St. Swithin’s Day
July 15th


St. Swithin is best known from the popular superstition attached to his name and expressed in the following rhyme:

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.

St. Swithin was an early Saxon Bishop of Winchester who died in 861 AD and legend says that on his deathbed Swithin begged that he should be buried outside the north wall of his cathedral where passers-by should pass over his grave and raindrops from the eaves drop upon it.

For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine.

The work began on July 15th, but it couldn't be finished then, or for many years afterwards. Torrential rains prevented it on the first day and these continued for forty days and forty nights. It was said that St. Swithin, who had detested any outward display or ostentation, was weeping in protest.

The countryside was flooded and the monks beseeched St. Swithin to intercede for them. It's said that he appeared to one of his monks and revealed to him how displeasing it was to God to spend their time in useless expenditures of time and money which might easily be spent with more advantage in the relief of the poor and needy; he also forbade the monks to ever interfere with his remains thereafter.

More than a century later (931) his body was translated with great pomp to a shrine within the new church erected by Bishop Ethelwulf (d. 984). A number of miraculous cures took place and Swithin was canonized by popular acclamation. In 1093 his remains were again translated to the new church built by Bishop Walkelin. The shrine was destroyed and the relics scattered in 1538.

Source: "The Year in Ireland-Irish Calendar Customs" by Kevin Dunaher


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