[or Swithin]. Bishop of Winchester and patron saint of Winchester Cathedral from the 10th to the 16th century. He is scarcely mentioned in any document of his own time. His death is entered in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 861; and his signature is appended to several charters in Kembles Codex diplomaticus. Of these charters three belong to 833, 838, 860862. In the first the saint signs as Swithunus presbyter regis Egberti, in the second as Swithunus diaconus, and in the third as Swithunus episcopus. Hence if the second charter be genuine the first must be spurious, and is so marked in Kemble. More than a hundred years later, when Dunstan and Æthelwold of Winchester were inaugurating their church reform, St. Swithun was adopted as patron of the restored church at Winchester, formerly dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. His body was transferred from its almost forgotten grave to Ethelwolds new basilica on the 15th of July 971, and according to contemporary writers, numerous miracles preceded and followed the translation.
The revival of St. Swithuns fame gave rise to a mass of legendary literature. The so-called Vitae Swithuni of Lantfred and Wulstan, written about A.D. 1000, hardly contain any germ of biographical fact; and all that has in later years passed for authentic detail of St. Swithuns life is extracted from a biography ascribed to Gotzelin, a monk who came over to England with Hermann, bishop of Salisbury from 1058 to 1078. From this writer, who has perhaps preserved some fragments of genuine tradition, we learn that St. Swithun was born in the reign of Egbert, and was ordained priest by Helmstan, bishop of Winchester (838c. 852). His fame reached the kings ears, who appointed him tutor of his son Adulphus (Æthelwulf) and numbered him amongst his chief friends. Under Æthelwulf he was appointed bishop of Winchester, to which see he was consecrated by Archbishop Ceolnoth. In his new office he was remarkable for his piety and his zeal in building new churches or restoring old ones. At his request Æthelwulf gave the tenth of his royal lands to the Church. His humility was such that he made his diocesan journeys on foot; and when he gave a banquet he invited the poor and not the rich. He built near the eastern gate of his cathedral city a bridge whose stone arches were so strongly constructed that in Gotzelins time they seemed a work non leviter ruiturus. He died on the 2nd of July 862, and gave orders that he was not to be buried within the church, but outside in a vile and unworthy place.
William of Malmesbury adds that, as Bishop Alhstan of Sherborne was Æthelwulfs minister for temporal, so St. Swithun was for spiritual matters. The same chronicler uses a remarkable phrase in recording the bishops prayer that his burial might be ubi et pedibus praetereuntium et stillicidiis ex alto rorantibus esset obnoxius. This expression has been taken as indicating that the well-known weather myth contained in the doggrel lines
St. Swithins day if thou dost rain | |
For forty days it will remain; | |
St. Swithins day if thou be fair | |
For forty days twill rain na mair |
The so-called lives of St. Swithun written by Wulstan, Lantfred, and perhaps others towards the end of the 10th century may be found in Bollanduss Acta sanctorum (July), i. 321327; Mabillons Acta SS. O. B. vi. 70, &c., vii. 628, &c.; and J. Earles Life and Times of St. Swithun, 59, &c. See also William of Malmesbury, Gest. reg. i. 150, and De gest. pont. 160, 167, 179; Florence of Worcester, i. 168; T. Rudborne ap. Whartons Anglia sacra, i. 287; T. D. Hardys Cat. of MSS. i. 513517; J. Brands Popular Antiquities; R. Chamberss Book of Days; Ethelwulfs Tithe Charters, nearly all of which refer to St. Swithun in the body of the text, may be studied in Haddon and Stubbss Councils, iii. 636645; a comparison of the charter on page 642 with Gotzelins life (ap. Earle, 69) and William of Malmesbury (Gest. reg. 150; De gest. pont. 160) seems to show that these charters, even if forgeries, date back at least to the 11th century, as well as the story of his being Ethelwulfs altor et ductor. See also Lives of the Saints.