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From the Foothills of Snowdonia to Shrewsbury and Beyond: The Transition of St. Winefride from Child to Great Saint

2022; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ems.2022.a903141

1538-4608

Evelyn Nicholson-Jenkins,

Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

From the Foothills of Snowdonia to Shrewsbury and Beyond: The Transition of St. Winefride from Child to Great Saint Evelyn Nicholson-Jenkins St. Winefride or Gwenfrewi Sant was a seventh century noblewoman with a dramatic story. She is the subject of a study of one of three medieval saints in the context of medieval emotion and spiritual experience. Attitudes of medieval Christians, however, differed considerably from contemporaneous perceptions because many scholars discussing pilgrimage seem to view the Middle Ages eclipsed or disguised by the ideas of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, or post modernism. John Morgan Guy in his What Did the Poets See?1 describes how religious “text” was viewed in medieval times and points to the acceptance during the Middle Ages of the “Whole Gospel,” not just Jerome’s Vulgate bible. It included the deutero-canonical books withdrawn after Henry VIII’s reformation in 1536, the writings of the Church Fathers, and the pictorial art of the church, which has had a substantial influence on the Church’s theology and piety. Guy points to Cartlidge and Elliott’s discussion of this point and concludes: It would not be inappropriate to insist that this [pictorial art] was sacred scripture which was handed down parallel to the written Bible, the Lives of the Saints and the liturgies.2 The Lives of the Saints (known as their Vitae), the resources of this study, are important in the context of this paper and will be further drawn out in the conclusion. Next, a brief summary of the medieval Zeitgeist will be useful before continuing with Winefride’s life and achievements. The Nicene Creed acknowledges the belief in the visible and the invisible (visibilium omnium et invisibilium) so medieval people were aware that saints and demons moved around them invisibly each day of their life, which for many was short. Salvation was therefore important for them each day to avoid a demon leading them into temptation and sin, so they could never enter the promised Christian [End Page 1] heaven and gain admittance to the New Earth. For the many pilgrims appearing at shrines walking, being pushed in carts, arriving on horseback throughout Europe, many in physical or emotional pain, it was the only prospect of a cure, their only hope. Insane people were delivered to a shrine, bound by their desperate relatives in the hope of having demons “cast out” with the power of Christ. Contrite pilgrims, clutching their beads, doing penance, begged for forgiveness for heinous sins so they could achieve their salvation. They would have all been certain, however, that the power of the healing was due to the power of the Trinitarian God, and his petitioning saint especially in Holywell, where there would not have been many reliable physicians. A loving great saint (one of God’s creatures who had exhibited heroic obedience and love) felt close to the pilgrim who would pray for acts of intercession. Saints were venerated (dulia) not adored like the Trinity (latria) and their shrines excited the attendance of a great number of pilgrims especially on feast days. Their prayers are depicted symbolically as “prayers of the saints” in the Apocalypse at the end of the Bible.3 St. Winefride, after death took her saint’s place in the Communion of Saints4 as a live human spirit, seeing the face of God and working through his power. Her spirit could hold sway in different places and times and has presented miracles throughout the centuries. Her saint’s personality and influence can be inferred from the results of considerable miracles performed, requests for miracles and the severe judgement of villains committing sacrilege at her well. There were more miracles after her translation to the Benedictine Abbey of SS Peter and Paul in Shrewsbury. Her principal Vitae are the “Anonymous Life” or Vita Prima,5 and second life Vita Secunda,6 written by Robert of Shrewsbury, leader of the Benedictines arriving to claim her remains for the Benedictine Abbey of Shrewsbury. Holywell—The Virgin Martyr The brief of the Conference was to discuss her life within the spirit of place, so we are looking at the three locations where she was active, as a devout girl, a...