St. Winifred November 3

 St. Winifred

Feastday: November 3

Patron: of Holywell; against unwanted advances

According to legend, she was the daughter of a wealthy resident of Tegeingl, Flintshire, Wales, and the sister of St. Beuno. She was most impressed by Beuno, was supposedly beheaded on June 22 by one Caradog when she refused to submit to him, had her head restored by Beuno, and sometime later, became a nun of the convent of a double monastery at Gwytherin in Denbigshire. She succeeded an Abbess Tenoy, as Abbess and died there fifteen years after her miraculous restoration to life. A spring supposedly springing up where Winifred's head fell, is called Holy Well or St. Winifred's Well and became a great pilgrimage center where many cures have been reported over the centuries. She is also known as Gwenfrewi. Her feast day is November 3.

Saint Winifred (or Winefride, Welsh: Gwenffrewi; Latin: Wenefreda) was a Welsh virgin martyr of the 7th century. Her cult was celebrated as early as the 8th century, but became popular in England in the 12th, when her biography (vita) was first written down.

A healing spring at the traditional site of her decapitation and restoration is now a shrine and pilgrimage site called St Winefride's Well in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales and known as "the Lourdes of Wales".