Biblical rains and feasts: The legend of St Swithin

The wrath of St Swithin has long been a popular weather prediction legend, but the origins of the story have remained shrouded in mystery.

St Swithin, also spelled as ‘Swithun,’ was a bishop of Winchester in England in the ninth century. His last request before his death in 862 was to be buried among the common people outside the cathedral.

However, according to legend, a group of monks dug up his corpse and reinterred his body in a shrine inside the cathedral in 971, a move which supposedly angered the heavens so much, torrential rain fell for 40 days afterwards. The story warns that whatever the weather on his feast day – 15 July – it will continue for the next 40 days, though a continuous period of rain or drought for that length has never been recorded in modern times.