New wells for old by Tristan Gray Hulse

Roy Kerridge’s article about Canvey Island and its brand new holy well has prompted me to look more closely at two questions I am frequently asked once my interest in the whole subject of sacred wells becomes known. “How do holy wells come into being” (or, “How do wells become holy”) and “are holy wells coming into being today?” The second question is easily answered, in the affirmative, and there is an abundance of evidence (though little of it is British.) But, . given their sheer age and the almost total lack of any relevant or reliable information, the origins of most of our British holy wells can only be matters for inconclusive speculation; and therefore it is of considerable interest to look at these modern holy wells whose origins are documented, in case these can offer clues as to the manner in which earlier wells came to be regarded as holy. For convenience, given the vastness of the topic, and to further illustrate the modern cult at Canvey Island, I will confine myself to wells whose sacrality was initiated via visionary experiences. Of course, such origins are not simply a modern phenomenon (1) To take an ancient but little known example on 7th March 1426 an old peasant woman, Vincenza Pasini, met the Virgin Mary on the slopes of Monte Berico, above the Italian city of Vicenza. At the time, Vicenza was ravaged by the plague, and Mary told the woman that if the citizens built a church on the spot, and assembled there in her honour, the pestilence would cease. She added, “As proof of my desire let them come and dig among these dry rocks: there will gush forth a steady spring of water”. And so it happened. As the people dug the foundations of the new church, a healing spring burst forth. (Seglias 1966. The spring dried up in 1507, after a man watered his horse there – a reaction to the profanation of holy wells familiar from the folklore of many countries, including those of the British Isles) Such origin legends cannot have been without relevance to the articulation of more modern examples, but the climate of expectancy and unconscious imitation which undoubtedly influences contemporary apparitions within their specifically Catholic context is ultimately generated by a small number of famous and influential Marian visions dating to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The initiating vision of this sequence, in so far as the specific consideration here is with vision associated sacred water sources, occurred on 19 September 1846, near the hamlet of La Salette, some 55,000 feet up in the mountains of Southern France, when Mary appeared to the animal herders Melanie Calvat (15) and Maximin Giraud (11). Our lady was seated upon a rock, weeping, and she warned the children that if people did not repent of their sins, God would punish France -specifically, in this agricultural region, foretelling crop failure and famine. Afterwards, the children ran to the village to tell their tale and when people climbed to the apparition site, they found a source of water rising from beneath the rock on which Mary had sat. A periodic spring had been noticed at the spot before, but since that day the water has never dried up, and is still in use for healing. (Gillet 1953, 193- 201). Nowadays, much more famous than La Salette and in many ways the paradigm of Marian apparitions, is Lourdes, where in 1858 the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous in the Massabielle grotto on the banks of the River Gave, which at that time was little more than the council rubbish tip. During the vision on 25 February Mary told Bernadette “Go and drink at the spring and wash in it”. There was no discernible spring in the grotto, but the child scrabbled in the mud beneath the natural niche within which she saw the Virgin and “washed” her face in and drank of, the muddy water which collected in the resultant hollow. The onlookers that day were scandalised, but the spring, thus uncovered, gathered in strength, and continued to flow -as it does to the present day. The first cure – resulting from the use of the water thus revealed was that of. Louis Brouillette, a few days later, when the sight of his damaged eye was restored and the subsequent history of the Lourdes spring is too well known to need recalling here (Gillett 1953, 202 -13) La Salette and Lourdes, with the so called “Miraculous Medal” apparitions in Paris in 1830, and the visions seen by three children at Fatima, in Portugal, in 1917 (where, too, a holy well was eventually uncovered, though not as a direct consequence of the visions – cf. Source new set no. 4 (Summer 1995),10), have been the most influential modern visions. Their influence – and particularly those at Lourdes – is traceable in the vision sequence of Mary seen by the eleven year old Mariette Beco in in Banneux, in Belgium in 1933. On the evening of 15 January Mariette saw the Virgin, dressed as she had been at Lourdes, standing in the garden. In total, there were eight separate visions. On the evening of 18 January, Mary beckoned the child, and led her to a spring by the roadside, telling her to wash her hands. “This spring” she said “is set apart for me.” On the following night, Mariette was again led to the spring, where Mary said of the water that it was “For all the nations. For the sick. I come to relieve the sick.” Today, the spring is part of the shrine of the Virgin of the Poor, Queen of Nations, as Mary described herself to Mariette, and is still the focus of pilgrimage and healing (Gillett 1953, 261 – 8). Motichiari, near Brescia, in Northern Italy, was the scene of an extended series of apparitions. They began in 1947, when Mary as Rosa Mystica, the “Mystical Rose”, appeared to Pierina Gilli, a nurse. Much later, on 17 April 1966, while Pierina was in the neighbouring hamlet of Fontanelle, Mary appeared to her beside an old well. She said: “My divine son is all love and he sent me to bestow upon this well healing power. Put here a crucifix. The sick people and all my children shall first ask my divine Son to forgive them, then lovingly kiss the cross, and then they should draw water or drink. I wish the sick and all my children to come to this miraculous water.” Appearing again on 13 May 1966, Mary described the well as “the Spring of Grace”. Though the church has never approved the Rosa Mystica visions, it has quietly tolerated the pilgrimages to Montichiari – Fontanelle, where people approach the well in solemn procession (Weigl 1983, 28 – 40, Laurentin 1991, 184 – 5). Mary first appeared to Rosa Quattrini (1909 – 81) in a globe of light above the pear tree in her garden in the village of San Damiano, near Piacenza, in Italy, on 16 October 1964, whereupon the tree suddenly put forth blossom, although it was still bearing fruit at the time. After this, the Virgin appeared to Rosa in “Her Little Garden of Paradise”, as Mary called it, every Friday for the rest of Rosa’s life. In after times, various photographs have been taken at the site, which it is claimed, actually show the Virgin as she appeared to Rosa and other celestial signs. On 20th August, 1965, Mary said, “A great grace will come here: a source of great grace, of living water to purify soul and body”. Following Mary’s instructions, Rosa had the ground near the pear tree excavated, when a spring of water was uncovered. Of her holy well, our Lady said: Come and drink at this well of water of Grace. Wash yourselves! Drink and have confidence in this water. Many will be cured of physical ills (18 November 1966). Drink much water. This water will restore health of soul and body; it will purify you and will free the possessed. Drink much of this water and bathe the ailing part of the body, reciting three Hail’ Mary’s and one Creed. You, act with faith and I will give you all the graces and comfort. (13 October 1967). Though Mama Rosa, as she came to be called by her followers, has since died and though the Church strenuously opposed the apparitions for decades, the pilgrimages to the Garden of Paradise still continue, and many cures have been attributed to the use of the Water of Grace (Osee 1977, 53 – 4, 187 – 8). The events at Canvey Island are frequently closely reminiscent of those at San Damiano, which themselves are among the best known such events within contemporary Catholicism. On 25 March 1976 our Lady appeared to Maria Esperanza Medrano de Bianchini at a little Marian wayside shrine on the hillside above her farm at Cua, near Betania, in Venezuala. Mary told her “I will be your refuge. I am the reconciler of all people.” This, and further visions, led people to gather at the grotto, and on 25 March 1984 Mary appeared to numbers of these pilgrims, standing above the waterfall beside the shrine. People began to use the water, and cures resulted. The local bishop Mgr. Pio Ricardo investigated these claims, and in his eventual report wrote: Either through prayer, or the water from the waterfall there have been not only spiritual graces but extraordinary cures. Among these latter were the disappearance of advanced cancer of the kidneys and the sudden cure of two duodenal ulcers…(&c) …I have obtained certification, diagnoses, analyses and proof of a medical nature in three of the above mentioned cases. Mgr Ricardo has since authorised a church on the site, and on 21 November 1987 he authenticated both the cures and the visions themselves (Laurentin 1991, 53-6). In 1979 the Cistercian monks erected a Lourdes Grotto by a spring near their monastery of Mount Melleray, in County Waterford, in Ireland. Local people would visit the Grotto in the evening to say the Rosary. Then, in 1985, when the rash of “moving statues” occurred at Lourdes Grottoes all over Ireland, the same sort of event was observed at Mt Melleray. Unlike the majority of similar sites, however, Mt Melleray quickly became the location of multiple actual visions of the Virgin. One night an unusual phenomenon was observed in relation to the stream from the spring. “It lit up brightly like a glow worm and remained luminous for quite a while.” A little later, two boys, Tom Cliffe and Barry Buckley, both saw our lady, with “a single rose in her hair.” She told them, “My message is Peace and Prayer”,and afterwards she said, “tell the people the water is blessed”. After which, the spring in the Grotto came to be regarded and used as a holy well (Vose 1986, 38 – 49).

