Performing Pilgrimage to the Lourdes of Wales

This is the first scholarly study of Britain’s oldest pilgrimage site in continuous use, St Winefride’s Well. Since the martyrdom of its titular saint in the seventh century, pilgrims have flocked to the shrine in Holywell, north Wales, in search of healing and help in its icy waters. The shrine survived the ravages of the Reformation, and remained popular in an era when pilgrimage was suppressed; it exploded in popularity during the second half of the nineteenth century, when stories of miracul