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304 804 ST. WISDOM died a martyr to ber virgiuity aud Christianity. Then be took up ber bead from the ground and set it in its place, at the same time commanding the congregation to pray that she might be restored to life and fulfil ber vow. When they arose from praying, Winifred arose with them ; for the rest of her life she had a red mark round her throat where it bad been cut. Meantime, Garadoc stood with his sword in his hand, unable either to stir from the spot or to repent, and when Beuno reproached him for his crime, he fell down dead and was whisked away by devils. By Beuno's advice Winifred remained seven years at that church, gathering around ber, virgins of honest and holy conversation and in- structing them in the Christian religion. When Beuno went to Ireland, she and ber maidens every year worked him a chasuble or some pretty piece of needle- work ; they put it into the well and the stream carried it safely to him. After seven years she went to the double monastery of Witheryachus, in the vale of Cluid. St Elerius presented her to his mother St. Theonia, to whom Winifred eventually succeeded as abbess. It has been said that her name was Brewo and that the name of Winifred was given her after her death and resur- rection. St. Winifred's well is to be seen in the old town of Holywell. It is fed by a stream of singular brightness. The temperature of the water never changes, summer or winter; it is so clear that the pebbles at the bottom are distinctly seen to be stained as though with blood. The copious supply is never affected by the longest drought or the heaviest rains, and miraculous cures continue to occur there. It is lined with fragrant moss, the Jungermannia aspl^ noides. The beautiful chapel which stands over it is said to have been built by the Countess of Eichmond, mother of Henry VIII., but it may be earlier. i^.JIf. AA.SS. Britannia Sancta, Golden Legend, Her Lifcy says Butler, was written by Eobert, prior of Shrewsbury, two years after the translation of ber relics to his monastery in 1138. John of Tinmouth's Life of St, Wimfred is an abstract from that by Prior Robert of Shrewsbury. King, Shrines^ Rimmer, Our Old Country Towns, St. Wisdom, Sophia (1). St. Withburga (l), WrarBUBa, or ViTBUiiG, March 17, V. -I- 743. She was the youngest of the saintly daughters of Anna, king of the East Angles. Her sisters were SS. Ethelburoa (3), Skx- BUROA and Ethelreda; they had an elder half-sister St. Sedrido. Withburga was niece of St. Hilda, and annt of St. Ermenilda. She was sent to live with her nurse at Holkham in Norfolk, where in process of time a church was built in ber honour and the place called With- burgstowe. After her father's death she built a convent at Dereham. While she was building it she bad at one time nothing but dry bread to give her work- men. She applied for assistance to the B. YiKOiN Mart, who directed her to send her maids to a certain fountain every morning. There they found two wild does which yielded plenty of milk. In this way the workmen were fed and the work prospered until the overseer of those lands, in contempt or dislike of the saint and her miracles, hunted the does with dogs and made them leave off coming to the fountain to be milked. He was punished for his cruelty, for his horse threw him and he broke his neck. Withburga was buried in the cemetery of the abbey of Dereham, and ber body being found uncorrupted fifty-five years afterwards, was translated into the church which she herself had built. In 974 Brithnoth, abbot of Ely, determined to lay the body beside tiiose of her sisters : he went with armed followers to Dereham, where he invited the men to a feast and made them drunk. He carried off the body. They awoke and went in pursuit, and the men of Ely and the men of Dereham fought lustily for their treasure, javelins were thrown and bard blows were exchanged. At last Brithnoth triumphantly carried off the saint and deposited her at Ely. AA.SS.<, March 17. Butler, July 8. King, Shrines, B. Withburga (2), Oct. 16, middle of 8tb century. A noble English lady who shut herself up in a small cell in St. Peter's church at Rome and