St. Winifred of Wales (P 002)

St. Winifred* is a 7th-century Welsh virgin martyr. Instructed in the Faith by her uncle St. Beuno Gasulsych, St. Winifred made a private vow of virginity at an early age. But, one day while her parents were at church, she was accosted by a disgruntled suitor who ran her down by horse as she fled his advances on foot. He lopped off her head near the stairs of the church at which her uncle was saying Mass. + In art, St. Winifred is classified as a cephalophore [from the Greek: κεφάλι (kefáli) = head + φορέας (foréas) = bearer], that is, she is a saint who was beheaded and carries her own severed head. St. Denis of Paris is the archetype of this group. It is said that, once beheaded, he walked 6 km. from his place of execution at Montmartre (Martyr’s Hill) to the site of his eventual cathedral carrying his head and preaching all the while. + Of the more than one hundred cephalophores, only a handful are female saints. If that does not make her unusual enough, this does: St. Winifred went on to live another 15 years! Her uncle and spiritual advisor St. Beuno Gasulsych put her head back upon her shoulders and she lived again! + At the place she lost her head, a spring gushed from the earth. It became known as St. Winifred’s Well. Over the centuries, it became a famous place of pilgrimage and healing with a great chapel built over it. Today it is known as “the Lourdes of Wales”. + Cephalophores present an artistic challenge. Several options exist depending upon the medium, the number of heads depicted, and whether the heads are haloed or not. A saint may be depicted with a halo-less neck stump holding a halo-less head. This is by far and away the sculptor’s favourite—though not only--choice. More variety exists in two-dimensional art forms. Here, for instance, St. Winifred has a halo where her head used to be and the head which she carries has one too. A few saints are even “demi”-cephalophores: They carry only the crowns of their partially severed heads. That, however, is a story for another day! + As stated above, St. Winifred lived another 15 years after her decapitation and restoration and obtained her heart’s desire. During this second lease on life, she became a nun, founded several monasteries, and served as an abbess. Although she later died of natural causes, she is still accounted a martyr. + St. Winifred’s attributes include the sword with which she was beheaded, the spring which gushed forth where her head landed, her religious garb, and—of course—her severed head. + St. Winifred is patron of (Northern) Wales and is invoked against unwanted advances. + Feast: shifted to November 3 because November 2 is All Souls' Day + Image Credit (P 002): Antique image of St. Winifred from a late 19th-century devotional print in chromoxylography, originally published by Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg, New York, and Cincinnati. From the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera. + *The “i”-s and “e”-s in St. Winifred’s name appear almost interchangeable. Variant spellings include: Winfred, Winefred, Winfride, Wenefrida, etc. In fact, we’ve seen variant spellings used in the same document! In Welsh, her name is Gwenffrewi or more commonly Guinevere. Here, throughout, we have adopted the most commonly used, modern, American English spelling of St. Winifred’s name.