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Saint Winifred (or Winefride; cy, Gwenffrewi; la, Wenefreda, Winifreda) was a
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
virgin martyr The title Virgin (Latin ''Virgo'', Greek ) is an honorific bestowed on female saints and blesseds in some Christian traditions, including the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Chastity is one of the seven virtues in Christian tr ...
of the 7th century. Her story was celebrated as early as the 8th century, but became popular in England in the 12th, when her
hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
was first written down. A healing
spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
at the traditional site of her decapitation and restoration is now a shrine and pilgrimage site called
St Winefride's Well St Winefride's Well ( cy, Ffynnon Wenffrewi) is a well located in the town of Holywell, Flintshire, in Wales. It claims to be the oldest continually visited pilgrimage site in Great Britain and is a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient ...
in
Holywell Holywell may refer to: * Holywell, Flintshire, Wales * Holywell, Swords, Ireland * Holywell, Bedfordshire, England * Holywell, Cambridgeshire, England * Holywell, Cornwall, England * Holywell, Dorset, England * Holywell, Eastbourne, East Susse ...
,
Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...
,
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and known as "the
Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château ...
of Wales".


Life and legend

The oldest accounts of Winifred's life date to the 12th century. According to legend, Winifred was the daughter of a chieftain of
Tegeingl Tegeingl, in English Englefield, was a cantref in north-east Wales during the mediaeval period. It was incorporated into Flintshire following Edward I of England's conquest of northern Wales in the 13th century. Etymology The region's name was ...
,"St. Winifred", The Cistercian Way
Welsh nobleman Tyfid ap Eiludd. Her mother was Wenlo, a sister of
Saint Beuno Saint Beuno ( la, Bonus;Baring-Gould & Fisher, "Lives of the British Saints" (1907), quoted a Early British Kingdoms website by David Nash Ford, accessed 6 February 2012  640), sometimes anglicized as Bono, was a 7th-century Welsh abbot, ...
, and a member of a family closely connected with the kings of south Wales. According to legend, her suitor, Caradog, was enraged when she decided to become a nun and
decapitated Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the au ...
her. A healing spring appeared where her head fell. Winifred's head was subsequently rejoined to her body due to the efforts of Beuno, and she was restored to life. Seeing the murderer leaning on his sword with an insolent and defiant air, Beuno invoked the chastisement of heaven, and Caradog fell dead on the spot, the popular belief being that the ground opened and swallowed him. Beuno left Holywell, and returned to
Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...
; before he left, the tradition is that he seated himself upon a stone, which now stands in the outer well pool, and there promised in the name of God "that whosoever on that spot should thrice ask for a benefit from God in the name of St. Winefride would obtain the grace he asked if it was for the good of his soul." After eight years spent at Holywell, Winifred received an inspiration to leave the convent and retire inland. Accordingly, Winifred went upon her pilgrimage to seek for a place of rest. Ultimately she arrived at Gwytherin near the source of the River Elwy. She later became a nun and
abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...
at
Gwytherin Gwytherin is a village in Conwy county borough, Wales. It lies in a small valley through which the River Cledwen flows and has been winner of 'Best Kept Village' on four occasions. Its church is dedicated to Saint Winefrid (Welsh: Gwenfrewy gwen ...
in
Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
. More elaborate versions of this tale relate many details of her life, including Winefride's pilgrimage to
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. Given the late date of the earliest surviving written accounts of Winifred's life, her existence has been doubted since the 19th century. She is not recorded in any Welsh pedigree of saints nor in the 13th-century calendar of Welsh saints. There is, however, evidence of her cult from centuries before the appearance of her first hagiography. Two small pieces of an oak reliquary from the 8th century were discovered in 1991 and identified based on earlier drawings as belonging to the ''Arch Gwenfrewi'', the reliquary of Winifred. The reliquary probably contained an article of clothing or another object associated with the saint, but not her bones. According to historian Lynne Heidi Stumpe, the reliquary provides "good evidence for her having been recognized as a saint very soon after her death", and thus of her historicity. The reliquary may even be "the earliest surviving testimony to the formal cultus of any Welsh saint".


Veneration

Veneration of Winifred as a martyr saint is attested from the 12th century. She is mostly venerated in England, not in Wales, which led
Caesar Baronius Cesare Baronio (as an author also known as Caesar Baronius; 30 August 1538 – 30 June 1607) was an Italian cardinal and historian of the Catholic Church. His best-known works are his ''Annales Ecclesiastici'' ("Ecclesiastical Annals"), whi ...
to list her as an "English saint" in his ''Roman Martyrology'' of 1584. In 1138,
relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s of Winifred were carried to
Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
to form the basis of an elaborate
shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
. The Church of St. Winifred, Stainton is a 12th century church located in the village of
Stainton, South Yorkshire Stainton is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The parish has a population of 269, increasing marginally to 271 at the 2011 Census. and is historically part of the West Riding of Yo ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.


