14 Facts About Swithun

Swithun was an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral.

Swithun's death is entered in the Canterbury manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 861.

Swithun is recorded as a witness to nine charters, the earliest of which is dated 854.

The revival of Swithun's fame gave rise to a mass of legendary literature.

Swithun made his diocesan journeys on foot; when he gave a banquet he invited the poor and not the rich.

The former is to be found in the hagiography attributed to Goscelin, the latter in Thomas Rudborne's Historia major, a work which is responsible for the story that Swithun accompanied Alfred on his visit to Rome in the 850s.

On his deathbed Swithun begged that he should be buried outside the north wall of his cathedral where passers-by should pass over his grave and raindrops from the eaves drop upon it.

Swithun was moved from his grave to an indoor shrine in the Old Minster at Winchester in 971.

Swithun's body was probably later split between a number of smaller shrines.

Swithun's head was certainly detached and, in the Middle Ages, taken to Canterbury Cathedral.

Swithun was installed on a 'feretory platform' above and behind the high altar.

St Swithun then appeared in a dream to someone and warned them that if they stopped going to the church, then miracles would cease.

Swithun is regarded as one of the saints to whom one should pray in the event of drought.

Swithun was initially buried outdoors, rather than in his cathedral, apparently at his own request.