Holywell

[poliphilo]

They call it the British Lourdes, which is entirely the wrong way round. How long has Lourdes been up and running? A hundred and fifty years.  But Holywell has been a pilgrimage site since forever.

The legend goes something like this. A prince called Caradoc was harassing a girl called Winefride. She told him to get lost so he cut off her head. Where she fell a spring started up- a spring with miraculous healing powers. Just then Winefride's uncle Bueno came out of church, saw what had happened, stuck her head on and brought her back to life. 

What is it with the Celtic cult of the severed head? Why do severed heads and springs go together the way they do? The spring is an entrance to the Otherworld and you plant it round with death's heads to strengthen the connection- something like that?  Or is the head a totem and expected to spout oracular wisdom the way the earth spouts water? No, there's meaning there but as with most things Celtic its all a bit sideways and glancing and elusive. A bit Dylan Thomasy. And the logic- though that's entirely the wrong word- is the logic of dreams.

Winefride and Bueno were real people. Both saints. Sainthood was easily come by in the 7th century. If you belonged to a princely family and pursued an ecclesiastical career they made you a saint as a matter of course.

In it's day Holywell was one of the greatest shrines in Britain. Henry V walked here all the way from Chester to give thanks for his victory at Agincourt. The wellhead chapel is a lovely thing..

And then came the Reformation and the shrine was closed. Only it wasn't, because the British catholic community refused to let it go. Holywell was far from the centre, it was tough to police and so the pilgrims kept on arriving, in spite of harrassment by the authorities, in spite of the danger of arrest and lynching.  A couple of "inns" in the vicinity served as safe houses and had chapels attached to them for the saying of Mass. Defoe was here in the 1720s and wrote

"The priests that attend here are very numerous and appear in 'disguise'. Sometimes they are physicians, sometimes gentlemen, sometimes patients or anything as occasion presents..."

It's a story of dogged perseverance and occasional heroism strung out over centuries. A remarkable secret history that makes you feel good about the human race.

And the catholics are still in charge today- hooray- and still running the place as a shrine. You enter through a shop full of devotional tat. We were there on a dreary Sunday afternoon and there was a continuous stream of pilgrims/tourists. At the door to the shop you can pick up a plastic bottle with a holy image on it, which you fill at the pump. 

I drank the water, I lit a candle, I addressed my thoughts to Herself. 

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Am I right in seeing a metal hand-rail in the far left corner, for steps so people can immerse themselves in the spring? And what are the yellow and blue tents? Are they temporary confessionals, or some kind of changing room?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, those are steps down into the pool. And the blue and yellow tents are for changing in.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating -and lovely.

The Celt's were not the only one's however with obsessions about martyred heads. when St Denis had his head lopped off, he is said to have picked it up and started walking. The spot where he stopped and laid it down then became the site of his Basilica - one of the most beautiful in the Paris area.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And then there are all those relatively modern ghosts with their heads tucked underneath their arms. There's something archetypal going on here and I don't quite know what it is.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

(Damn - sorry about the previous garbled version!)

There's also Tre Fontane in Rome, where St. Paul's severed head was supposed to have bounced three times, creating no less than three separate springs! I guess the main message in Christian stories like these is that from the horrible act of martyrdom comes purity and redemption. But the motif of miraculous spring-creation (whether by severed head or other means) is pre-Christian - e.g. it's what Poseidon did when competing with Athena to be the patron deity of Athens (although her olive tree was preferred).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about the bouncing head.

The Holywell legend is very like the story of Bergman's The Virgin Spring. I don't know whether that's based on an authentic Scandanavian legend, but I expect it is.

It seems these stories crop up all over Europe.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

well I never knew any of that. Must go visit. Interesting how many pagan springs became Christian - or Roman in the case of Aquae Sulis in Bath. sounds like you are having a lovely time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was new to me too.

Britain is full of secret places.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>>>>>They call it the British Lourdes, which is entirely the wrong way round. How long has Lourdes been up and running? A hundred and fifty years. But Holywell has been a pilgrimage site since forever

Not to mention Walsingham - but surely Holywell has nothing to do with Our Lady? Isn't it St Wnefred's shrine?

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>>>>They call it the British Lourdes, which is entirely the wrong way round. How long has Lourdes been up and running? A hundred and fifty years. But Holywell has been a pilgrimage site since forever.

It's not just the wrong way round, it's quite different!
St Winifred is local!
Walsingham is the candidate for the UK/British shrine to Mary.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true.

But Lourdes has this in common with Holywell that they're both centres of healing.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Right, now I see the point

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I keep returning to this post because I love that photo so much. I might have been born in the wrong country... :-)