Saint Svithun (also spelled Swithin, Swithun) at
Stavanger Cathedral
Saint Swithin
Évêque de Winchester (✝ 862)
Chancelier du roi d'Angleterre Egbert et précepteur de
son fils, puis conseiller pour les affaires ecclésiastiques, nommé enfin évêque
de Winchester, il garda toujours, dans ses hautes fonctions, le souci des
pauvres et un ferme éloignement de toute occasion de chute pécheresse, ce qui
ne manquait pas à la cour royale.
À Winchester en Angleterre, l'an 862, saint Swithun, évêque, remarquable par
son austérité de vie et son amour des pauvres. Il construisit beaucoup
d'églises qu'il visitait en allant toujours à pied.
Martyrologe romain
Swithun shown in the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, Winchester,
10th century. British Library, London.
Also known as
Memorial
Profile
Raised in an abbey. Priest. Chaplain to Egbert, King of the West Saxons. Tutor to prince Ethelwolf. Bishop of Winchester, England. Miracles associated with his relics. His shrine was destroyed during the Reformation. Almost 60 ancient British
churches were named for him.
His patronage of the weather arose
when monks tried to translate his body from an outdoor
grave to a golden shrine in the Cathedral in 871. Swithun apparently did not approve as it started
raining for 40 days. The weather on the festival of his translation indicates, according to an old rhyme, the
weather for the next forty days:
Saint Swithun’s day, if thou dost
rain,
For forty days it will remain;
Saint Swithun’s day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.
Born
Died
Canonized
Patronage
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-swithun/
Saint Swithun's memorial shrine in the retrochoir of Winchester Cathedral where the saint's
relics were originally kept.
Swithun (Swithin) of
Winchester, OSB B (RM)
Born in Wessex, England; died at Winchester, England, July 2, 862. Saint
Swithun was educated at the Old Abbey, Winchester, and was ordained (it is
uncertain whether or not he was a monk). He became chaplain to King Egbert of
the West Saxons, who appointed him tutor of his son Ethelwulf, and was one of
the king's counselors. Swithun was named bishop of Winchester in 852 when
Ethelwulf succeeded his father as king. Swithun built several churches and was
known for his humility and his aid to the poor and needy. His veneration as a
saint appears to date from the removal of his bones from the churchyard into
the cathedral a century after his death. A long-held superstition declares it
will rain for 40 days if it rains on his feast day, but the reason for and
origin of this belief are unknown (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney).
Statue of Saint Swithun originally on the façade of Winchester Cathedral; now housed in the Crypt.
St. Swithin
(SWITHUN).
Bishop of Winchester; died 2 July, 862.
Very little is known of
this saint's life, for his biographers constructed their "Lives" long
after his death and there is hardly any mention of him in contemporary documents.
Swithin was one of the two trusted counsellors of Egbert, King of the West
Saxons (d. 839), helping him in ecclesiastical matters, while Ealstan of
Sherborne was his chief advisor He probably entrusted Swithin with the education of his son Ethelwulf and
caused the saint to be elected to the Bishopric
of Winchester in succession to Helmstan. His consecration by Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, seems to have taken place on 30
October, 852. 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.
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.
It has often been said
that the saint was a Benedictine monk and even Prior of Winchester but there is no evidence for
this statement. From the first translation of his relics in 984 till the destruction of
the shrine St. Swithin was the patron of Winchester Cathedral. He 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.
There have been many
attempts to explain the origin of this belief, but none have proved generally satisfactory. A
similar belief attaches in France to 8 June, the feast of Sts. Gervasius and
Protasius, and to
other feasts in different countries (see Notes and Queries, 1885,
XII, 137, 253). St. Swithin's feast is kept on 15 July, the date of his first translation, and
is retained in the Anglican Calendar.
Sources
The materials for the saint's life will be found in Acta SS.,
July, I, 321 sqq. See also POTTHAST, Wegweiser, 1588; HUNT
in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v. Swithun; HARDY, Descriptive
Catalogue, I (1862), ii, 513 sqq.
Webster,
Douglas Raymund. "St. Swithin." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 25 Oct. 2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm>.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New
York.
Copyright © 2020
by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm
July 15
St. Swithin
or Swithun, Bishop and Patron of Winchester, Confessor
THIS city had
been famous in the time of the Romans, and a station of their troops being
called by Ptolemy and Antoninus, Venta. It became afterwards the chief seat of
the West-Saxon kings. Among these, Kynegils, having received the faith about
the year 635, gave to St. Birinus the city of Dorcester for his episcopal see,
but founded a church at Winchester, which was dedicated by St. Birinus to St.
