you ask him for the church? – Catherine asked again.

– Can't you be quiet? I'm trying to sleep! – Christine, curled up on her mattress under a rough woollen blanket, dreaming of tomorrow.