Many other very recent examples might be cited (as, for example, the holy wells at Kerizinen in Brittany, Dozule in Normandy; Porto San Stefano, in Italy; and Stonebridge in Northern Ireland; all of which might eventually be found suitable for discussion in Source -certainly, their stories are fascinating and relevant for the topic under review), but those summarised above are amply sufficient for my present purpose. Regardless of what might be argued for or against the reality of their contexting visionary experiences (and this is certainly not the place for such a necessarily far – reaching exploration – here, it seems reasonably responsible simply to accept the good faith of the visionaries, to accept the at least subjective reality of their visionary experiences, and to allow the external facts of their individual cases to speak for themselves), there seems little doubt that the basic facts were just as reported, that is , in these accounts we are seeing the coming – into – being of numbers of modern holy wells. Which brings me back to Britain’s newest holy well, on Canvey Island, a brief analysis of whose story might help to facilitate any eventual evaluation of such unexpected uncoverings of springs within the whole context of visionary experience, and further help towards any interpretation of the perceived sacrality of specific water sources overall. The first point to be noticed, perhaps, is that Nora Arthurs’ well did not simply “appear”. If it did not exist prior to the Canvey Island apparitions, neither is it coeval with them. Instead, the documentation of the Canvey Island apparitions and its originating visions reveals a climate in which the new holy well was at first anticipated, then, perhaps, expected, and finally all but inevitable. (The following information is taken from newsletters issued by Mrs Arthurs and her supporters, which I collected between 1984 and 1986.)

