Patroness of the Society

The Patroness of the Anglican Use Society is Our Lady of Glastonbury, the oldest known shrine to the Blessed Virgin in England.  According to legend, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to St. Joseph of Aramathaea and bade him build a church in Glastonbury in honor of our Lady’s Assumption:

So Joseph dyd as the angell hym bad,
And wrought there an ymage of our lady;
For to serve hyr great devotion he had;
And that same ymage is yet at Glastonbury,
In the same church; there ye may it se.
For it was the fyrst, as I understande,
That ever was sene in this countre;
For Joseph it made wyth his owne hande.

From the Life of Joseph of Arimathaea
printed by Richard Pyerson or Pynson,
the pupil of Caxton, in 1520