As a healing sanctuary, we ought to mention another healing sanctuary in the town of Holywell which is quite unique and famous. This is St Winifride’s well.
The healing waters of St Winefride’s well in Holywell have been said to cause miraculous cures. The legend of Saint Winifride tells how, in AD 660, Caradoc, the son of a local prince, severed the head of the young Winifred after she spurned his advances. A spring rose from the ground at the spot where her head fell and she was later restored to life by the prayers of her uncle, Saint Beuno.
Winefride lived as a nun until her second death some 22 years later. Whatever the exact truth of her legend, Winefride herself was real rather than legendary, and the extraordinary and enduring personality of this 7th-century Welsh woman has meant that she has been venerated as a Saint ever since the moment of her death. Since that time, too, her Well at Holywell has been a place of pilgrimage and healing – the only such place in Britain with a continuous history of public pilgrimage for over 13 Centuries.
The holy well is a major place of Catholic pilgrimage, but all visitors of all faiths or of none at all, are made welcome at the Well (described as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales), to share its unique mixture of history, beauty, and peace.
( Information sourced from http://www.saintwinefrideswell.com and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Winefride%27s_Well )