In “A Short History” of Mary’s House (“as Heaven has named” 40 Roggel Road), issued in 1984, we are told that Nora Arthurs was born in Hammersmith in 1916, and moved with her family to Canvey Island in 1955. Her husband, a Protestant, had three visions of the Virgin Mary before his death bed conversion ten years later. Subsequently, Mrs Arthurs herself saw the Virgin, in the Canvey Island Catholic church of Our Lady of Canvey. In June 1982, while visiting the Spanish apparition site at Garabandal, she again saw Mary, who said, “I will visit you in your home”. Afterwards Mary appeared to her daily at 40 Roggel Road, and in 1983 Mrs Arthurs was instructed by her visions to go public, and “call” pilgrims to Mary’s House on certain stated days. All the Garden, trees, grapevines and The House have The Special Blessing and Protection of Our Divine Lord given (in 1983) when Nora and pilgrims were praying outside during heavy rain. Nora in ecstasy for one hour, was completely dry after returning to The House. No natural protection was given to her. We are also advised that “The Great Visible Sign, Promised by Our Lord, will be given on a future day when all have done Penance and have the correct disposition to receive it”. Newsletter 3 describes the events of 31 May 1984. Water was placed beside the shrine in the house, and through Mrs Arthurs, Jesus spoke as follows: “My children, Listen to Me, Father in Heaven, Who will now Bless this Water. As this Water, taken into your homes, your families, will bring you Great Blessings, Great Conversions, Healings, My children!…My children, I The Lord now Give My Blessing to this water, that it may become Holy and bring Many Joys and Blessings!…My Blessing, children, be with all who use It.” Still in ecstacy, Mrs. Arthurs moved outside, and blessed the trees. Here Jesus spoke again. My children, I The Lord your God, have brought you to the Trees…And, My children, there shall come to these trees Such a Sign, My children, that No Man On Earth shall have doubt or disbelief For What They Will See. And He announced that “on the Next Calling (15 August 1984, at 6 p.m.) shall I, The Lord, give This Sign!!!”2

On 15 August, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, some 400 pilgrims assembled in the garden of Mary’s House. Inside, Jesus again blessed the water through the instrumentality of Mrs. Arthurs, more or less in the same words He had used on 31 May. Then He led the Seer into the garden where an altar had been erected. He spoke again: “Children, all bend your knees and heads. Give thanks to The Lord your God, Praise the Holy Mother Who this day has asked of Me Her Son to give to My Children a Sign at these Trees; that you shall overcome all your sinful ways, that you My children shall be witnesses this very night, come My children…Pray My Mercy, My forgiveness My children…My children I tell you that this night I shall put this Sign here.” Mrs Arthurs remained in ecstacy “for over 3 hours”, but no miracle occurred. Through the Seer Jesus advised the crowd “that your Faith is not strong enough to See The Very Sign And Miracle Under Your Very Faces…The Lord sees in all your hearts not the True Love that you should come with”. But He left them with His blessing, and the promise: “My Children you shall see a Sign when you have done more Penance”. At the Calling on 8 December 1984 Christ again blessed the water, much as before – “use it well and drink For It Is Living Water, My children, and The Lord’s Blessing is within it” – though there is no mention of the Great Sign. At Epiphany (long connected with the ritual benediction of water in the Christian tradition) 6 January 1985 Jesus’ words signalled a change in the Mary’s House liturgy. My children I shall lift up My child (Nora) and I shall take her to the water that it shall too be Blessed this night. As This Water Flows, So It Has My Blessing! My child shall turn the water on and I The Lord your God shall Bless it… I The Lord will Bless the water as it flows from the tap. Nora “in ecstacy went out to the tap and turned it allowing the water to flow”, and as she did so, Christ spoke the words of blessing through her.

The water is next referred to on 16 February 1985, when our Lady adverts to “The Holy Water…The Lord has put Many Great Blessings in The Water that runs Here, through The Tap in This House!, and again Drorriises, “in a little while”, Signs to those of My children Who Come Here and Pray!”

On 20 February 1985 Mary promised “Greater Signs”, and told the pilgrims: “Use the Holy Water , for that will keep you Safe – it will bring many Blessings to you!”, and on 23 February She again recommended use of “The Water from This House that is Blessed by your Father in Heaven”. The water is not mentioned again until 29 June 1985 (though I cannot be certain that I have all the newsletters, as only the earlier ones are numbered), when Mary tells the pilgrims that “your Father in Heaven has filled (it) with Great Mercies and Blessings, healing for many bodies!”. By then, Mrs Arthurs was being deserted by many of her former followers, and Mary says reassuringly, “Believe My Child, Mary’s House will never become lost, because the Lord Chose it!…We will never desert (Nora) nor Mary’s House” – reaffirming what She had said on 21 June as to “how May’s House will be world famous as well as in England, where All will Honour It.” From then until 29 June 1986, when my collection of newsletters ceases, there are apparently no further references either to the Water or to the Great Sign (the visions are largely concerned with prayer and penance, especially as concerned to avert the tribulations of the Last Days, revealed as imminent, and about which many warnings are given.3 Kerridge’s final point, concerning the impromptu, unofficial, and folk-religious aspects of contemporary Catholicism, is pertinent. Under its Canon Law, the Catholic Church regularly investigates the claims of visionaries only when the visionaries themselves make specific claims to participation within areas which the Church, as a dogmatic and teaching entity, has always claimed to fall exclusively within its own remit; that is, it steps in when visionaries, as a result of their visions, insist that the Church adapt their doctrinal formulae and devotional praxis to the new message. Then, in the person of the local bishop (in whom alone rests the competence to judge and authenticate such matters), it investigates, to try to ascertain whether or not there are any signs of genuine supernatural intervention, and, if so, whether the content and requests of the messages can be usefully recommended to the faithful at large.4 Such approbation is given only rarely; of the contemporary visions described or mentioned above, only those of Betania have been authenticated in this manner. Kerridge’s comment about the marginality of the Canvey Island experience is reinforced by the facts that they occur on private rather than Church property (in which case the Church would have had to intervene), and that Nora Arthurs herself has never requested her local bishop to investigate her claims, and thus falls outside his responsibility in such matters, allowing her to operate without ecclesiastical censure, and without in any way diminishing her ordinary status as a member of the Catholic laity. That is, the messages of Our Lady of Canvey Island and her sacred well are promoted by Mrs Arthurs and not by the Catholic Church. As the diocesan official responsible for such matters, the Vicar General Mgr. Arthur A.J. Barrow, wrote to me on 11 June 1996:

