St. Winefride's Well

It is not so much the wonderful restorations to health which happened and still happen at the well shrine today, but the double "miracle" at the heart of the medieval legend of St. Winifred. To this day, it still creates a pilgrimage and sequence of healings on account of the appearance of water and the resurrection of a dead woman. How is one to interpret the story that countless numbers of people throughout the centuries have found at its core? To God, all things are possible since we as Christians believe that the Son of God rose from the dead after His crucifixion; and that Jesus restored His friend Lazarus to life, so that, "they may believe that You have sent me" (St John 11:42).  Jesus also promised that the dead would be raised at the hands of the apostles; and we know this from the Acts of the Apostles, were St Luke, himself an ‘historian’ writes factual events about St Paul as well as St Peter raising people from the dead.  So, while the story of St Winefride was not written down until 500 years after the event and describes what occurred, it is important to recognise that both Winefride and Beuno were real people who lived in 7th-century Wales. Their written "Lives" are not only historically based, but also symbolic explorations that the local oral tradition has since preserved. Historians may interpret this rich mixture of fact and legend as best fits all the information, but it must never be undermined or seen as a myth.

There are numerous wells or springs in the UK, but this one took on a new meaning in the light of the events that happened 1,400 years ago. Beuno's own medieval Welsh "Life" strongly suggests that he had a hermitage at this spot and had an extraordinary power to heal. I think what is unusual about this story, and one that is often seen as ‘myth’, is that Bueno restores Winefride’s head to her body as a means of bringing her back to life. The cutting off of her head may indicate her throat was cut severely, so that ‘myth’ does derive from truth, and she died. We know that Winefride’s pursuer, Caradog, had used his sword to slay her in a frenzied attack so severely, and that her body or head landed on the spot where she fell, and a spring of water rose from the ground as a result of it. What is important to emphasize is that Beuno did raise/bring her back to life through prayer and healing, as told in the story. Both "Lives" of St. Winefride stress the scars that she bore to the end of her life, having been struck in the neck or throat, to the point that she died as a result of her attacker, and being returned to life.

The "Lives" also stress that people came to visit the girl who had returned to life, and to see the scars that witnessed to that restoration. Like Lazarus, Winefride pointed towards the resurrection of Jesus and to the eventual resurrection of all who would believe in Him.  We see here that the water that sprang as a result of her death also represents death to life through Christian baptism. Christian teaching also understood that believers were incorporated into Christ through the sacrament of baptism; the going into and coming out of the waters that sprang from the ground represent death to sin and a rising to new life. The story adds that Caradog melted into the ground as a result of his action, so that death had already swallowed up the sin he had committed, and the water-initiated life represented in Winefride’s innocence.

Winefride – ‘the Welsh Lazarus’ - went down into death and returned to life through a special mercy of God. For Christians, their baptism paralleled this experience and, like Winefride going down to death and rising to life, the sick pilgrim to Holywell has, through the centuries, experienced this as a profound symbol of their whole physical and spiritual being.

In the words of the ancient Litany of St. Winefride:

 That through thy pious intercession we may receive perfect health of our souls and bodies, O holy Virgin and Martyr, pray for us.

Now if Christ be preached, that He arose again from the dead, how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again...And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished...But now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep: For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

(I Corinthians 15: 12-13, 17-18, 20-22)

Follow this link for more information: http://www.stwinefrideswell.org.uk