The National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, located adjacent to the campus of the College of William & Mary, is a part of the parish.

The first known Catholics in the Virginia Peninsula were two Dominican friars, accompanied by 37 Spanish and Portuguese troops and guided by a converted Algonquian, in August 1566.

Forty years earlier, the short-lived 1526 San Miguel de Gualdape colony with its Catholic faithful had been established nearby, but its precise location is not known.

Despite this, archeological evidence uncovered in 2013 shows personal devotion to Catholicism persisted in the Peninsula's English settlements.

[7] In September 1923, Mexican immigrant and professor Carlos Eduardo Castañeda arrived at the College of William and Mary to teach Spanish.

[8]: 38  In 1929, $25,000 was given by Margaret Burns to the Diocese of Richmond for "mission churches in Virginia," with the money going towards two lots purchased with the support of College President J.

[8]: 38  Neighboring the lots to the east was the Bright House and its resident fraternity Kappa Alpha Order, who occupied the structure until 1943.

While the title of Saint Bede Catholic Church passed to this new structure, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham remained a part of and is managed by the parish.

[12] The ordination of Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia Bishop Susan Haynes was originally scheduled to take place on 1 February 2020 in Saint Bede.

[13] Petitions seeking for Catholic Bishop Barry Knestout to rescind the invitation towards the Episcopalians resulted in international coverage of the controversy.

[23] They are based on paintings by Venezuelan-Italian realist Ramiro Sanchez, whose work has previously been displayed at the nearby Muscarelle Museum of Art.

Walsh commissioned a statue depicting the Marian apparition done in the same style of that present at the Slipper Chapel, itself based on that from the Walsingham Priory.

left her teaching position at Walsingham Academy to serve in a social ministry role at Saint Bede parish.

[12] For the 24 September Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, congregants of both Saint Bede and Episcopal Bruton Parish–along with their respective student ministries–participate in an rosary procession carrying the Marian statue from Colonial Williamsburg to the Shrine.

Alongside their Episcopalian equivalent, Canterbury, the CSA signed a covenant–committing both organizations to ecumenical actions–in the Wren Chapel on 24 January 1977.