“I would wish to state that the Catholic Church has made no judgement as yet on the reported happenings, referred to in Mr Kerridge’s article, and that indeed Mrs. Nora Arthurs has not sought any official recognition. As always in these matters, the Church would caution the faithful to use the prudent norms for discernment as provided by recommended spiritual writers.”

Regrettably, Mrs. Arthurs has declined my invitation either to comment upon Mr. Kerridge’s article, or to supply her own account as to how the Canvey Island holy well came into being; though she informs me that, as far as the well itself is concerned, “all is not yet ready for visitors and publicity” (letter, 8 May 1996). Despite the absence of any comment from Mrs. Arthurs, it seems permissible to make a number of observations. Firstly, as Kerridge informs us, the well was dug only in 1994, but as the newsletters demonstrate, a marked interest in water and the holiness of water has been an integral element of the Canvey Island pilgrimage at least since May 1984, only a year after the Canvey Island series of apparitions commenced. From the outset, the water, like that from holy wells worldwide, was to bring “blessings” and healing to those who used it – the difference here being the subjectivity perceived (that is, perceived only by Mrs. Arthurs, and by her only when in ecstasy) presence of Christ blessing the water.

Despite the somewhat startling change in the manner of obtaining the water (from water in bowls and bottles, to water flowing straight from a tap, which is holy only at certain times and under certain conditions (with which, perhaps, compare the angel-troubled Pool of Bethesda in the Gospels?: John 5, 2-4) – which, at least in so far as this concerns taps and the mains water supply, is unique to the Canvey Island pilgrimage5) the actual or intended use of the water appears to have remained constant over the years. Secondly, there is the question of the Great Sign, promised from the outset of the apparition sequence. Right from 1983 it is associated with 40 Roggel Road, and from 31 May 1984, immediately following the first blessing of the water, the Sign is specifically associated with the trees. Here pilgrims gathered on 15 August, to see the appearance of the Sign, which failed to manifest, although the message for that day seems to make it quite clear that the Sign had been placed there – it was just that the pilgrims had not merited actually to see it. It is noticeable that it is only after the Sign’s failure to materialise that the water blessing is, as it were institutionalised, by use of the tap as an impromptu well. All of this strongly suggests that the expected Sign was in fact to have the appearance of a spring beneath the trees, though in the event its discovery was delayed by some 10 years. Lastly, all of this seems to confirm that somehow Mrs Arthurs ( whether by divine admonition, or by her own innate powers of water divination _ an intuition of her own subconscious, perhaps, mediated to consciousness via the symbolic language of her visions) had known of the existence of the subterranean spring for at least ten years before it was actually uncovered. As Kerridge justly observes, “Nora certainly knew her house and garden were holy years before the well was discovered”,.

It would be fascinating to learn exactly when it was that her supernatural visitors told her of its existence, fascinating too, (given the accuracy of Mrs Arthurs’ intuition as to the existence of the well) to learn what has been said in prophecy about the holy well’s future as part of the Mary’s House pilgrimage. complex. As it is, it is instructive to observe the coming into being of a new holy well in such detail, even if several important details are still tantalisingly missing. It may now be asked, what, if anything, can the history of the Well of Our Lady of Canvey Island teach us about holy wells in general. Superficially at least it is remarkably unlike any other, unlike the glorious ..late medieval well shrine of St Winifred at Holywell, with its even more ancient history of pilgrimage and healing, unlike the structural beauty of so many Cornish holy wells, unlike the legend – garlanded ambiguities of many a Robin Hood’s or Arthur’s Well, unlike the sylvan seduction of the half – remembered rural springs evoked so often in these pages by the redoubtable Edna Whelan.