Cult

The details of Winifred's life are gathered from a manuscript in the British Museum, said to have been the work of the British monk, Elerius, a contemporary of the saint, and also from a manuscript life in the Bodleian Library, generally believed to have been compiled in 1130 by Robert, prior of Shrewsbury ( 1168). Prior Robert is generally credited with greatly promoting the cult of St. Winifred by translating her relics from
Gwytherin Gwytherin is a village in Conwy county borough, Wales. It lies in a small valley through which the River Cledwen flows and has been winner of 'Best Kept Village' on four occasions. Its church is dedicated to Saint Winefrid (Welsh: Gwenfrewy gwen ...
to Shrewsbury Abbey and writing the most influential life of the saint. The chronicler John of Tynemouth also wrote of Winifred. To further enhance the prestige of the Abbey, Abbot Nicholas Stevens built a new shrine for St. Winifred in the 14th century, before then having some monks steal the relics of St. Beuno from Rhewl and installed in the abbey church. Although the abbey was fined, it was allowed to keep the relics.
William Caxton William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer (publisher), printer to be the first English retailer of printed boo ...
's 1483 edition of the
Golden Legend The ''Golden Legend'' (Latin: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary ...
includes the story of St. Winifred. The following year, he printed a separate "Life" of the saint. The shrine and well at Shrewsbury became major
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
goals in the
Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
, but the shrine was destroyed by
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
in 1540. The well at Holywell, originally formed from a mountain spring, is housed below the town on the side of a steep hill. The shrine of St. Winifride (known as or in
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
) is regarded as one of the finest surviving examples of a medieval holy well in Britain. The well precinct also houses an 'Interpretive Exhibition', setting forth the story of the saint and her shrine in detail; the Victorian former custodians' house has also been converted to house a museum of the pilgrimage.St. Winifride's Well, Holywell, Flintshire
/ref> Another well named after St. Winifred is found in the hamlet of
Woolston Woolston may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington * Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon * Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...
near
Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
in
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
. According to legend, it is thought that on her way to
Shrewsbury Abbey The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Shrewsbury (commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey) is an ancient foundation in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. The Abbey was founded in 1083 as a Benedictine monastery by the Norm ...
, Winifred's body was laid there overnight and a spring sprang up out of the ground. The water is supposed to have healing powers and be good at healing bruises, wounds and broken bones. The well is covered by a 15th-century half-timbered cottage. The water flows through a series of stone troughs and into a large pond, which then flows into a stream. The cottage is maintained by the
Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then makes them available for holiday rental. The Trust's headqua ...
. Another spring supposedly arising from the laying down of Winifred's body is at Holywell Farm, midway between
Tattenhall Tattenhall is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Tattenhall and District, south-east of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In the 2001 census, t ...
and Clutton,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
. There is a spring in the garden of this non-working farm which supplies two houses with their drinking water. A spring on Lansdown Hill, Bath was known as St. Winifred's Spring, and gave its name to nearby Winifreds Lane. There appears to be no known connection to the life of the saint, but its waters were once supposed to help women conceive. A Norman
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
dedicated to St. Winifred can be found in the village of Branscombe, Devon. There is some archaeological evidence to suggest an earlier
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
church may have occupied the site.


''Roman Martyrology''

In the 2004 edition of the ''
Roman Martyrology The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...
'', Winifred is listed under 2 November with the Latin name . She is listed as follows: "At the spring located at Holywell in Wales, St Winefride the Virgin, who is outstanding in her witness as a nun". Winifred is officially recognised by the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
as a person with a historical basis, who lived an exemplary religious life, but with no discussion of miracles which she may have performed or been healed by. As a 1st-millennium saint, she is recognised as a saint by popular acclaim, rather than ever being formally
canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of Cult (religious practice), public veneration and enterin ...
. In the current
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
liturgical calendar The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which ...
for Wales, Winifred is commemorated on 3 November, since 2 November is designated as
All Souls' Day All Souls' Day, also called ''The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed'', is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by certain Christian denominations on 2 November. Through prayer, intercessions, alms and ...
.


Iconography

Winifred's representation in stained glass at Llandyrnog and Llanasa focuses on her learning and her status as an honorary martyr, but the third aspect of her life, her religious leadership, is also commemorated visually. On the seal of the cathedral chapter of St. Asaph (now in the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff), she appears wimpled as an abbess, bearing a crozier, symbol of leadership and authority and a reliquary.


