Today the Catholic Church, particularly in Wales, celebrates the feast of St. Winifred. [In Wales, St. Gwenfrewy.] Her story and her relics are important in the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. I enjoyed those books very much and my John of the Cross mystery, The Dark Night Murders, was in part inspired by them.
Winifred is considered a historical figure, but she died in 660 and reliable details about her are scarce. The legend of her beheading at the hands of a scorned lover and of the restoration of her head and life ... Well, I leave that up to your own capacity to believe. The site of this supposed event boasts a miraculous spring that remains a popular site of pilgrimage more than thirteen centuries later.
For a fuller account of her story/legend, click here.
1 comment:
Even as I started to read I thought to myself I wonder if this is the same saint as in the Brother Cadfael series!
Post a Comment