Winifred or Winefride | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Virgin,Martyr andAbbess | |
| Born | Tegeingl (modern-dayFlintshire) |
| Died | c. 7th century Gwytherin (in modern-dayConwy) |
| Venerated in | |
| Majorshrine | Shrewsbury Abbey, now destroyed although a small part of the shrine base survives.Holywell, fully active holy well and well-house shrine. |
| Feast | 3 November |
| Attributes | Abbess, holding a sword, sometimes with her head under her arm |
| Patronage | Holywell; against unwanted advances,Diocese of Shrewsbury |
Saint Winifred (orWinefride;Welsh:Gwenffrewi;Latin:Wenefreda, Winifreda) was aWelshvirgin martyr of the 7th century. Her story was celebrated as early as the 8th century, but became popular in England in the 12th, when herhagiography was first written down.
A healingspring at the traditional site of her decapitation and restoration is now a shrine and pilgrimage site calledSt Winefride's Well inHolywell,Flintshire, inWales and known as "theLourdes of Wales", which was granted the status of National Shrine for England and Wales in November 2023.[1]
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The oldest accounts of Winifred's life date to the 12th century.[2] According to legend, Winifred was the daughter of a chieftain ofTegeingl,[3] Welsh nobleman Tyfid ap Eiludd. Her mother was Wenlo, a niece ofSaint Beuno, and a member of a family closely connected with the kings of south Wales.[4]
According to legend, her suitor, Caradog, was enraged when she decided to become a nun and when she refused his advances, hedecapitated her. A healing spring appeared where her head fell.[5] 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 toCaernarfon; 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."[4]
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 a place of rest. Ultimately she arrived at Gwytherin near the source of the River Elwy.[4] She later became a nun andabbess atGwytherin inDenbighshire.[5] More elaborate versions of this tale relate many details of her life, including Winefride's pilgrimage toRome.
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.[6] 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 theArch Gwenfrewi, the reliquary of Winifred.[7] 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",[8] and thus of her historicity.[9] The reliquary may even be "the earliest surviving testimony to the formal cultus of any Welsh saint".[10]
Veneration of Winifred as a martyr saint is attested from the 12th century. She is mostly venerated in England, not in Wales, which ledCaesar Baronius to list her as an "English saint" in hisRoman Martyrology of 1584.
In 1138,relics of Winifred were carried toShrewsbury to form the basis of an elaborateshrine.[11] TheChurch of St. Winifred, Stainton is a 12th century church located in the village ofStainton, South Yorkshire,England.[12]
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 byRobert, prior of Shrewsbury (d. 1168).[4] Prior Robert is generally credited with greatly promoting the cult of St. Winifred by translating her relics fromGwytherin to Shrewsbury Abbey and writing the most influential life of the saint.[13][14] The chroniclerJohn 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 fromRhewl and installed in the abbey church. Although the abbey was fined, it was allowed to keep the relics.[15]
William Caxton's 1483 edition of theGolden Legend includes the story of St. Winifred. The following year, he printed a separate "Life" of the saint.
The shrine and well at Shrewsbury became majorpilgrimage goals in theLate Middle Ages, but the shrine was destroyed byHenry VIII in 1540.
St Winefride's Well inFlintshire, originally formed from a mountain spring, is housed below the town on the side of a steep hill. 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.[16] The site is managed byCadw.
St Winefride's Holy Well at Holywell Farm in Cheshire is one of a number of holy wells dedicated to St Winefride which were placed to mark the route of her remains when they were taken from Holywell in Clwyd, where she was martyred, to Shrewsbury Abbey.[17] It is a listed monument.
Another well named after St. Winifred is found in the hamlet ofWoolston nearOswestry inShropshire. According to legend, it is thought that on her way toShrewsbury Abbey, Winifred's body was laid there overnight and a spring sprang up out of the ground. 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 theLandmark Trust.[18]
A spring onLansdown 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.[19][20]
A Norman church ofSaint Winifred's can be found in the village ofBranscombe, Devon. There is some archaeological evidence to suggest an earlierSaxon church may have occupied the site.[21]
St. Winifred's Well, Dublin was builtc. 1700 onEustace Street. It is presumed to be linked to the presence of Welsh and English merchants in the city.[22]
In the 2004 edition of theRoman Martyrology, Winifred is listed under 2 November with the Latin nameWinefrídae. 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".[23] Winifred is officially recognised by theVatican 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 formallycanonized.
In the currentRoman Catholicliturgical calendar for Wales,[24] Winifred is commemorated on 3 November, since 2 November is designated asAll Souls' Day.
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.[3]
St. Winifred's Well, termed"þe Holy Hede", is mentioned in the medieval poemSir Gawain and the Green Knight (in Passus II). She also appears as a character in the2021 film adaptation of the poem, portrayed by actressErin Kellyman.[29]
William Rowley's 17th-century comedyA Shoemaker a Gentleman dramatises St. Winifred's story, based on the version inThomas Deloney's storyThe Gentle Craft (1584).
English poetGerard Manley Hopkins memorialised St. Winifred in his unfinished drama,St Winifred's Well.
The moving of Winifred's bones to Shrewsbury is fictionalised inA Morbid Taste for Bones, the first ofEllis Peters'Brother Cadfael 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 herFeast Day provides the setting for two of the novels,The Rose Rent andThe Pilgrim of Hate. The casket is stolen from its shrine inThe Holy Thief, 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 novelistGerald Murnane makes reference to St. Winifred in his novelInland.
St. Winifred appears as a spirit to Sir Gawain in the 2021 movieThe 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.
A bronze statue of St. Winifred byGeorge Edwin Bissell stands on Promenade Hill overlooking theHudson River inHudson, New York. It was presented to the city in 1896 byJohn Watts de Peyster.[30] The statue had originally been planned as a fountain for the Watts de Peyster Hospital and Invalid Children's Home at Madalin, operated by the Women's Board of Domestic Missions of the Methodist Church, but the board found it couldn't spare the water.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Chandlery, Peter. "St. Winefride." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 14 May 2013{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Owen, Hugh and Blakeway, John Brickdale.A History of Shrewsbury, vol. 2, London. Harding Leppard. 1825
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Winefride".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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