02Knights Templar - Julian Emperor

SAINTS
In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of
Northumbria, and wretchedly terrified the people. There
were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery
dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed
by great famine, and shortly after in the same year,
on January 8 th , the ravaging of heathen men destroyed
God’s church at Lindisfarne through brutal robbery and
slaughter: and Sicga died on February 2 nd .(The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles, Anne Savage, p.73)
St Swithun
St Swithun is a well-known English saint who became Bishop
of Winchester in 852 AD. According to legend he is said to
have liked the rain and asked to be buried in the churchyard at
Winchester so that it would fall on his grave. On 15 July 971
AD, the relics of St Swithun were moved into Winchester
Cathedral. On the day of the translation of his bones it was
observed that a number of people were cured of their ills and
these extraordinary events were attributed to the intercessory
power of St Swithun. Most famously, on the day of the translation
of his relics there was extremely heavy rainfall and this
phenomenon too was believed to have been caused by the
powers of the saint. A tradition has persisted right up to the
present day that, if it rains upon St Swithun’s Day, then it will
rain for the next forty days.
St Dunstan
One major consequence of the constant raids and attacks
made by the Vikings against England in the centuries before
the Norman Conquest was the dramatic disruption of
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