It is highly ironic that, unlike almost the totality of these holy wells, which are readily perceived as “holy”, the Canvey Island well, which numbers would reject outright as undeserving of inclusion with the rest, by virtue of its contemporaneity has an unassailable and impeccable history – we know exactly, and in considerable detail, how it came to be “holy”. In the future, should it survive, at the remove of some two or three hundred years from the painful banality of its suburban setting and all the pathos and bathos attending its origins as described by Roy Kerridge, this history will likely have become a cult legend of remarkable power and telling beauty. The well’s holiness, now accepted as such only by the believing few (their belief buttressed and confirmed by actually using the well, as opposed to just observing it) will come to be accepted, defined by age. The tap as holy well might seem riseable and even offensive at first sight. But, in the first place, divested of its contemporary unsympathetic milieu, the Canvey Island well’s history – its legend to be – will with time be seen to be as powerful and haunting as any well’s origin tale. And secondly, not all wells sprang up miraculously like St. Winifred’s or were discovered prophetically, like Lourdes or San Damiano (or like, it must be stressed, Canvey Island, eventually) some, like Fontanelle, were already extant well structures whose holiness was suddenly revealed or determined in some way, others, like the Mt. Melleray grotto or the Betania waterfall, were natural water sources whose sacrality was similarly disclosed, with these in mind, only the subjective criterion of unsuitability might be objected to an acceptance of the tap-well. Ultimately, the Canvey Island tap and the eventually uncovered spring must be seen as variant expressions of the same holy well and judged, not by our history, but by its own, this new well is as holy as any other holy well – though only future history will tell us whether that holiness is to be a permanently perceived attribute of its waters. Further back in time than Lourdes or La Salette, in the vast majority of instances the history of any particular holy well, if it survives at all, has been transformed into a legend of origin; just as, with time, one imagines that, of Canvey Island, the history of the tap will be allowed to lapse, and legend will only recall Mary’s prophesy of the healing spring beneath the trees in the garden of Mary’s House, subsequently uncovered at the instructions of Mary’s chosen favourite, Mama Nora. This will not be deliberate, nor will it be dishonest; it will simply happen as a result of there being two ways of recording facts of the past, history and legend. More even than by supernatural intervention, wells acquire their holiness through use, through cult, even if perceived supernatural intervention has originally determined the locus, defined the time of origin, and suggested the practices of that cult. Belief plus cult determines apprehension of sacrality, but ultimately it is cult – ritual action through time – which determines an abiding sensation of holiness of place. Cult, whether of wells, or relics, or particular images, and even though normally moderated and manipulated by organised religious structures (of whichever sort) to its own ends and aims, is particularly the province of the folk-religious mentality, which ultimately determines the objects of cult and articulates the appropriate ritual behaviour. And the form of memory appropriate to the folk-religious world-view is not history but legend. In the future, with abundant presently-contemporary documentation at our disposal, we will be able to compare the two methods of recording the past (“urban myths” and the like, observed by contemporary folklorists, confirm that history is unlikely to obviate legend), to their mutual advantage. This is one potentially profitable way by which to approach the maze-like complex of well legends. It goes without saying that one cannot “explain” a medieval legend simply by invoking the example of a similar-seeming and well-documented modern event. There may be little or no real parallel in form, let alone in intent or content; and the technique has led wildly astray far too many folklorists, professional as well as lay, for such a simple comparative method to be of use consistently and regardless of context. Nonetheless, when modern times can be linked back to the times of legend by a continuous discernable thread of interconnecting information it is obviously worth pursuing.

Supernatural interventions are a commonplace of the religious experience, and Christians have documented theirs from the beginning. Numbers of such interventions are recorded in legend as intimately connected with the origins of particular holy wells. Often enough, the development of the cult centres which evolved in connection with these is known in some detail, and reliably recorded (by the controlling religious structure – in the West, the Church); thus, we may have an historical record of immemorial or continuous cult at a well whose origin legend associates it with visionary experience. (Thus, to use an example already cited, at Monte Berico the cult legend tells us that the original Marian message transmitted through Vincenza was ignored, but the a subsequent apparition on 2 August 1428 was heeded by the populace of Vicenza. Historical sources confirfn that the foundation stone of the shrine was laid on the twenty-fifth of the same month; and they confirm, too, that the plague coincidentally ceased around this time). The recording of Christian visionary experience has occurred continually virtually for two millennia, and continues unabated to the present day. Numbers of these modern and contemporary visions are in part concerned with the origins of new holy wells. In the specific cases of holy wells whose origins are associated with visions there is thus a possibility of a discernable continuous thread of interconnecting information, in which the two methods of recording memory, history and legend, do not conflict, but overlap at many points. And using this conjoint continuity of information it seems at least plausible to suggest that what is recorded in a medieval legend connecting the origins of a holy well with a vision of the Virgin Mary is cognate with what is recorded in the history of a contemporary holy well whose origins are completely open to scrutiny, and is associated with visionary experience. This structural continuity, along with the consonance of the Marian visionary experience over centuries, permits us to • use modern examples such as Canvey Island to reconstruct past events associated with certain holy wells with a certain degree of confidence. If the medieval origin legend of a holy well associates it with a vision of our Lady, then the likelihood is that it happened that way. This is certainly the most economical way of assessing available data, without doing violence to any of the facts. A great deal more could be said with regard to Nora Arthurs’ holy well, for instance with regard to particular ritual acts which perennially recur at sacred sites upon which the new-born Canvey Island cult might throw valuable light; but enough has been said here I think to demonstrate the signal importance for holy well studies of the Well of Our Lady of Canvey Island.

