ST. SWITHIN AND OTHER RAINY SAINTS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3226, 1 November 1881, Page 4

ST. SWITHIN AND OTHER RAINY SAINTS.

St. Swithin was Bishop of Winchester, to ■which rank he was raised by King .Ethel--wolf the Dane. He died in 865, and wass canonised. He was singular in his desire to be buried in the open churchyard and not in the chancel of the minister, as was usual •with other bishops, which request was complied with. But the monks on his being canonised fancied it was discreditable for the saint to be in the open churchyard, and resolved to move his body into the choir. This was to have been done in solemn prooession on July 15th. It rained, however, so violently on that day and on 40 days succeeding that ifc was regarded as a token that the design was heretical and blasphemous. A chapel was consequently erected over his grave, at which many miracles are said to have been wrought. This is supposed to have been the origin of the old adage, ' If it rains on St. Swithin's Day there will be rain more or less for 45 succeeding days.' So much ourrency and credit this proverb that it even survived the change of style without any alteration of date. A writer in the World, No. 10 (Horace Walpole ?) says: ' Were our astronomer-i so ignorant aa to think that the old proverbs •would serve for their new-fangled Calendar ? Could they imagine that St. Swithin would accommodate her rainy planet to the convenience of their calculations ?' It is easy to imagine how such a superstition arose and was perpetuated, but it is somewhat remarkable that several other nations have similar legends, only attached to other saints. The French have two, St. Medard (June Bth) and St. Gervais (June 19th.) The St. Swithin of Scotland is St. Martin of Bouillons, of Flanders Bt. Godelieve, of Germany the Seven Sleepers.„ Only recently in England have meteorological observations finally discredited the ridiculous legend.—Oracle.