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Throughout the centuries the Shrine has been a focus of devotion. Nobles gave gifts of land and were buried in the Priory
Church as close as possible to the High Altar of Our Lady.
There was a Guild of Our Lady which had three Guild Houses in the town, and maintained a priest to say the daily Lady
Mass.
The people provided "Lady Lands" to pay for lights to burn before the image of Our Lady
The most famous pilgrim to visit the Shrine was St Malachy of Armagh. St Bernard of Clairvaulx records that on one
of his visits to Guisborough he cured a girl of cancer.
The clearest reference to the Shrine as a place of pilgrimage is found in the will of William Ecopp, Rector
of Heslerton, dated 6 September, 1472. He asks that pilgrims be sent on his behalf to the following shrines of Our Lady, Walsingham,
Lincoln, Doncaster, Scarborough, Guisborough, Jesmond and Carlisle; and that an offering be made at each.
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