Peter, according to the Saxon Chronicle, or to the Holy Trinity, according to
Thomas Rudburn. Wini, the third bishop of the West-Saxons, fixed his see at
Winchester, and this church became one of the most flourishing cathedrals of
all Britain. St. Swithun, called in the original Saxon language Swithum,
received in this church the clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit in
the Old Monastery, which had been founded by king Kynegils. He was of noble
parentage, passed his youth in innocent simplicity, and in the study of
grammar, philosophy, and the holy scriptures. He was an accomplished model of
all virtues when he was promoted to holy orders by Helinstan or Helmstan,
bishop of Winchester.
Being ordained
priest, he was made provost or dean of the Old Monastery. His learning, piety,
and prudence moved Egbert, king of the West-Saxons, to make him his priest, under
which title the saint subscribed a charter granted to the abbey of Croyland in
833. That great prince committed to his care the education of his son
Ethelwolf, and made use of his counsels in the government of his kingdom. A
degeneracy of manners had crept into the courts of the Mercians and
Northumbrians, and their government was weakened by intestine divisions and
several revolutions. Egbert having first vanquished Swithred king of the
East-Saxons, and added his kingdom to his own, upon several provocations,
invaded Mercia, and conquered it in 828, but soon after restored Withlaf, whom
he had expelled, to the throne of that kingdom on condition he should hold the
crown of him, and pay him an annual tribute. He treated in the same manner
Eandred, the last king of the Northumbers, and made him tributary, after he had
with a great army laid waste that province. The kingdom of the East Angles
submitted to him about the same time with Mercia, with which it had been long
engaged in war, and was thereby reduced to extreme poverty. Kent being at that
time tributary to Mercia, it fell also to the share of the conqueror. After
this Egbert assembled all the great men of his kingdom both clergy and laity,
in a council at Wincester, in which he enacted that this kingdom should ever
after be called England, and all its subjects Englishmen. At the same time he
was again crowned and from that year, 829, was styled king of England. Thus
were the names of Saxons and Jutes abolished among us, and an end was put to
the heptarchy, or division of this nation into seven kingdoms, which began to
be formed by Hengist in 457, when he took the title of king, seven years after
his arrival in this island, in 449. Towards the latter end of Egbert’s reign
the Danes first began to infest England. This general name historians give to
those shoals of pirates which were composed not only of Danes, but also of
Norwegians, Goths, Sweones or Swedes, and Vandals, as Eginhard, Henry of
Huntingdon, and others assure us. 1
King Egbert
reigned thirty-seven years over the West Saxons, and nine years over all
England, dying in the year 838, or according to others in 837. Ethelwolf, his
only surviving son, had been educated in piety and learning under the care of
St. Swithin, then provost of the Old Monastery in Winchester, 2 and had been ordained subdeacon by bishop Helmstan, as
Rudburn, Huntingdon, and others relate. But upon the death of his elder
brother, whose name is not known, he was dispensed with by Pope Leo to marry,
and returning again to a secular life, helped his father in his wars, and after
his death was advanced to the throne. He married Osberge, a lady of remarkable
piety, and had four sons by her, Ethelbald, Ethelbright, Ethelred, and Alfred.
He governed his kingdom by the prudent advice of Alstan bishop of Shirborne, in
temporal affairs; and by that of St. Swithin in ecclesiastical matters,
especially those which concerned his own soul. And though the king was of a
slow disposition, yet by the assistance of these worthy counsellors, he reigned
prudently and happily; the Danes were often repulsed, and many noble designs
for the good of the church and state were begun, and prosperously executed.
Bearing always the greatest reverence to St. Swithin, whom he called his master
and teacher, he procured him, upon the death of Helmstan, to be chosen bishop
of Winchester, to which see he was consecrated by Ceolnoth, archbishop of
Canterbury, in 852. Hearne has given us the profession of faith which he made
on that occasion, according to custom, in the hands of the archbishop. 3 William of Malmesbury says, that though this good
bishop was a rich treasure of all virtues, those in which he took most delight
were humility and charity to the poor; and in the discharge of his episcopal
functions he omitted nothing belonging to a true pastor. He built divers
churches, and repaired others; and made his journeys on foot, accompanied with
his clerks, and often by night to avoid ostentation. Being to dedicate any
church, he with all humility used to go barefoot to the place. His feasting was
not with the rich, but with the needy and the poor. His mouth was always open
to invite sinners to repentance, and to admonish those who stood to beware of
falling. He was most severe to himself, and abstemious in his diet, never
eating to satisfy his appetite, but barely to sustain nature; and as to sleep,
he admitted no more than what after long watching and much labour was
absolutely necessary. He was always delighted with psalms and spiritual
canticles, and in conversation would bear no discourse but what tended to edification.
