Evensong for St Swithun’s Day

Info & track listings

Swithun’s recognition as a saint dates from well before the period of official, papal canonizations. His body was elevated on 15 July 971. The event was later recorded by Wulfstan the Cantor, a Winchester monk who as a boy had been present at Swithun’s elevation: he recalled how he and his fellow novices had been terrified by a violent storm. (Such storms were a commonplace in the medieval biographies of saints.)

This was the event which gave rise to the legend that if it rains on St Swithun’s day it will rain for forty days thereafter.The Boy Choristers, Lay Clerks and Organists of Winchester Cathedral continue a thousand-year-long tradition of leading choral worship.

Singing at an average of eight services each week during school terms, they form one of the country’s leading cathedral choirs. Their repertoire spans many centuries, from plainsong to some of today’s principal composers. The Cathedral Girl’s Choir sings a weekly Sunday service with the Lay Clerks. The girls are also active in the diocese, singing Evensong and giving concerts.