*Ø* Blogmanac July 15 | Rainy days ahead?

Feast day of St Swithin (Swithun)


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Our story today takes us back more than a millennium, to the days when the British Isles were beset by Viking raids and Charlemagne’s empire ruled supreme in Europe. St Swithin (or Swithun) was Bishop of Winchester, England, and adviser to King Egbert of Wessex (died 839) and probably tutor to his son Ethelwulf. He was called the ‘drunken saint’, but no such behaviour is recorded of him.

Swithin was the one who introduced tithing into England: he persuaded King Ethelwulf to enact a law, by which he gave a tenth of his land to the church, on condition that the king should be prayed for every Wednesday in every church forever. Among other remarkable feats, Swithin once restored broken eggs.

Swithin’s consecration by Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, seems to have taken place on 30 October, 852. We don’t know the date of his birth, but he died on July 2, 862.

An old English legend says that the good bishop wished to be buried in the churchyard of the cathedral, in a humble grave outside the north wall, so that the ‘sweet rain of heaven might fall upon his grave’. Nine years later his monks tried to move his remains inside the cathedral but there was a violent thunderstorm for the following 40 days and 40 nights. Believing their beloved late bishop to be weeping in distress, they abandoned the venture. Miraculously, two rings of iron, fastened on his gravestone, came out as soon as they were touched, and left no mark of their place in the stone. When the stone was taken up, and touched by the rings, by themselves they fastened to it again.

A century passed and 971 came around (the year Eric Bloodaxe became the second king of Norway, by the way, not that Eric has anything to do with our tale, sorry, but it’s such a great handle). Swithin was canonized (declared a saint – St Swithin was never actually canonised by a pope; he is a ‘home-made saint’) and, following a vision by St Aethelwold (909- 984), the monks decided to honour him by placing his body in the Winchester Cathedral choir rather than outside amongst the common folks’ graves. So….

They booked July 15 for the ceremony of the ‘translation’ of his relics (bones), and this time it was successful. His head is in one part of the cathedral and his body in another. Oh, and one of his arms ended up in St Svithun’s Cathedral at Stavanger, Norway.

St Swithin’s shrine was destroyed during the Reformation and a new one was dedicated in 1962. Various miracles have been performed at the tomb, such as the cure of a hunchback, and of a man with a “grievous ailment in his eyes”. Or so it is said.

Swithin is appropriately patron of drought relief; of Stavenger, England, and of Winchester.

How did St Swithin's legend come about?
Possibly there was an even more ancient tradition relating to a day about this time of year and we note the pervasiveness of similar customs in Europe. Other rain prognostication days in Europe include: St Médard's Day (June 8), France; Saints Gervais and Protais (June 19), St Godelieve, Belgium (July 6); the Seven Sleepers, Germany (July 27). Keep watching the Almanac for these.

Examination of the meteorological records of England reveals the legend to be fallacious. Nineteenth-century British folklorist Robert Chambers found that between 1841 and 1860, a dry St Swithin's day was actually more likely to have the larger number of succeeding wet days! Those who believe in this superstition ignore the fact that it is based upon the dating of the Julian calendar and therefore could not hold for 40 days from the current July 15, which is based on the Gregorian year, a calendar that Britain did not adopt until 1752.

Rain today “blesses and christens the apples”. Apples should not be picked or eaten before this day. All apples growing at this time will ripen and come to maturity.

To mark St Swithin's Day, you could read more international weather wisdom, featuring such gems as "snow is due when the cat washes behind both ears". Or you can sing (and play) along to Billy Bragg's musical ode.
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