St Swithun’s day falls on the 15th July although we don’t seem to celebrate his feast day much anymore, and nobody’s called Swithun these days unlike Peter, Theresa, Catherine, Lawrence and Michael – other popular saints names. But he was once one of the most popular and prominent saints in the Christian Year, known throughout Christendom. He lived, died and was buried in Winchester, Hampshire, of which he is also patron saint. These days you might know him for: the weather-based legend that surrounds his feast day (see below); the fact that 15th July has been translated into Hampshire Day; the bestselling novel that highlights his feast day One Day; and for me it still seems to be the pivot of the year – weather wise and other wise, coming as it does near the beginning of the summer holidays and as the garden transitions into high summer.
But who was the real Swithun? Very much a Wessex man, he was Bishop of Winchester in the mid-800s, during the time of King Alfred’s father and brothers. He would have been central to the politics and religion of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, on its ascendancy to top nation in England. It is said he could also have been tutor to King Alfred himself. We know about his life from the biography in poem form by Wulfstan and he tells us about his deeds. He built the bridge across the River Itchen by the City Mill and for that reason is often portrayed holding a bridge (see him in the Great Screen at Winchester Cathedral and in the window in St. Swithun-on-Kingsgate Church in the city) and he is also said to have performed miracles around there. His most famous was the mending of some broken eggs on the bridge for a woman who had dropped them on the way to market – one of the most quirky miracles I’ve heard of, but it’s certainly memorable. Note the name of the pub next to the bridge ‘Bishop on the Bridge’. This is a reference to Swithun’s miracle. He also saved some boys from drowning in the river.
Corhampton Church wall paintings depict the egg miracle
But on his death, 862 CE his reputation was not overwhelming. He asked to be buried outside the great Winchester church, Old Minster, where the eaves could drop rainwater on his grave, and the request was obeyed. Here he stayed until around 971 when another Bishop, Aethelwold, also a charismatic and talented man, decided he needed a little boost, a little highlighting of his qualities as a saint. He dramatically extended the Old Minster, built a large shrine and set about translating Swithun’s body there.
It is said the Saint was displeased and on the day of his translation, his feast day 15th July 971, a huge storm blew up and did not subside for forty days and forty nights. Since that time it is said that ‘St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain St. Swithin's day if thou be fair For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.’ So you need to watch the weather on the 15th July to predict the summer holiday weather…This year was the best for a while, warm, sunny with a gentle breeze, and we continue with a heatwave, but it’s too early to say if the saint has had his way yet!
The afterlife of St. Swithun
After the great storm, he did what Aethelwold hoped he would do and became a great draw for pilgrims at the Old Minster, who came from far and wide. His popularity gained tenfold and cures were sought from pilgrims, the symbols of their disability and illness, crutches, scattered near his shrine when no longer needed. Part of the saint was held at the high altar and part in the west works of the cathedral, nearer the entrance. When the new Norman Cathedral, the one you see today, was consecrated in 1093, he was translated again to a prominent position near the High Altar, on what is called the feretory screen. At the back of the feretory screen was a hole, now called the holy hole, the entrance of which is blackened with centuries of pilgrim’s travel-grimed fingers, and which led to a position close to the bones, the most holy position for a pilgrim and the best place to ask for intercession with God for their particular need.
There was a well-known Pilgrims Path, known as the Pilgrims Way, which led to Winchester for a visit to the pre-eminent saint of the day Swithun, then onwards to Canterbury for the new upstart saint Thomas a Becket.
The West Front of Winchester Cathedral, showing a statue of St. Swithun at the top.
In the early 1200s there were so many pilgrims a new spacious East End was constructed to allow their circulation around the saint. In the 1400s a new shrine, richly covered in gold, silver and gems was built to the East of the feretory screen. By now the feretory screen had been obscured by the Great Screen, a huge, ornamented and carved stone screen behind the High Altar, highlighting Christ’s Crucifixion. Practice in the church had moved away from saint’s relics and towards the taking part in Mass, Christ’s suffering and the drinking of his blood. Of course, the never-going-back moment for Swithun was the Reformation, when doctrine changed to disallow saints’ help with God. The more popular the saint the more important it was to release his hold over the people. His shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII’s men, at 3 a.m. on the 21st September 1538. There’s a fantastic scene in Hilary Mantel’s novel The Mirror and the Light where the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury is destroyed by Thomas Cromwell and his men. One can imagine a similar scene in one of the most symbolically important cities in England, a site of intense devotion and pilgrimage and one of the richest Bishoprics in the country.
Mind you, what they found in that shrine may have been very little - Bishop Alphege decided to bring Swithun’s head to Canterbury when he was promoted in 1006, but it was later given to Evreux in Normandy. An arm was given to Peterborough and a second arm was taken to a church in Norway, Stavanger in the 1100s by a Reinhald. The gems and precious metals went to the Crown.
In 1962 (1100 years after his death) a memorial was made and stands in the place where the Shrine once stood in the East end of Winchester Cathedral. Its features can tell you about the saint. They include the rhyme about the weather and depictions of raindrops and sunshine on either side; apple trees, said to yield a good harvest with late summer rain and broken eggs for his miracle. The gold icons nearby reflecting candle light give a nice reminder of the richness of the original shrine.
This is the Feretory Screen, showing the holy hole and the modern Russian icons
His original resting place outside the Old Minster is marked with a ledger stone lying between the present cathedral and the bricks marking the Old Minster. Behind it in the North transept you can see a filled in door – the door that pilgrims entered to see the saint. St. Swithun's Day is celebrated each year at the cathedral with special services and events including the Liturgy of the Foundation.
For me, I just love to have an annual connection to the Anglo-Saxon and medieval people of Winchester and indeed England. It is said the weather does often change in mid-July, so was Swithun following the weather systems of Northern Europe or were they following Swithun’s whims? Either way there is a change of feeling around mid-July, the harvest is beginning to be thought about, the lushness of mid-summer is just turning to the tiniest hint of brown, gold and red and the year turns, around Swithun’s Day.
Literary references to Swithun
One Day by David Nicholls. The unusual love story is told through meetings on each St. Swithun’s day in different years.
The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel, evokes the time around the destruction of Swithun’s tomb so well.
Places to visit
St. Swithun’s-upon-Kingsgate Church inside a medieval city gate, just outside Inner Close
St Swithun’s churches are also at Headbourne Worthy (which is Saxon), Martyr Worthy, Corhampton (amazingly Saxon with wall paintings of St. Swithun’s egg miracle) along with many others around the country.
City Bridge
And of course Winchester Cathedral, including the crypt where there is a giant sculpture of St. Swithun, the memorial and the site of Old Minster next to it.
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