Notes on the text:

1. Nor of course are they restricted to Catholicism (for the Greek Orthodox vision-revealed well on Tinos, in 1823, see Source New Series. 4 (Summer 1995) 10), or to Christianity, but can be observed within the context of many other religious systems. 2. The idea of a permanent celestial “sign” miraculously placed within the normal spacio-temporal continuum in witness to the truth of visionary experience and divine admonition is not unique to Canvey Island. Heaven has promised such signs – of an as-yet indeterminate character – for the apparition sites of Medjugorje, in Yugoslavia, and Garabandal, in Spain. (As just noticed, Mrs. Arthurs received her calling as a visionary at Garabandal, and the overall sirnilarity between Canvey Island and San Damiano was noted earlier. Similarly, Roy Kerridge’s mention of the string rosary demonstrates Nora Arthurs’ familiarity with two further vision sequences: the “knotted cord of love”, as the Virgin called it, was the principle feature of the apparitions received by the American seer Genevieve, and was further promoted at the claimed apparition site at Nowra, in Australia. Such overlapping of themes from vision to vision and visionary to visionary is not uncommon in modern Marian apparitional experience. Believers see such correlations as mutually confirmative, whereas, while in most cases there seems to be no reason to doubt the probity and sincerity of the individual seer, it has to be admitted that knowledge of other vision activity is likely to be active on a subconscious level.)
2. Apocalyptic and eschatological concerns are common to large numbers of modern Marian apparitions.
3. Such norms have been in place for centuries, and until the general reform of Canon Law following the second Vatican Council, in the course of which Paul V1 abrogated the Canons prohibiting the publication or dissemination of all private revelations whatsoever without the express permission of the local bishop, the position would have been quite different, and Mrs. Arthurs would have inevitably found herself the object of official scrutiny, and possibly official condemnation. The Church has collected its canons, that is, the disciplinary enactments of local or universal councils, since very early times. Much has been made by some writers of the occasional appearance in canonical codes of the early medieval period of condemnations of wells and their cults. In fact, given that these canons are generally specific and particular in character, it seems certain that these are not to be seen in any sense as blanket condemnations of the well cult within Christianity (in any case, the existence and fame of the Well of St. Menas in Egypt, or the Tre Fontane in Rome, argues for this being inherently impossible), but as responses to particular local conditions – that is, that the condemned wells and their cults were simply unauthorised by local Church authorities, cults without benefit of clergy as it were, a situation which the authoritarian Church of the period was unlikely to tolerate. The sheer quantity of holy wells described in early hagiographical writings argues to the same purpose. The failure to appreciate this obvious explanation derives simply from a common, if understandable, failure to appreciate the exact nature of Canon Law itself.
4. At least I believed this to be true when I first drafted this article, but since then I have encountered the following. Rosa Lopez and her husband Armando began to see visions of the Virgin Mary at their home in Hollywood, in Florida, in 1992. Their home has become an unofficial shrine, and holy water is distributed to pilgrims: Obtained from a fountain fuelled by an ordinary garden hose in the yard, it is supposedly blessed, although its curative powers have yet to be documented (Gurvis 1996, 56).

Further References: Over the past 150 years a vast library of books and articles on Lourdes and La Salette has come into being; and while this is not yet the case with regard to any of the modern visions discussed, there is still a substantial body of -largely ephemeral – literature available for their study. Rather than attempt anything like a comprehensive bibliography (though one would certainly be useful for holy well studies), I here simply note those sources used in compiling these notes. Anyone curious enough to want to investigate the whole subject of modern Marian visions is recommended to start with the book of Pere Laurentin, who has made a lifetime’s study of the subject, from the point of view of a professional Catholic theologian. An alternative view, denying validity to the whole field of Marian visions, is espoused by Kevin McClure: (McClure 1983) Gillet, H.M. Famous Shrines of Our Lady. Vol. 1, rev. London: Samuel Walker Ltd, 1953. Gurvis, Sandra. Way Stations to Heaven: 50 Major Visionary Shrines in the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1996. Laurentin, Rene. The Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary Today 2nd ed. Dublin: Veritas, 1991. McClure Kevin. The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary. Wellingborough: The Aquarian Press, 1983. Osee, Johan. Call of the Virgin at San Damian. North Quincy (Mass.): Christopher Publishing House, 1977. Seglias, L.P. Our Lady Chose Her Own Shrine at Monte Berico.Catholic Fireside. Vol. 165, no. 3998 (14 October 1996). 1-2. Vose, John D. The Statues that Moved a Nation. Penzance: United Writers, 1986. Weigl, E.M, Reeves tr. N.C. Reeves & Muske, I. Mary -“Rosa Mystica”: Montichiari-Fontanelle. Cobham (Kent): Pax Christi Publishing Ltd., 1983.

 

Ardmore’s St Declan’s Well and its Pattern day

There were present at Ardmore several thousand of as fine people as exist. I have no hesitation in saying that the peasantry of the Counties of Cork and Waterford, surpass any people I have seen in Ireland, Scotland, or England.”

A recent visit to Ireland allowed me to visit a fair number of the country’s evocative Holy wells and investigate a Pattern day. Pattern days are when the town or village celebrate a local saint and their sites and often pilgrims do ‘the rounds’ a special ritual associated with the site. With this in mind I was very interested to visit the town on its Pattern day.  Ardmore Pattern day is one of the country’s most famed. As the festival website notes, for many generations, this was looked forward to the day, people would tidy up and whitewashed there houses and children would get presents and enjoy the stalls and rides which would line the streets. The Pattern Day has now become a festival and I was interested to see how a village celebrated its special day and whether any traditions continued.