By his counsel
and advice King Ethelwolf, in a Mycel synod, or great council of the nation, in
854, enacted a new law by which he gave the tithes, or tenth part of his land,
throughout the kingdom to the church, exempt and free from all taxations and
burthens, with an obligation of prayers in all churches for ever for his own
soul, on every Wednesday, &c. This charter, to give it a more sacred
sanction, he offered on the altar of St. Peter at Rome in the pilgrimage which
he made to that city in 855. He likewise procured it to be confirmed by the
pope. 4 He carried with him to Rome his youngest and best
beloved son, Alfred, rebuilt there the school for the English, and ordered to
be sent every year to Rome one hundred mancuses 5 for the pope, one hundred for the church of St. Peter,
and as much for that of St. Paul, to furnish them with lights on Easter Eve. He
extended the Romescot, or Peterpence, to his whole kingdom. He reigned two
years after his return from Rome, and died in 857. He ordained that throughout
all his own hereditary lands every ten families shall maintain one poor person
with meat, drink, and apparel; from whence came the corrodies, which still
remain in divers places. St. Swithin departed to eternal bliss, which he had
always thirsted after, on the 2d of July, 862, in the reign of King Ethelbert.
His body was buried, according to his order, in the churchyard, where his grave
might be trodden on by passengers.
About one hundred years
after, in the days of King Edgar his relics were taken up by St. Ethelwold,
then bishop of Winchester, and translated into the church in 964. On which
occasion Malmesbury affirms that such a number of miraculous cures of all kinds
were wrought, as was never in the memory of man known to have been in any other
place. Lanfrid, in the original Saxon Lantfred, called by Leland an illustrious
doctor, being then a monk at Winchester, wrote, in 980, a history of this
translation, and of the miraculous cures of a blind man, and many others,
through the intercession of this saint, which history has never been printed:
though we have two beautiful fair manuscript copies of it, the one in the
Cotton, the other in the king’s library in the inclosure of Westminster Abbey. 6 In the reign of William the
Conqueror, Walkelyn, bishop of Winchester, a Norman, and the king’s relation,
laid the foundation of the new church in 1079, which he lived to finish with
the abbey, so that in 1093, the monks, in the presence of almost all the
bishops and abbots of England, came in great joy from the old to the new
monastery, and on the feast of St. Swithin, the shrine of this saint was in
another solemn procession translated from the old to the new church; and on the
next day the bishop’s men began to demolish the old abbey. William of Wickham,
the celebrated chancellor of England in the reign of Edward III., and founder
of a great college in Oxford, in 1379, added the nave and west front to this
cathedral, which is now standing. This church was first dedicated to the Holy
Trinity, under the patronage of St. Peter; afterwards by St. Ethelwold, in
presence of King Etheldred, St. Dunstan, and eight other bishops, to St.
Swithin, as Redburn relates, in 980. 7 King Henry VIII., in 1540, commanded
this cathedral to be called no longer St. Swithin’s, but of the Holy Trinity. 8
St. Swithin is
commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 2d of July, which was the day of
his death; but his chief festival in England was on the 15th of the same month,
the day of the translation of his relics. See the calendar prefixed to the
chronicle entitled Scala Mundi in a fair MS. in folio in the library of the
English college at Douay; also the Sarum breviary and missal. An arm of St.
Swithin was kept in the abbey of Peterborough, as is mentioned by Hugh Candidus,
or White, in his accurate history of that monastery, published by Mr. Spark, p.
1723. The abbey of Hyde was first built within the precincts of the cathedral
by King Edward the Elder, in pursuance of his father, Alfred’s, will, for
secular canons, over whom St. Grimbald was intended to preside, had not his
death prevented it. These canons, after sixty years’ continuance, yielded this
church to the monks whom, in 964, St. Ethelwold brought in; from which time
this abbey was called Newminster till it was translated by King Henry I. and
the Bishop William Giffard, to a place near the walls of the city called Hyde.
Of this magnificent abbey not so much as the walls are left standing, though in
it lay the remains of King Edward, his son Alfred, his daughter St. Eadburga,
&c. Its church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. Peter, and St.
