Saint Swithin and the Rain
Saint Swithin, also spelled Swithun, The meaning in Old English is “strong bear cub.” He was the Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester. Winchester Cathedral in England and Stravanger Cathedral in Norway are both dedicated to him. His feast day in England is July 15 and in Norway it is July 2. Why Norway? His veneration may have originated with English missionaries who worked with St. Olaf in evangelizing Norway. 
Swithin was born in Winchester around 800, counseled Saxon kings Egbert and Ethelwulf, and was bishop of Winchester for the last ten years of his life. One legend claims Swithin tutored young Alfred the Great. Another says he built the first stone bridge over the river Itchen that runs through Winchester.
One of St. Swithin’s most famous miracles is a simple act of kindness. A group of workmen broke all the eggs in a poor woman’s basket as she was crossing a bridge. Swithin demanded the workmen apologize to the woman. He blessed her basket of eggs, which restored all the broken shells and runny yolks so she had whole eggs again.
His appearance to Queen Aelgifa, also known as Emma of Normandy, was another miracle. She was a half-sister to William of Normandy, later King of England. Aelgifa was the mother of Edward the Confessor, and a famous queen of England, Denmark and Norway, through her marriages to Aethelred the Uncounseled and Cnut the Great. Aelgifa was accused of adultery with Aelfwine, the former bishop of Winchester.
On the night before her “ordeal,” a trial which involved walking across white-hot ploughshares blades at Winchester Cathedral, St. Swinthin is supposed to have comforted the queen, “I am Saint Swithin whom you have invoked; fear not, the fire shall do you no hurt.” The following day the queen was able to walk barefoot across the blades and remain completely unharmed.
Swithin died of July 2, 862. On his deathbed, the bishop left instructions that his body should be buried outdoors and not in the cathedral. He wanted the rain from the eves to fall upon his grave. 100 years later Swithin’s body was removed from its simple grave and interred in the cathedral on July 15, 971. On the same day his bones were moved from the outdoors an extraordinary rainfall began. It was said his spirit was so offended by the move that it caused rain to fall for 40 consecutive days.
In 1093 his bones were moved again into a huge new cathedral built by Norman invaders. His Anglo-Saxon reliquary was carried with great ceremony to its home behind the high altar. Swithin’s tomb became a major site for pilgrims, many seeking to be healed from illness. A short tunnel (the Holy Hole) allowed them to crawl under his shrine, as close as possible to his bones and miraculous healing powers. In the middle of the night on September 21, 1538, King Henry VIII’s commissioners smashed the shrine and stole all the valuables. Three years later workmen filled in the Holy Hole. A modern memorial marks the spot where the shrine was located.
The name of Swithin is best known today for a British weather lore proverb, which says that if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day (July 15), it will rain 40 more days.
St Swithun’s day if thou dost rain. For forty days it will remain. St Swithun’s day if thou be fair. For forty days ‘twill rain nae mare
There is a scientific basis to the weather pattern behind the legend of St. Swithin’s day. Around the middle of July the jet stream settles into a pattern which holds reasonably steady until the end of August. If the jet stream lies north of the British Isles, continental high pressures is able to move it; when it lies across or south of the British Isles, Arctic air and the Atlantic weather systems dominate. 
Emblems associated with St. Swithin are rain and apples. Apple growers hope for rain on St. Swithin’s Day or St. Peter’s Day (June 29th). They see the rain as saints’ watering the orchards; or as St. Swithin blessing and christening the apples.
A verse by Anglo-American writer Elizabeth Sewell proclaims,
“High in the Heavenly Places/ I see Saint Swithin stand./ His garments smell of apples/ And rain-wet English land.”
