I visited St. Winifred's well four years ago expecting to find some
defunct medieval shrine and was pleasantly surprised to find that pilgrims
still visit and that there is a small Roman Catholic centre at the entance
to thd fifteenth century well house. While I was there a van load
ofmembers of the travelling community in Ireland (gypsy is not really the
right term as they are not Romanies) arrived and though it was a bitterly
cold day in January, all changed into swimwear and immersed themselves
three times in the well. They told me that they had driven from the west
of Ireland to do this pilgromage for their mother who was ill with cancer
and that there was traditionally a strong devotion to St. Winifred among
Irish travellers. One of the women in the group was named Winnie after
her.
Colman O'Clabaigh, osb.
On Sun, 2 Nov 1997, Steven Botterill wrote:
> >Today, 3 November, is the feast of ...
> >
> >* Winifred or Gwenfrewi, virgin and martyr (c. 650)
> >- fleeing from a chieftan from Hawarden, he caught up to her and sliced
> >off her head; he was swallowed up by the earth on the spot, and where her
> >head fell there arose a stream with red-streaked pebbles (St Winifred's
> >Well); this site became extremely popular for pilgrims (as late as 1774,
> >Dr Johnson saw people bathing there)
> >
> And Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a fragmentary poetic drama on the subject
> between 1879 and 1885, during his time at nearby St Beuno's (named for
> Winifred's uncle); the editor of the Penguin collection of Hopkins's poems
> and prose says the spot is "still visited by pilgrims", but that was in
> 1953; does anyone know if the devotion is still maintained? Incidentally,
> that edition also cites Butler's _Lives_ to the effect that after her
> decapitation Winifred was restored to life by Beuno and spent fifteen years
> as an abbess - a happier ending all round, I suppose, at least as happy as
> Ida of Toggenburg's [vide infra] :-)
>
> Steven Botterill
>
> Associate Professor of Italian Literature & Romance Philology
> Chair, Department of Italian Studies
>
> 3335 Dwinelle Hall #2620
> University of California
> Berkeley, CA 94720-2620
> (510) 642-6246/642-9884 (FAX)
>
>
>
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