Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/719

 WINFRID

657

WINNEBAGO

house of Tlievit, ami found VVinefride alone, her parents having gone early to Mass. The knowledge that Winefride had resolved to quit the world and consecrate herself to God seemed only to add fuel to his passion, and he pleaded his cause with extraor- dinary vehemence, even proceeding to threats as he saw her turn indignantly away. At length, terrified at his words and alarmed for her innocence, the maiden escaped from the house, and hurried towards the church, where her parents were hearing IVhiss, that was being celebrated by her uncle, St. Beuno. Maddened by a disappointed passion, Caradoc pur- sued her and, overtaking her on the slope above the site of the jjrcsent well, he drew his sword and at one blow severetl her head from the body. The head rolled down the incline and, where it rested, there gushed forth a spring. St. Beuno, hearing of the tragedy, left the altar, and accompanied by the parents came to the spot where the head lay beside the spring. Taking up the maiden's head he carried it to where the body lay, covered both with his cloak, and then re-entered the church to finish the Holy Sacrifice. When Mass was ended he knelt beside the saint's body, offered up a ferv'ent prayer to God, and ordered the cloak which covered it to be removed. There- upon Winefride, as if awakening from a deep slumber, rose up with no sign of the severance of the head except a thin white circle round her neck. Seeing the murderer leaning on his sword with an insolent and defiant air, St. Beuno in\'oked the ch.istisement of heaven, and Caradoc fell dead on the spot, the pop- ular belief being that the ground opened and swallowed him.

Miraculously restored to life, Winefride seems to have li\od in almost perpetual ecstasy and to have had familiar converse with God. In fulfilment of her promise, she solemnly vowed virginity and poverty as a recluse. A convent was built on her father's land, where she became the abbess of a community of young maidens, and a chapel was erected over the well. St. Beuno left Holywell, and returned to Ca;r- narvon. Before he left the tradition is that he seated himself upon the stone, which now stands in the outer well pool, and there promised in the name of God " that whosoever on that spot should thrice .ask for a benefit from God in the name of St. Winefride would obtain the gr.ace he asked if it w;is for the good of his soul". St. Winefride on her part made agreement with St. Beuno that so long as she remained at Holy- well, and until she heard of his death, she would yearly send him a memorial of her affection for him. After eight years spent at Holywell (reckoning from the departure of St. Beuno), St. Winefride, hearing of his death, received an inspiration to leave the convent and retire inland. There w.as reason to fear that Hol^Tvell would soon be no longer safe from the Saxon. The Kingdom of Northumbria was pre.ssing upon the borders of North Wales; .\nglesea and Chester were already in the hands of the Saxon. It was time for the British recluses to seek the .safety of the moun- tains; accordingly St. Winefride went upon her pilgrimage to seek for a place of rest. Ultimately she arrived at Gw\»therin near the sotirce of the River Elwy. This is still a most retired spot, where Welsh alone is spoken.

Some ten miles further across the vale of the Con- way rises the double peak of Snowdon. St. Wine- fride was welcomed at Gwvtherin by St. Elwy (Eler- iuBi, who gives his name to the River Elwy, and by whom the first life of the saint was written. She brought her companion religious with her, and found there other nuns governed by an abbess. She seems to h.ave lived at Owytherin as an acknowledged saint on earth, first in humble obedience to the abbess, and, after the latter's death, .as .abbess herself until her own death. Her chief fejist is observed on '.i Nov., the other feast held in midsummer being that of her XV.— 42

martyrdom. Her death was foreshown to her in a vision by Christ Himself.

During her life she performed many miracles, and after her death, up to the present day, countless won- ders and favours continue to be worked and ob- tained through her intercession.

The details of St. Winefride's hfe are gathered from a MS. in the British Museum, said to have been the work of the British monk, Elerius, a contemporary of the saint, and also from a MS. life in the Bodleian Library, generally believed to have been compiled (1139) bv Robert, prior of Shrewsbiu-y.

Acta .S.S., .Nov., I, 691 sq., 702 sq.. 706 sq.; Swift. Li/e of S. Winefride; Winefride, Virgin and Martyr; Meyrick. MS. Lift of St. Winefride.

P. J. Chandlery. Winfrid, S.vint. See Boniface, Saint.

Wingham, Thom.\s, b. in London, .5 Jan., 1846; d. there, 24 March, 1893. He studied music at Wylde's London Academy, and later entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he had for his teacher in theory William Sterndale Bennett, and, in piano pjaying, Harold Thomas. In 1817 Wingham became himself professor of piano playing in the same institution. At about the same period he obtained the post of choirmaster at the Brompton Oratory. Wingham's sound musicianship and ability were soon proved by the artistic excellence for which the per- formances at the Oratory became known during his incumbency. He was the artistic pioneer who prepared the way for the musico-hturgical conditions which have since followed. Among his compositions are four symphonies, six overtures, several instru- mental works in smaller form, two masses, and a "Te Deum", most of which, though frequently performed during the author's hfe-time, have re- mained in manuscript.

Grove, ed. Maitland, Dictionary of Music, V (New York, 1910), a. V.

Joseph Otten.

Winnebago Indians, a tribe of Siouan stock clo.sely related in sjiccrh to the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto, and more remotely to the Dakota and Ponca. The name Winnebago signifies "filthy water" (Chippewa, mnipcg), and was originally apphed to the lake near which the tribe was hving in the seventeenth century. They called them.selves //oroi?)', "fish-eaters", or Hoch- ungarra, "trout n.ation". The first white man to visit them was Nicollet, who found them by the shores of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1634, surrounded by the Sauk and Foxes and the Menominee, .■Algonquin tribes. They are referred to, but not by the name of Winnebago, by the Jesuits in 1636. On the west they were then in contact with their kindred Iowa; their art and culture was influenced by the neighbouring Siouan and .\lgonquin, but they were not much more adv.anced in w.arfare than the generality of the Dakota. Tribal traditions s.ay they had resided at Red Banks, Lake Michigan, before coming to Green Bay, and the Jesuit relation of 1671 states that they had previously been defeated and captured by the Illinois, but had been la'er given their liberty. The Jesuits AUouez .and D.ablon spent the winter of 1669- 70 among them. In the first half of the eighteenth century they were friendly towards the French, with whom they carried on commerce, and were slow to form an alliance with the English on the downfall of the French colonial power. Eventually, however, they proved their loyalty to them, especially during the War of Independence and the War of 1.S12. By the treaties of 1S2.T and 1H32 thry were granted a reserva- tion on the Mi.ifsissippi north of the River Iowa in ex- change for their lands .south of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers; in 1H46 they were transferred to Minnesota and in 18.56 were at Blue Earth, but were removed again owing to the Sioux war, and finally sent to the Omaha lands in Nebraska. In 1886 the tribe num-