Winefride, St

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Winefride, St (7th century), Welsh virgin, supposedly killed by a rejected suitor and then raised from the dead to become a nun. The chapel and well at Holywell, where she is said to have been abbess, became an important pilgrimage centre. Her feast day is 3 November, and her translation is celebrated on 2 June.

In 1138 her relics were translated to the abbey of Shrewsbury, one account of which is given in the first of the popular Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters.