July 15th
is the feast day attributed to St. Swithin, the bishop of Winchester from 852
to 862. Swithin is most known for
legendary miracles attributed to him—one even posthumously. Swithin was an extremely devout and holy man,
humble in his demeanor and a model for Christ’s teachings. His renown as a holy man reached the
attention of the Anglo-Saxon King, Egbert, who appointed him as tutor to his
son Aethelwulf, the future father of King Alfred the Great.
St. Swithin
lived during the very tumultuous times of the established Danelaw in England. For the previous several hundred years,
Viking invaders from Scandinavia, particularly Denmark, had infiltrated the
British Isles, slowly usurping the rule of the Anglo-Saxons (even earlier
invaders). It wasn’t until Alfred the
Great united the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms under one realm that the Danelaw
was finally able to be controlled.
Swithin himself lived through the reigns of Egbert, Aethulwulf, and
three of his four sons. Each reign was
marked with bloody battles and skirmishes and political upheaval. Yet Swithin remained untouched by all
this. His life was led in building the
authority of the church. As bishop, he
would hold banquet feasts for the poor.
He walked everywhere he went, eschewing the perceived luxury of a horse provided
by his office. He was responsible for
convincing Aethelwulf to contributed ten percent of all his property to the
church. Throughout his reign, Aethelwulf
considered Bishop Swithin to be his only spiritual guide.
Perhaps St.
Swithin is most famous for the legends of miracles attributed to him. There is one sweet story about his journey
over a stone bridge on his way out of town when he came across a very rude
fellow hassling a woman with an apron full of eggs to sell at market. This malicious fellow broke every one of her
eggs, soiling her apron and dress in the process. Swithin bade her let him see
her eggs, and she showed him the shattered, gooey mess. He raised his hand and blessed the eggs and
before her eyes and those of the rude and malicious fellow, the eggs were made
whole again. The real miracle is that
the rude man did not simply break them all again!
Another
miracle attributed to St. Swithin, this one posthumously, is the miracle of
Queen Emma (c. 985-1052). Emma was the
wife of first King Aethelred the Unready, then as the wife of King Canute. When Canute died, her son Edward the
Confessor—of Aethelred’s issue—worried about her loyalty because she had favored
Canute’s son to assume the throne.
Edward’s Archbishop implicated Emma in a scandal wherein she was
intimately involved with another bishop.
(He was poorly informed and made foolish by this claim, for the bishop
in question had been dead for three years!)
Emma was outraged and indignant more on behalf of the bishop in question
than her own reputation. She vowed to
submit to an ordeal of burning iron on his behalf. The Archbishop convinced the King to subject
her to not only the proof of her own innocence, but that of the bishop as
well. Emma prayed to St. Swithin to intercede
for her, and he answered her prayers saying she would walk safely over the
molten iron with no pain or burns. When
she did, Edward was said to have fallen at her feet, begging her
forgiveness. Queen Emma went on to rule
as regent and the accusing Archbishop was banished and his property
confiscated.
When Bishop Swithin died c. 862, he
asked to be buried humbly in a place where rain would fall and feet would trod upon
his grave. This gave rise to the British
weather proverb that says:
St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mare.
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