Grimbald. See the short life of St. Swithin, written by Wolstan, a monk of
Winchester, dedicated to St. Elphege, then bishop of that city, in 1001, but
translated to Canterbury in 1006. It is published by Mabillon, sæc. 5. Ben. p.
628. See also Malmesbury, t. 2. de Pontif. Robert of Glocester’s Chronicle in
verse, published by Mr. Herne. Thomas Rudburn, Historia Major Wintoniensis,
published by Wharton, t. 1. p. 200. Lord Clarendon, and Sam. Gale, on the
Antiquities of Winchester, and Pinius the Bollandist, t. 1. Julij, ad diem 2.
p. 321. Also, S. Swithuni vita et miracula per Lamfridum monachum Winton. MSS.
in Bibl. Regia Londini, xv. c. vii. 1.
Note 1. The barbarians who inhabited the northern coasts of
the Baltic were called by one general name, Normans; and the Sclavi, Vandals,
and divers other nations were settled on the southern coast, as Eginhard,
Helmold, and others testify. [back]
Note 2. The authorities produced by Tho. Rudburn, a monk of
the Old Monastery in Winchester, in 1450, to prove St. Swithun to have been
some time public professor of divinity at Cambridge, are generally esteemed
suppositions. See Rudburn, l. 3, c. 2, Hist. Maj. Wintoniensis, apud Wharton,
Anglia Sacra, and the History of the University of Cambridge. [back]
Note 3. Hearne, Teat. Roffens, p. 269. [back]
Note 4. See Ingulph. Asser. Redborne. [back]
Note 5. The value of a mancuse is not known; it is thought to
have been about the same with that of a mark. [back]
Note 6. Casleu and B. Nicholson falsely call this the life of
St. Swithin; and it appears from Leland that Lantfred never wrote his life,
which himself sufficiently declares in the history of his miracles. The
contrary seems a mistake in Pits, Bale, and Thomas Rudburn, p. 223. Rudburn
manifestly confounds Wolstan with Lantfred. [back]
Note 7. Hist. Major. Wintom. p. 223. Vita metrice S. Swithuni
per Wolstanum monachum Winton. ib. 2. [back]
Note 8. At the east end of this cathedral is the place which
in ancient times was esteemed most sacred, underneath which was the cemetery or
resting place of many saints and kings who were interred there with great
honour. At present behind the high altar there is a transverse wall, against
which we see the marks where several of their statues, being very small, were
placed, with their names under each pedestal in a row; “Kinglisus Rex. S.
Birinus Ep. Kingwald Rex. Egbertus R. Adulphus (i. e. Ethelwolphus) R.
Elured R. filius ejus. Edwardus R. junior Adhelstanus R. filius ejus (Sta.
Maria D. Jesus in the middle.) Edredus R. Edgarus R. Alwynus Ep. Ethelred R.
Cnutus R. Hardecanutus R. filius ejus,” &c. Underneath, upon a fillet were
written these verses:
“Corpora Sanctorum hic sunt in pace sepulta;
Ex
Meritis quorum fulgent miracula multa.”
At the foot of
these, a little eastwards, is a large flat grave-stone, which had the effigies
of a bishop in brass, said to be that of St. Swithin. See Lord Clarendon, and
Samuel Gale, On the Antiquities of Winchester pp. 29, 30. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume VII: July. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Here followeth the Life
of Saint Swithin, Bishop.
Saint Swithin, the holy
confessor, was born beside Winchester in the time of Saint Egbert, king. He was
the seventh king after Kenulf that Saint Birinus christened. For Saint Austin
christened not all England in Saint Ethelbert’s days, but Saint Birinus
christened the west part of England in the days of Kenulf the king. And at that
time this holy Saint Swithin served our Lady so devoutly that all people that
knew him had great joy of his holiness, and Elmeston, that was in that time
Bishop of Winchester, made him priest. And then he lived a straighter living than he
did before, and he became then so holy in living that King Egbert made him his
chancellor and chief of his council, and set Ethulf his son and his heir under
his rule and guiding, and prayed him to take heed to him that he might be
brought up virtuously. And within short time after the king died, and then his
son Ethult was made king after him. And he guided this land full well and
wisely, that it increased greatly in good living, through the counsel of Saint
Swithin. And when Elmeston the Bishop of Winchester was dead, Swithin was made
Bishop there after him, whereof the people were full glad, and by his holy
living he caused the people to live virtuously, and to pay their tithes to God
and holy church. And if any church fell down, or was in decay, Saint Swithin
would anon amend it at his own cost. Or if any church were not hallowed, he
would go thither afoot and hallow it. For he loved no pride, ne to ride on gay
horses, ne to be praised ne flattered of the people, which in these days such
things be used over much. God cease it.
