Shrines of England

The church of St Candida and Holy Cross, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset.

    Here is the shrine of St Wite, otherwise known as St Candida. The shine consists of a 13th century altar, with three openings to allow access to the remains of St Wite, which were confirmed to still be in place in a lead casket when the tomb was opened in 1900. Somehow the shrine was overlooked in the Reformation.
       On our visit to this church the shrine was full of notes, requests for the saint’s assistance. Interestingly, there were also many notes thanking St Wite for the help she had given. Just luck – or more than that?









Folkstone, Kent - St Eanswythe.

In 1885, while the parish church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, close to Folkestone harbour, was being renovated, a lead container of human remains was found in an alcove – possibly hidden to avoid the destruction of relics during the Reformation.
  The bones were around half a skeleton, and they were assumed to be those of Saint Eanswythe, an Anglo-Saxon princess, who. It is said, founded Folkstone Priory, one of the earliest monasteries in England for woman. She died in 650.
   Recently the bones have been analysed. Radiocarbon dating puts them at the right date, and they are the bones of a woman of the right age, so it is a good chance that they are the relics of Eanswythe.



Jawbone of St Eanswythe
 

                                                                             
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