St Swithin's Day

St Swithin (sometimes spelt Swithun)

I imagine that there will be a goodly number of people taking a close look at their barometers this morning. "Why?", you may well be asking yourself. Well if you are of a superstitious nature you will probably already have remembered the ancient rhyme

'St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.'

or its Buckinghamshire variation:-

If on St Swithin's Day it really pours
You're better off to stay indoors!

So just who was this Saint Swithin, and how did he come to be associated with rainy weather?

St Swithin was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester who gained a reputation for posthumous miracle working after his death in 862. One story of his miracle working concerns a lady who dropped her eggs and broke them all. St Swithin picked them up and they were miraculously made whole again.

St Swithin was originally buried out of doors, rather than in his cathedral, apparently at his own request. William of Malmesbury has recorded that he left instructions that his body should be buried outside the cathedral, where it might be subject to the feet of passers by and to the raindrops pouring from on high, which indicates that the legend was already well known in the twelfth century.

In 971 it was decided to move his body to a new indoor shrine and one theory traces the origin of the legend to a heavy downpour, by which, on the day of the move, the saint marked his displeasure towards those who were removing his remains! 

This story, however, lacks proof and cannot be traced back further than the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries at the most.  It is also at variance with tenth century writers who all agree that the move took place in accordance with the saints desire expressed in a vision.

However, according to the Durham Chroniclers, there was a tremendous downpour of rain on St Swithin's Day in 1315. 

According to the Met Office the legend has been "put to the test" on no less than 55 times, when it has been wet on St Swithin's Day and 40 days of rain have not followed!

Whoever told the story about the St. Swithin's day saying was obviously well aware that summer weather patterns establishing by the beginning to the middle of July tend to be persistent throughout the coming few weeks. In fact this is statistically true in 7 to 8 out of 10 years.

No wonder the St. Swithin's day rule is also know in other western European countries. In France they say Quand il pleut a la Saint Gervais Il pleut quarante jours apres - If it rains on St. Gervais' day (19th of July), it will rain for forty days thereafter.



In Germany the Siebenschlaefer or seven sleepers day (July 7th, after the Gregorian calendar) refers to the weather patterns of the following seven weeks.

St Swithin is regarded as one of the saints to whom one should pray in the event of a drought!