References in fiction

St. Winifred's Well, termed , is mentioned in the medieval poem ''
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of f ...
'' (in Passus II). She also appears as a character in the 2021 film adaptation of the poem, portrayed by actress
Erin Kellyman Erin Mae Kellyman (born 17 October 1998) is an English actress. On television, she gained prominence through the Channel 4 sitcom '' Raised by Wolves'' (2015–2016) and the BBC series ''Les Misérables'' (2018), '' Don't Forget the Driver'' (20 ...
.
William Rowley William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...
's 17th-century comedy ''
A Shoemaker a Gentleman ''A Shoemaker a Gentleman'' is a Literature in English#Jacobean literature, Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by William Rowley (dramatist), William Rowley. It may be Rowley's only extant solo comedy. Nineteenth-century scholars and crit ...
'' dramatises St. Winifred's story, based on the version in
Thomas Deloney Thomas Deloney (born ; died in or shortly before 1600) was an English silk-weaver, novelist, and ballad writer. Biography Thomas Deloney was born sometime in the middle decades of the 16th century; the precise date is not recorded. Although ofte ...
's story ''The Gentle Craft'' (1584). English poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...
memorialised St. Winifred in his unfinished drama, ''St Winifred's Well''. The moving of Winifred's bones to Shrewsbury is fictionalised in ''
A Morbid Taste for Bones ''A Morbid Taste for Bones'' is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters set in May 1137. It is the first novel in ''The Cadfael Chronicles'', first published in 1977. It was adapted for television in 1996 by Central for ITV. The monks of ...
'', the first of
Ellis Peters Edith Mary Pargeter (28 September 1913 – 14 October 1995), also known by her ''nom de plume'' Ellis Peters, was an English author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translat ...
'
Brother Cadfael Brother Cadfael is the main fictional character in a series of historical murder mysteries written between 1977 and 1994 by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name "Ellis Peters". The character of Cadfael himself is a Welsh Benedic ...
novels, with the plot twist that her bones are secretly left in Wales, and someone else is put into the shrine; St. Winifred is portrayed as an important character in all the books in the Brother Cadfael series. The celebration of her
Feast Day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
provides the setting for two of the novels, ''
The Rose Rent ''The Rose Rent'' is a medieval mystery novel set in the summer of 1142 by Ellis Peters. This is the thirteenth novel in The Cadfael Chronicles, first published in 1986. It was adapted for television in 1997 by Carlton and Central for ITV. ...
'' and ''
The Pilgrim of Hate ''The Pilgrim of Hate'' is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters, set in spring 1141. It is the tenth in the Cadfael Chronicles, and was first published in 1984. This story takes place very soon after the preceding novel ''Dead Man's Ranso ...
''. The casket is stolen from its shrine in ''
The Holy Thief ''The Holy Thief'' is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters set in 1144–1145. It is the 19th and penultimate volume of the Cadfael Chronicles, first published in 1992. It was 1998 in British television#ITV (Including ITV and ITV2), adapt ...
'', and the campaign to find and restore it propels the action. Throughout the series, the protagonist, Brother Cadfael - a Welsh monk at the English monastery at Shrewsbury - develops a "special understanding" with the saint, whom he affectionately calls "The Girl". Australian novelist
Gerald Murnane Gerald Murnane (born 25 February 1939) is an Australian writer, perhaps best known for his novel ''The Plains'' (1982). ''The New York Times'', in a big feature published on 27 March 2018, called him "the greatest living English-language writer ...
makes reference to St. Winifred in his novel ''
Inland Inland may refer to: Places Sweden * Inland Fräkne Hundred, a hundred of Bohuslän in Sweden * Inland Northern Hundred, a hundred of Bohuslän in Sweden * Inland Southern Hundred, a hundred of Bohuslän in Sweden * Inland Torpe Hundred, a hundred ...
.'' St. Winifred appears as a spirit to Sir Gawain in the 2021 movie '' The Green Knight.'' Winifred asks Sir Gawain to retrieve her severed head from a spring, which he does. He places the head in her bed with the rest of her skeletal remains, and she provides him with information regarding the identity of the Green Knight.


Legacy

A statue of St. Winifred stands overlooking the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
in
Hudson, New York Hudson is a city and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. Located on the east side of the Hudson River and 120 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, it was named for the rive ...
.


See also

*
Our Lady of Loreto and St Winefride's, Kew Our Lady of Loreto and St Winefride's is the parish church for the Roman Catholic parish of Kew Gardens in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is located at 1 Leyborne Park in Kew. History and description The Society of Ma ...


Notes


Further reading

*


External links


Holywell websiteHolywell Church websiteBBC Wales: Holywell
* * Seguin, Colleen M. (Summer 2003)
"Cures and Controversy in Early Modern Wales: The Struggle to Control St. Winifred's Well"
''North American Journal of Welsh Studies'', Vol. 3, 2 {{DEFAULTSORT:Winifred, Saint 7th-century deaths People from Holywell, Flintshire Welsh Roman Catholic saints 7th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown 7th-century Welsh women Female saints of medieval Wales 7th-century Welsh people Legendary Welsh people