The Story of St Swithin

Long ago, before England was even a united nation, there lived a bishop named Swithin. He was an amicable and revered man, known far and wide across the country for his acts of kindness but also because he was bishop of Winchester: the capital of Anglo-Saxon Britian. One of his most famous acts of kindness was to help a women who had dropped her basket of eggs over the edge of her bridge. She was poor and old, and she had spent all her money on the basket. He offered to help retrieve the cracked shells, and she, hoping that one or two may have survived, accepted. But as he handed them back to her, they miraculously became whole again, meaning she had food for the harsh winter ahead. This spirit of humbleness and servitude was shown in his one and only death wish; instead of being buried in the lofty and mighty Winchester cathederal, he requested to be buried outside just infront of the north wall. This was so he could hear the patter of the “sweet rains of heaven” and the footsteps of passing worshippers. And so it was when he passed in the year 862, he was buried out in the grounds of the cathederal, just as he had wished.

However, after over 100 years of peaceful rest, he was disturbed. The new bishop of Winchester, a man called Ethelwold, was not at all like Swithin. He was a proud, arrogant man, who believed that God should be seperate from the ordinary man. So seeing the honorable and famed St Swithin buried outside the grand cathederal in a small and modest grave angered him massively. In the year 971, he dug up the saints remains and moved them to a grand shrine in the centre of the building, and all came from far and wide to pay respect to the late bishop, bringing much money and respect for Ethelwold. But, the night directly after the bones of St Swithin had been moved, the city of Winchester was struck by a massive storm. Harsh gales rattled the rooves of the local houses, thunder struck the local trees, clouds blotted out the sky. But most terribly of all was the rain. Streams of water poured out from the heavens, flooding roads, levelling crops and destroying houses in flash floods.

At first the people seemed unfazed; storms and floods were not uncommon in England and usually passed over in a few hours. But the storm did not pass over. It went on and on. Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, and eventually a whole month passed. This violent and seemingly everlasting storm had put a stop to all entering the cathederal, and many believed that it was St Swithin taking revenge for his remains being moved. The people cried out to God for mercy, begging for this terrible storm to be lifted. Finally, after 40 days, the winds died down, the clouds scattered, and the rain stopped. The tempest of St Swithin had been lifted, not because of the moving of his relics back to his preffered place, but because of his mercy on the people of Winchester. And so it is now said, that if it rains on St Swithin’s day, it will continue to rain for 40 days, as a sign of his displeasure about his final resting place, shown by the old rhyme:

“St Swithins day, if thou dost rain,

40 days it shall remain,

St Swithins day, if thou dost be fair,

For 40 days ’twill rain no more”