Did it rain in Winchester today?

Remember when we were in Winchester and walked on the path stones that are ancient grave stones?    I don’t recall seeing his tomb.   And, we didn’t get rained on.

St. Swithin lived in Winchester, England at the time of King Egbert, King Ethelwulf, and King Alfred the Great.  St. Swithin asked to be buried in a simple grave so people could walk over him and he could be rained on.   His relics were exhumed and moved (translated) into a church, and legend says this made him mad and he caused it to rain for 40 days.    He is now a “weather saint” because an old rhyme says that it will rain for 40 days if there is rain on St. Swithin’s Day.

July 15:  St. Swithin (also known as St. Swithun) 

St Swithun died in 862 as bishop of Winchester. It is not known when he was born, but he was a secular clerk with something of a reputation for virtue and learning. He was attached to the West Saxon court and was one of King Egbert's principal advisers. He was given the king's son, Ethelwulf, the father of Alfred the Great, to educate; and to him must go some of the credit for the strongly religious tone of the West Saxon court under Ethelwulf and his sons.

He was consecrated bishop of Winchester in 852, and as bishop was something of a builder. He may also have been one of the first contributors to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A number of agreeably humble miracles were attributed to him - he was said to have restored a basket of eggs dropped by an old market woman when crossing a bridge. His great reputation for sanctity is, however, largely owing to the cult which sprang up at Winchester a hundred years after his death, in the time of St Ethelwold and the monastic reformation, when his body was translated. His shrine was splendid, but when it was looted by Henry VIII in 1538 its gold and jewels were found to be false.

When he died he was buried at his own request in the churchyard, in order that the passers-by would walk over his grave and the rain fall upon it. It is always said that if it rains on his feast day, it will rain for forty days after, but it is not known how St. Swithun came to be associated with the weather. Similar stories are told of SS Medard, Gervase and Protase in France.

—The Saints, edited by John Coulson 

The Roman Martyrology mentions St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, England. His holiness was made known by miracles. He died on July 2, but "St. Swithin's Day" is held on July 15 in England, the day his relics were transferred. He is another of the "weather saints" — if it rains on July 15, it will rain forty more days. If no rain, it will be fair for forty more days, as the old rhyme says:

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair.

This weather patronage traces back to July 15, 871 when the monks were translating his body (relics) from the outdoor grave to an indoor shrine in the Cathedral. The saint apparently did not approve, as it rained for 40 days afterward.

Patron: drought relief; Stavenger, England; Winchester, England.

Symbols: cross; rain cloud and rain; crosier and closed book.