Happy Saint Swithun’s day! Saint Swithun is one of those saints who many have heard of but know nothing about.
It is said that if it rains on Saint Swithun’s day it will continue for another forty days. Looking out the window earlier this morning, it was still pretty wet so let’s hope I doesn’t actually rain today. I think we’ve already had enough rain for July!
Saint Swithun was actually an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently became patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. He died in 863 AD, that is some 200 years after our patron saint, Saint Oswald.
He most likely lived a holy life and in his own time would have been revered. However, he is mentioned in few contemporary documents and most of the stories about him were written much later. It is difficult to separate fact from fiction.
If you find the mystery of Saint Swithun interesting, there is more on the Winchester Cathedral page here and Wikipedia also has a very good entry which you can read here.