Saint Barbara's

Saint Winifride, Holywell

The first is to the Shrine of Saint Winifride at Holywell in Flintshire, North Wales. This occurs on the first Saturday of October each year and is a major event in the Orthodox calendar in Britain.

Saint Winifride (in Welsh Gwenfrewi) was born and raised in the area at the beginning of the seventh century and was thus more or less a contemporary of Saint Augustine of Canterbury. At the time Gwenfynnan, as Holywell was then known, lay on the disputed border of two of the Welsh kingdoms: Powysland and Gwynedd. It was here that, as a young woman, she encountered Saint Beuno, one of that great race of peripatetic saints for which Wales is so famous. He groomed her for the monastic life but she fell prey to one of the local princes, Caradoc, who at once desired to possess her. Winifride, preparing to live the life of a nun, rejected his advances at which he killed her. Saint Beuno, happening on the scene, restored Winifride to life and she completed her earthly life first as an anchoress close to where her well now is and towards the end of her life in community at Gwytherin above Llanrwst in the Conway Valley.

It is recorded that at the spot where Winifride fell under the sword of Prince Caradoc a spring gushed forth and this flow of water has never faltered since. Many miracles have been reported as a result of the use of this water blessed by God and Saint Winifride and Holywell remains the only holy site in Britain where the flow of pilgrims has never ceased. Even in the dark days of the Reformation many pilgrims continued to make their way to this remote corner of North Wales and that stream of pilgrims continues to this day.

Nowadays the shrine is in the care of the Roman Catholic Church but the mediaeval chapel above the well head is in the care of CADW - the Welsh Historic Monuments Commission. Although the chapel is devoid of any internal fittings, on this one day each year the whole chapel is converted into an Orthodox Church. A team effort by parishioners means that many of the portable elements of the Church of Saint Barbara are transported to Holywell to completely transform this late mediaeval chapel which was built by Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII.

Principal among those who have been invited to lead our celebrations at Holywell are Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira and Great Britain; Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, Bishop Athanasios of Tropaeou, also of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain; and Bishop Basil of Sergeivo of the Diocese of Sourozh.

Our second pilgrimage is a much more low-key 'parish' event.

Saint Plegmund's Well, Plemstall

The recently restored well associated with Saint Plegmund is a stone-lined well, sadly often dry, which stands by the roadside a hundred yards or so from Plemstall's parish church, a hamlet close to Mickle Trafford to the north-east of Chester. Saint Plegmund was a hermit who established his cell on the high ground above the River Gowy in the latter part of the ninth century. In those days most of this area comprised tidal marshes and this presented a wonderful isolation for such a hermit as Saint Plegmund. Sadly for him, his isolation did not last and he was called to Winchester as an adviser to King Alfred. Here he wrote much of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury to a still undivided Church at the very end of the ninth century. He reposed in the year 914.

The pilgrimage, with the Lesser-Blessing of Waters, takes place each year on the first Sunday in August following the Divine

Liturgy. We all take a picnic lunch to enjoy in this very picturesque spot and usually enjoy fine weather for the afternoon. 1999 was an exception and saw us all running for cover during the Agiasmos when the lightning got too close for comfort!