{"id":8075,"date":"2021-07-15T00:09:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T04:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/?p=8075"},"modified":"2021-07-15T01:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T05:36:28","slug":"summer-rains-weeping-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/summer-rains-weeping-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Rains, Weeping Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

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St. Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain.<\/em> So the story goes for today, the Fifteenth of July. It is St. Swithin\u2019s Day, a very British traditional weather marker concerning rain, based on the old story of St. Swithin, the weeping saint. St. Swithin was a 9th century Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester. The source of the weeping comes from after his earthly life, for it was the good bishop\u2019s wish to be buried in the churchyard and not in the chancel of the church, as was the custom for bishops. His wishes were followed when he died, but after his canonization, the monks decided the open churchyard was a rather disgraceful place for a saint to be buried, and so on the 15th of July in 971, they planned to move the relics of St. Swithin indoors to the choir, in a solemn procession. A great downpour began during the procession, though, and continued for forty days. The monks took this is a sign from St. Swithin himself, and so they let him be there in the churchyard, although they did eventually erect a chapel over his grave.<\/p>\n

Of course, it could very well be sunny today. The weather lore for the day, in its entirety, is actually this: St. Swithin\u2019s Day if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St. Swithin\u2019s Day if thou be fair, For forty days \u2019twill rain nae mair.<\/em>\u00a0As in: “for forty days, it will rain no more.” Here in Lake Worth, where we are knee-deep in the summer rainy season, rain is a safe bet today and certainly for the next forty days and more. And while mango season has ended and we grow no apples here, there is, as well, another old belief that when it rains on St. Swithin\u2019s Day, the saint is blessing the apple crop.\u00a0Here are a few lines from Poor Robin\u2019s Almanack<\/em>, July 1697:<\/p>\n

In this month is St Swithin\u2019s Day;<\/em>
\nOn which, if that it rain, they say<\/em>
\nFull forty days after it will,<\/em>
\nOr more or less, some rain distill.<\/em>
\nThis Swithin was a Saint, I trow,<\/em>
\nAnd Winchester\u2019s Bishop also.<\/em>
\nWho in his time did many a feat,<\/em>
\nAs Popish legends do repeat:<\/em>
\nA woman having broke her eggs<\/em>
\nBy stumbling at another\u2019s legs,<\/em>
\nFor which she made a wofull cry,<\/em>
\nSt Swithin chanc\u2019d for to come by,<\/em>
\nWho made them all as sound, or more<\/em>
\nThan ever that they were before.<\/em>
\nBut whether this were so or no<\/em>
\n‘Tis more than you or I do know:<\/em>
\nBetter it is to rise betime,<\/em>
\nAnd to make hay while sun doth shine,<\/em>
\nThan to believe in tales and lies<\/em>
\nWhich idle monks and friars devise.<\/em><\/p>\n

Poor Robin was not a fan of the monks and friars (or the Catholics), to be sure, and obviously valued hard work more than a good story. One last mention of the legend: John Gay, in his poem \u201cTrivia,\u201d gives a few lines to our weeping saint:<\/p>\n

How, if on Swithin\u2019s Feast the welkin hours,<\/em>
\nAnd every penthouse streams with hasty showers,<\/em>
\nTwice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain,<\/em>
\nAnd wash the pavements with incessant rain.<\/em><\/p>\n

He certainly had a way with words, John Gay did. He was known to have labored incessantly, much like St. Swithin’s rain, over his poems, searching for just the right words, searching for beauty. Which is why he is a great poet, and I am a reporter, giving you the news of the day, news that involves a saint who weeps. But that is my pleasure and my joy.<\/p>\n

Back in 2014, when I first wrote about St. Swithin’s Day in this Book of Days, reader Laurie Jo Wright left a beautiful comment on the post, which makes me think that she, too, labors over words searching for beauty. Laurie Jo was welcoming the rain, but was pleading with the good saint to let her get the hay in first: Just let me get the hay in first \u2013 we had a couple of very light sprinklings this morning so I am not quite sure what to make of that in terms of the 40 day forecast, but fingers crossed \u2013 lets hope for mild clear skies. At least until Friday when the baling is finished and hay off the fields. But these are the best weeks’ sleep of the entire year: that sweet drying smell of freshly mown hay somnolent \u2013 if Angels wings had a scent this would be it!<\/em><\/p>\n

She is right about the smell of freshly mown hay, and if I could find a way to use the word\u00a0somnolent<\/em> more than I do, I would. Now, lest you think this all is hogwash, there actually is some truth, it is said, to the weather lore for St. Swithin\u2019s Day, for the jet stream over Britain tends to follow a regular pattern at this time of year, dictating the weather patterns for the next five to six weeks. Should the jet stream lie north of Britain, the weather will typically be clear and mild. Should the jet stream lie across or south of Britain, stormy weather may be expected as rain moves in from the Atlantic. And so science seems to confirm the weather lore. Or else St. Swithin really does love a rainy day.<\/p>\n

SUMMER SALE<\/strong>
\nA rainy day is a perfect day to shop our Summer High Five Sale<\/strong><\/a>, in which you can use the discount code HIGH5<\/strong> at checkout for $5 off your order of $35 or more. Take it to $50 and you’ll earn free domestic shipping, too.<\/p>\n

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That’s my mom in the Summer Sale photo (click the photo to make it larger). It’s her name day tomorrow: the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; her name is Carmela, but most often she goes by Millie, which I think is a great name. Thoroughly modern and all that. And at 94, Mom has begun a new cottage industry at home this past spring: each day she hand embroiders a flour sack towel. Millie’s Tea Towels (that seems to be the company name)\u00a0are now on our website, available for purchase. They’re adorable. I’m so proud of Mom’s efforts. They are part of a brand new part of our online catalog<\/strong><\/u><\/a> we’re calling “Linens & Textiles.” Millie’s hand embroidered tea towels focus on three different themes: there are a whole bunch that deal with coffee (“Java Jive”) and more that deal with baked goods (“Baking Day”), and then another whole bunch that offer bits of wisdom of a culinary nature (“Kitchen Wisdom”). And she’s been working on more. Check back after this weekend and you’ll find towels with beach and tropical themes, another collection that’s perfect for your summer lake home and camping trips, and a whole lot more related to wine (you spoke, she listened).<\/p>\n

I think you’ll be as impressed as I am with Mom’s handiwork. Her tea towels make wonderful gifts for yourself or someone else and Millie’s getting every penny we sell them for. I figure I owe her at least that for all the effort she put into raising me. You’ll find other lovely hand embroidered textiles there, too, from the extended family in Chiapas who make the protective face masks we’ve been selling since last summer. Prices on those masks, by the way, are reduced to $10. We got our last shipment of masks from them a few weeks ago, and now, I’m happy to report, they are focusing again on\u00a0their traditional wares. (Hurrah for science and vaccinations!)<\/p>\n

Everything in the catalog is part of the Summer Sale, so go, have some fun there: Click here<\/strong><\/a> to shop.<\/p>\n

Image: “Spring Rain” by John Sloan. Oil on canvas, 1912 [Public domain<\/em>]\u00a0via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n

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St. Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain. So the story goes for today, the Fifteenth of July. It is St. Swithin\u2019s Day, a very British traditional weather marker concerning rain, based on the old story of St. Swithin, the weeping saint. St. Swithin was a 9th century Anglo-Saxon bishop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[110,205],"tags":[197],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8075"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8081,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions\/8081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}