The village

A strange and eerie mist surrounded all roads to Ardmore, a small seaside town in County Waterford. As the road dived down to the coast, the mists slowly lifted and the town revealed itself, a few shops, restaurants and a large Victorian Catholic church. Despite this being its big day, its Pattern or Patronal Day, the town appeared rather empty and quiet. There was no sign that anything different was happening today; but this was the 24^th July, St. Declan’s Day, and the day when traditionally large numbers of pilgrims descending on the town.

Historical accounts

As noted Ardmore’s Pattern is perhaps one of the most detailed of all Irish events and many accounts have been given. Over the centuries, it has waxed and waned, even the stations have changed with pilgrims no longer going to see St Declan’s crozier or skull, but still the Rock, Grave, Round tower and well. Hardy-Dixon (1836) noted in his Holy Wells of Ireland:

“This annual scene of disgusting superstition is exhibited at Ardmore, in the County of Waterford, on the 24th of July, in each year. Several thousand  persons, of all ages and sexes, assemble upon this occasion. The greater part of the extensive strand, Which forms the western part of Ardmore Bay, is literally covered by a dense mass of people. Tents and stands for the sale of whiskey are placed along the shore. Each tent has its green ensign waving on high.”

The surviving stations are the Stone, Well, Round tower, St Declan’s Bed. I did not see any evidence of devotion at the Tower or Bed, eerily as they were wrapped in a misting hiding any signs of modernism.

The Stone

“The Stone, is on the sea shore, is of the same quality as the neighbouring rocks, and weighs, perhaps about two or three tons; it is said to have floated on the sea from Italy, crowned with nine bells, which came most opportunely, as at the period of its arrival the Prst, being about to celebrate Mass, was in want of a bell, upon which he sent some of the people to the spot in question, who, to their astonishment, found the stone and bells as already stated, since which time the stone has been highly venerated for the performance of miraculous cures, &c.”

The only sign that this was a special day was encountered on the beach, where I encountered St. Declan’s Stone, a large and immovable rock set upon others like a natural dolmen. Here was the clear sign it was Pattern Day, for the stone was wrapped in a blue and white blanket (blue and white being the flag of County Waterford). Hardy-Dixon (1836) described the devotion at the stone as:

“At an early hour in the day, says a correspondent of the Roman Catholic Expositor, those whom a religious feeling had drawn to the spot, commence their devotional exerciser in a state of half nudity, by passing under the holy rock of St. Declan. Stretched at full length on the ground on the face and stomach, each devotee moved forward, as if in the act of swimming, and thus squeezed or dragged themselves through. Both sexes were obliged to submit to this humiliating mode of proceeding. Upwards of Eleven hundred persons were observed to go through this ceremony in the course of the day. A reverend gentleman who stood by part of the time exclaimed, ‘0 great is their faith.’ This object of so great veneration, is believed to be holy, and to be endued with miraculous powers. It is said to have been wafted from Rome, upon the surface of the ocean, at the period of St. Declaims founding his Church at Ardmore, and to have borne on its top a large bell for the church tower, and also vestments for the saint himself.”

A correspondent to the author noted:

“Devotions had commenced at the stone previous to my arrival. But it is only at low water that people can go under the stone, and perform their devotion there; they must always take advantage of the tide. On the Saint’s day, it is always necessary to remove some of the sand which accumulates under the stone to make a sufficient passage for a large man or woman–as the little rocks on which the stone rests form irregular pillars, it is necessary to have the surface under the stone lower than the front or rere. In order to begin here, the men take off hats, coats, shoes, and stockings, and if very large, waistcoats – they turn up their breeches, above the knee, then lying flat on the ground, put in hands, arms, and head, one shoulder more forward than the other in order to work their way through the more easily, and coming out from under the stone at the other end, (from front to rere perhaps is four feet,) they rise on their knees and strike their backs three times against the stone, remove beads, repeat aves, &c. They then proceed on bare knees over a number of little rocks to the place where they enter again under the stone, and thus proceed three times, which done, they wash their knees, &c. &c. dress, and proceed to the well. The women take off bonnets, shoes, stockings, and turn their petticoats up above the knee, so that they may go on their bare knees. I saw but one woman who put her petticoats under her knees – a little boy took off his breeches; the women proceed in the same manner as the men, excepting indeed that they appeared less careful of saving their knees from being hurt by the rocks than the men. The knees of one man bled, others were bruised, and all were red. I need scarcely notice the indelicacy connected with such scenes as those described..”

Despite Hardy-Dixon’s disparaging remarks, the veneration of the rock continued unchanged until the 1940s notes:

“It laid on its side on two protruding rocks and the mark of the bell is still on it. People who are ill in  any way have great faith it. At 12.00 on the morning of St Declan’s feast day is the best time to do it and I can remember myself twenty cars and more from Ring, one after another going west along the road from about six or seven o clock the previous afternoon to reach the strand at Ardmore before 12.00 O’clock on the day…”

Indeed a report of an aged lady probably recalling this period amusingly notes:

“We watched from our drawing room window thinking someone very fat might try, and get stuck.”

Although I did not witness the crawling under, I found a small group of children with their parents beside the stone. One of the boys noticing my interest stated that he had climbed under it ‘three times I did it for good luck’….I asked whether he got wet to which he relayed he had removed all his clothes!!  So presumably at some point some people may have more seriously entertained the custom.

