Patronal Festival Report - St Mary the Virgin, Battle

St Mary the Virgin, Battle
Patron Saint: St Mary
Patron: HM The King
Festival Date: 31 May 2026

The church and town of Battle were delighted to celebrate the church’s first patronal festival for many years, marking The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth after the Angel Gabriel announced her forthcoming motherhood. During this visit, Mary proclaims her famous hymn of praise, the Magnificat (‘My soul magnifies the Lord’), now a core element of any evensong service. With the Dean of Battle currently on sabbatical, Reader Alison Hassell led the service, noting during the address how the church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, had originally been built outside the grounds of Battle Abbey and specifically for the people and town community in 1115. With that in mind and having advertised it well beyond our own church family, it was wonderful to see people from across the local community and from the various churches nearby at this evensong with over 50 people attending, at least twice the normal attendance at this evening service. The choir, almost 20 in number and led by musical director and organist Vincent Wade, started this joyful service with the appropriate Locus Iste by Bruckner. The canticles were to Stanford’s setting in C, and the anthem a variation on Getty’s There is a Higher Throne. A peal of bells proceeded the service, and the church looked wonderful with special floral arrangements, courtesy of the Flower Guild. After the service, parishioners and visitors gathered in the Benedicta Whistler Centre for light snacks, cheese, home-made elderflower cordial and fellowship on a beautifully warm early summer evening. Having got started with the 2026 patronal festival through evensong, there are now grander plans afoot to expand on these encouraging beginnings to involve the community even more in coming years. We are hugely grateful for the financial support for this patronal evensong, made possible by the generosity of HM the King, our church’s patron, through the Choral Evensong Trust.