Santez Gwenvred
Un article de GrandTerrier.
1 Fiche signalétique
|
2 Almanach
| |||||||||||||||||||||
3 Sources
|
4 Iconographie | |||||||||||||||||||||
5 Monographie
Winifrid (ou Gwenvred ou Gwenfrewi) : vierge galloise que le prince Caradoc fit décapiter parce qu'elle se refusait à lui.
St Winifred's Well :
St. Winifred's Well was an important place for pilgrims to visit during the Middle Ages. The story is told of how in the 7th century a young prince, Caradoc, visited Tegeingle near the mouth of the River Dee. Caradoc saw a pretty young girl called Winifred and made advances towards her. Winifred rejected and then ran towards the church. Caradoc, furious for being treated in this way, chased after her and cut off her head with a sword.
The head rolled down the hill towards the church. Winifred's father, Beuno, was just leaving the church and realizing what had happened, "cursed Caradoc so that he fell dead". Beuno lifted the head, wrapped it in his cloak and returned to Mass, where he asked the people to help him with their prayers for Winifred. He then joined the "head to her body and she at once revived, and afterwards bearing only a red threadlike mark around her throat."
Legend has it that where Winifred's head had fallen "the stones surrounding the fountain were stained forever with her blood, and the blood falling in the water coloured also the moss that grows there and which has the perfume of frankincense, though some say of violets."
A well was built where Winifred's head fell and people believed in the Middle Ages that its water had a curative quality. Therefore people visited St. Winifred's Well seeking physical help rather than a pilgrimage of penance.
On 23rd November, 1851, Pope Pius IX granted indulgences to pilgrims who visited St. Winifred's Well. This increased the number of visitors but on 5th January, 1917, disaster struck when the spring, which had been bubbling at the rate of twenty-one tons a minute, went suddenly dry. The reason for this was that tunnelling by a local lead-mine company, had caused the water to drain away into the River Dee. Later that year the lead-miners had managed to divert another underground stream to restore the supply of water.
Site An Arvorig :
Gwenvred
Prénom féminin - Fête les 22 ou 26 juin
Ce prénom féminin breton nous vient tout droit... du pays gallois.
Sainte Gwenvred était une jeune fille vierge vivant au Pays de Galles et qui comme bon nombre de ses consoeurs féminines et martyres, s'était refusée à un homme, un prince nommé Karadog qui lui fit alors trancher la tête.
Encore couramment employé au 15ème siècle, ce prénom porte en lui, ici bas, une valeur toute particulière car il fut le prénom de la dernière reine de Bretagne, épouse du Roi Salaun qui régna sur la région de l'An de Grâce 857 à celui de 874.
Issu des mots bretons Gwenn, qui signifie blanc et Bred qui pourrait être traduit par esprit ou dans le breton moderne par le préfixe psyché ou psycho, ce prénom, littérairement parlant, pourrait voir traduite sa signification par les expressions "heureux esprit" ou "esprit béni".
Devenu très rare de nos jours, le prénom Gwenvred a toutefois donné naissance à quelques dérivés tels que Gwenvrevi et Winifrid.