The well or Tubber Deglane

Highest upon the sites of veneration was the well, and this is delightful site. The approach to the well up a lane and past the rather grand Cliff Hotel above the village and is well signed. This is a classic Irish holy well, despite the proximity of modern urbanisation, is remains a quiet oasis in a stone enclosure with the ruins of a chapel probably built upon the Saint’s hermitage. It remains much of its ancient fabric, two old crosses are cemented above the well a third one shown in old photos has gone and probably date back to Celtic times. Close by the well is the ruined church of St Declan, said to be built upon his original hermitage.

Fitzgerald (1856) in jottings in Journal of the Royal society of Antiquaries describes it as:

“The most celebrated well in this province for ‘rounds’ and miraculous cures. Its powers of healing are still frequently put to the test with all sorts of sprains and mutilations of the human body, especially on the patron day, which is held on the 24^th July. There are also said to be three holy wells on the strand at Ardmore, which were formed by a miracle of st Declan, but these cannot be seen except at extreme low tides, and at low water mark; they are noted for curing inward complaints in those who are fortunate to glimpse of them at the propitious moment. At each of the wells mentioned here, except those on the strand, the visitor will find numerous coloured objects tied to the trees and briars in the neighbourhood.”

Ian Lee in Ar mo thiasteal dom, a radio show aired in 1949 described the devotion at the well stating that the first thing on entering the gate is that people go on their knees in front of the well, then a number of prayers would be said, such as the Rosary, seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Mary and then one could ask Holy Declan through the power of God any wish you might have for the good of your soul or body. He states:

“Then the Our father is begun around the well three times and on the third round saying the Rosary; people enter through the door in the southern end, go down on their knees and on completing the Rosary they take a stone and cut the sign of the cross on the eastern end-that was the custom but it is said that it’s a pagan custom. They come out then to the well after finishing the three rounds and say seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Marys and some other Prayers

The cures were varied from a deranged but beautiful young women being cured at the well having spent some time screaming at it. Bretnach (1998) Ar bother dom reports:

“A crippled man went to Ardmore on two crutches. When he had the rounds done he washed his feet and hands with the water of the well. He saw a fish in it that snapped at his hand when he put it in the water. He thought this strange. When he was leaving the well he began to feel better and he no longer felt any pain in his hands and legs. He took his crutches and threw them over the cliff and went home sound and healthy.”

The well still attracts its pilgrims. On the night before the church organised a candlelit procession to the well. Whilst I was there I encountered an elderly lady deep in contemplation with her rosary who asked me why the round was round, her answer being so that there were seasons at different points to provide year around food. An interesting consideration perhaps.

More significantly was an elderly women and her husband who was clearly doing ‘the rounds’ as it is called. I kept my distance watching from afar as she undertook three clockwise circumferences of the well and ruined chapel. Half way through she climbed with the help of her husband a stone at the ruined altar end and with a stone made a cross incision in the fabric of the building adding to the large number of crosses, many of them fresh and probably done early in the morning. At the end of the circuit she took her drink from a metal mug provided at the well.

The Pattern in modern times and now

By the 1960s the pattern was an unofficial Bank holiday and the day had tournaments such as the Murphy Cup by this point a correspondent reported that:

“all approach roads to the village would be packed with cars, with crowds from near and far. In that era could there be greater event that the Pattern Day in Ardmore”

By the 1990s the hawkers, fun fairs and numbers had dropped and the Pattern was a more solemn event with a candle light. Insurance apparently prevented some events from continuing but the town would not let the pattern die as it had in other places. Indeed, the town is to be commended for its enthusiasm in reviving the pattern in a modern style and still retaining its raison d’etre- devotion to the saint. The pattern has been extended to a longer Festival, 3 days to incorporate the saint’s day and the weekend, with concerts and theatre productions. One notable drama being a pageant detailing the life of the saint enacted on the beach. Before this was a walk from the Grange Church (or Old Parish) down to the said beach.

This walk was a strange event, I had thought that it may have been religious in nature, but no, it was simply a walk. A large number of people, more than last year I was told boarded to the coach. Being a ‘foreigner’ I asked if I could join them and there was a resounding and enthusiastic yes! The coach drove up from Ardmore to the church car park where we assembled and took off. The walk took us along the main road, and down some quiet lanes and back towards the town at some considerable pace-this was a power walk. Despite being bereft of any real religious significance it, there still sometime poignant and perhaps cleansing about the walk and although the people I spoke to really could not explain their presence, there was a clean spiritual element to it.

By the time I reached the beach, with biscuits and orange juice awaiting, I was greeted by the pageant. The sound of a flute echoed along the beach with children dressed in rags surrounding flickering fires dug into the dirt. All eyes were focussed on a rock with a bell on it and further out a shape on the horizon. This shape quickly became recognisable as a rowing boat and soon a figure in a green Bishop’s robe and mitre, that of St. Declan.  The children and assembled adults dressed as peasants congregated at the foreshore awaiting the saint’s arrival, and being interviewed by the crowd made their way to the church for mass.

Such was my brief experience of Ardmore where one can still see the relics of a Catholic past mixed with the modern twists of bands and plays. Long may it continue.