15th July: St Swithin's Day

St Swithin's Day. Everyone knows the legend that if it rains on St Swithin's day it will rain for 40 more days - but how much do you know about the saint behind it?

1. In fact, the answer is probably "not a lot" as there is very little mentioned about him in writings from his lifetime. He was the Bishop of Winchester in Anglo-Saxon times, known for his piety and for building new churches. He was also tutor to the king's son Æthelwulf.
2. The meaning of his name is not known but scholars think it probably derives from an old English word for "strong".
3. He was known for going everywhere on foot, and for giving banquets to which the poor were invited rather than the rich.
4. His best known miracle has nothing to do with weather. He was crossing a bridge when he came upon a bunch of thugs breaking the Eggs a woman was carrying home in a basket. He miraculously restored the eggs for her.
5. On his deathbed, he requested that his body should be buried outside the north wall of his cathedral where passers-by would walk over his grave and raindrops from the eaves drop upon it.
6. Although Swithin got his wish at first, the monks soon decided that this wasn't a fitting resting place for their saint, and on 15 July 971 they moved his body to a tomb inside the cathedral. It was a day of typical British summer weather, ie it bucketed down. This was interpreted as St Swithin showing his disapproval of the movement of his body. This is where his association with rain began.
7. Swithin was no doubt even less impressed when bits of his body were later broken off and taken to shrines in other places. Canterbury Cathedral had his head, Peterborough Abbey had one of his arms and the other arm went to Stavanger Cathedral in Norway, which is dedicated to him. Whether or not it poured with rain on the days these moves were made is not known.
8. In Norway, St Swithin's day is celebrated on 2nd July, the date of his death.
9. St Swithin is the patron saint of Hampshire; Winchester; Southwark; and the weather. He is one of the saints one should pray to in the event of a drought.
10. The science bit. There is some truth in the idea that whatever the weather is like on St Swithin's day, it will be like that for 40 days. Around the middle of July, the jet stream settles into a pattern which, most years, holds reasonably steady until the end of August. Where the jet stream settles in relation to the British Isles dictates what the weather will be like.