Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Sanim and Hereford Kalendars, not that of York. Authority: — A Latin Life, the MS. of which is in characters of the middle of the 1 ith cent, published by Rees, “ Lives of the CambroBritish Saints,” p. 198-209. The MS. has the superscription in a much more modern hand, “ Per Elerium Britannum monachum, anno 660, aut Robertum Salopiensem, anno 1190.” It is by neither. This MS. is among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum. There is another, however, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which is probably that written by Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury. Of this latter an English translation was published by Dr. Fleetwood, bishop of S. Asaph, in 1713, with the following title, “The Life and Miracles of St. Winefred, together with her Litanies, and some Historical Observations made thereon.” See also Leland, Itin. iv. p. 128, ed. Nov. Also the Welsh Life of S. Beuno, published by Rees.] S. Winefred, or more properly Gwenfrewi, cannot have belonged to a royal family, for her name does not occur in any of the Welsh pedigrees of saints; and this agrees with the account in her Life, which certainly represents her as the daughter of a man of some means, but not as wealthy and noble. The date at which she lived can only be fixed by the names mentioned in her legend. Her father was named Teuyth ap Eylud, and lived inTegengle; he is described as a “ valiant soldier.” Winefred was his only daughter, a very modest, beautiful, girl. S. Beuno came to Tegengle, and lodged with Teuyth, who asked him to train his daughter for heaven. S. Beuno obtained from the king a piece of land at Belaye, and there he built a cell and a chapel, where he said mass daily.
One Sunday whilst Teuyth and his wife were at mass, Caradoc ap Alauc, a youth of royal blood, was out hunting, and feeling hot and thirsty, he halted at the cottage of Teuyth, hitched up his horse, and went in to ask for something to drink. He found the beautiful Winefred alone there, and being a young man of ungovernable passions, and without scruples, attempted insolent familiarities. Winefred ran from him through the door into the inner room, pretending she was going to put on her Sunday gown, and opening the back door of the house, fled down the valley to the little chapel of S. Beuno. Caradoc, finding the girl did not return, jumped on his horse and pursued her. He caught her up at the chapel door, and then in his anger he struck her with his dagger on the throat so as to wound her. Where the blood flowed the rock opened, and a spring bubbled up. S. Beuno rushed to the chapel door and cursed the young man, who at once disappeared after other game. Under the hands of her parents and S. Beuno, Winefred rapidly recovered, and when Beuno left, she promised to send him a cloak of her own weaving every year, in gratitude for the instructions he had given her, and this she always did.
During the life of Winefred a Council of the abbots and bishops of Wales was held, and it was decided that some discipline should be introduced among the solitaries who were scattered over the country, and that they should be brought into communities under proper heads. Thus eleven virgins were united under the control of S. Winefred, who lived on the spot where Beuno had built his cell, and her fountain had gushed up.
Leland says that Elerius, the British monk, built a double S. Winefred. monastery in the vale of Clwyd, for both sexes, and that S. Winefred was placed in this.1 Such is probably the real story of the virgin Winefred, but it is much more marvellous in her Legend. In that Caradoc with a sweep of his sword cuts her head clean oft, and Beuno puts it on again, and the head adheres to the trunk, leaving only a small red line where the gash had been. As for Caradoc, when cursed, “ he melted like wax.” Perhaps this is a poetical way of saying that he cried. When Winefred desired to send the cloak to Beuno, she put it on a stone in her well, and the stone floated it down the stream and river out to sea, and away to the spot where Beuno was.
“ The stones of the well appear bloody at present as they did at first, and the moss smells as frankincense, and cures divers diseases.”
It is very improbable that Caradoc should have cut oft her head; it is not improbable that, in a fit of anger, or by accident, he may have wounded her in the throat. Some pebbles streaked with red veins, which look bright as blood under the clear water, are still shown as marked with Winefred's blood. The red is caused by iron in the stone. The moss still grows at the margin of the water, but has lost its scent of frankincense. The spring is an exceedingly beautiful and copious one, it pours forth in great abundance from under a singularly beautiful vaulted Gothic edifice. Near at hand is the old chapel of S. Beuno, now converted into a Grammar School. M. de Montalembert says: “At the spot where the head of this martyr of modesty struck the soil, there sprung up an abundant fountain, which is still frequented, and even venerated, by a population divided into twenty different sects, but animated by one common hatred for Catholic truth. This fountain has given its name to the 1 De Scriptor. Brit, c 49, Ed. Hearn.
town of Holywell. Its source is covered by a fine Gothic porch of three arches, under which it forms a vast basin, where from morning to evening, the sick and infirm of a region ravaged by heresy, come to bathe, with a strange confidence in the miraculous virtue of these icy waters.” The explanation of the marvellous tale as given above is the most probable, viz., that Winefred was only hurt by her angry admirer, and that a little wound on the throat was magnified by legend into her head being cut off. But there is another solution, according to which there were two Winefreds: one a real martyr in defence of her chastity, the other a nun who lived somewhat later; and perhaps these two have been run together, and the later existence of a Winefred accounted for by making the first Winefred restored to life. It is remarkable that in the survey of “ Domesday Book,” which includes the County of Flint, neither church, chapel, nor well of S. Winefred is mentioned, affording the presumption that the story and celebrity of the saint are of later date than the Norman conquest