Saint Swithin guided
full well his bishopric, and did much good to the town of Winchester in his
time. He did do make without the west gate of the town a fair bridge of stone at
his proper cost. And on a time there came a woman over the bridge with her lap
full of eggs, and a reckless fellow struggled and wrestled with her, and brake
all her eggs. And it happed that this holy bishop came that way the same time,
and bade the woman let him see her eggs, and anon he lift up his hand and
blessed the eggs, and they were made whole and sound, ever each one, by the
merits of this holy bishop, and being then glad she thanked God and this holy
man for the miracle that was done to her.
And soon after died King
Ethulf, and his son Egbert reigned after him. And after him was Ethelbert king;
and in the third year of his reign died this blessed bishop Saint Swithin. And
when he should die, he charged his men to bury him in the churchyard, for the
people should not worship him after his death. For he loved no pomp by his
life, ne none would have after his death. He passed to our Lord the year of
grace eight hundred and six. And he lay in the churchyard, ere he was
translated, a hundred and nine years and odd days. But in the time of holy king
Edgar his body was translated and put in a shrine in the abbey of Winchester by
Saint Dunstan and Ethelwold. And the same year was Saint Edward, king and martyr shrined at Shaftesbury. These two bishops,
Dunstan and Ethelwold, were warned by our Lord to see that these two holy
Saints, Swithin and Edward, should be worshipfully shrined, and so they were
within short time after. And a holy man warned Ethelwold whilst he lay sick, to
help that these two holy bodies might be shrined, and then he should be
perfectly whole, and so endure to his life’s end; and the token is that, ye
shall find on Saint Swithin’s grave two rings of iron nailed fast thereon. And
as soon as he set hand on the rings they came off of the stone, and no token
was seen in the stone, where they were fastened in. And when they had taken up
the stone from the grave, they set the rings to the stone again, and anon they
fastened to it by themselves. And then this holy bishop gave laud and praising
to our Lord for this miracle. And at the opening of the grave of Saint Swithin,
such a sweet odour and savour issued out that king Edgar and all the multitude
of people were fulfilled with heavenly sweetness, and a blind man received
there his sight again, and many were healed of divers sickness and maladies by
the merits of this holy saint, Saint Swithin, to whom let us pray that he be
our advocate to the good Lord for us, etc.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-life-of-saint-swithin/
San Swithun di Winchester Vescovo
2 luglio
Wessex, Inghilterra, 800 c. - 2
luglio 862
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale
Martirologio Romano: A
Winchester in Inghilterra, san Swithun, vescovo, che fu insigne per l’austerità
e l’amore per i poveri e fondò numerose chiese, che visitava andando sempre a
piedi.
A causa della
trascuratezza dei suoi contemporanei, non si hanno notizie di un certo rilievo
sulla sua vita, né delle sue parole, né delle sue conversazioni, che fossero
state riportate per le future generazioni.
Swithun
visse nel IX secolo, fu cappellano reale del re Egberto di Wessex e tutore del
figlio del re, principe Ethelwulf, che governò poi dall’839 all’858.
E su richiesta del re Ethelwulf, divenne vescovo di Winchester, allora capitale
dell’Inghilterra; fu consacrato da Ceolnoth arcivescovo di Canterbury il 30
ottobre 852.
Governò la diocesi dieci anni, perché morì il 2 luglio 862; il re Ethelwold, il
15 luglio 971, fece trasferire le reliquie nella cattedrale, coincise con
questo avvenimento la caduta di un’abbondantissima pioggia, tale che fu
ritenuta segno della potenza del santo vescovo, evidentemente si era in periodo
di prolungata siccità.
Da quel giorno si dice che se piove nel giorno di s. Swithun (15 luglio)
pioverà anche per i seguenti 40 giorni. Da noi
si dice la stessa cosa per s. Barbara e per s. Caterina d’Alessandria.
Era invocato per ottenere la pioggia, il suo culto che prese sviluppo dal
secolo X, si estese per la fama di essere un santo guaritore, sia nell’isola di
Wight, sia in Francia.
Nel 1093 il suo corpo fu di nuovo trasferito dalla vecchia alla nuova
cattedrale di Winchester; la sua festa celebrata il 2 luglio per tutto il
Medioevo, fu poi man mano sostituita al 15 luglio, giorno della prima
traslazione.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://santiebeati.it/dettaglio/60475