SACRED WELLS OF STRUILE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 2 September 1911, Page 6

SACRED WELLS OF STRUILE.

■ ST. PATRICK’S MIRACLE. A North of Ireland paper reprints fr cm the “Belfast Magazine” of 1825 a highly interesting article on the four sacred wells of Struilc. This place, now known as Struel, lies about a mile from Saul, where St. Patrick died, and about the same distance from Down Cathedral, where he was buried. According to tradition, the wonderful purifying and healing properties of the wells arose out of a miracle performed by St. Patrick. The saint was endeavouring to convert. am old chief of the tribe of MacDhu, and one day, as they were walking on the plain of Struile, the old man said he would embrace Christianity if St. Patrick would at that moment procure a supply of water, no stream flowing near the spot. St. Patrick struck him oil the foot with a rod he usually carried, and the man remained bound to the' ground. When the’rod was lifted the'man walked on, but 1 blood flowed from' his foot. This stream 'of blood was Changed by the Saint'into water, hiiil since then water has never' ceased to flow there. Tne chief and his followers were baptised, and g'avo a considerable tract of country to'the church, the land acquiring the name Struile, a corruption of two Irish words, struth fuile, moaning stream oh Wood. These waters tvoro found to possess extraordinary' properties, and itheir fame spread over 'lreland and into Europe. At the period when thearticle in the “Belfast Magazine” •' was written. about l a thousand: people went to Struile every summer to be purged of their sins; l The penitents climbed the bill by a stony path ;■ some running up barefooted, others crawling on their hands and knees, and some of the latter carrying a large stone. The method of progression varied with the heinousness of the sin. They would run down the hill and up again by the path of penance, and this they did three, or seven, or nine, or twelve times, according to the nature of their transgressions. Each pilgrim would then scat himself in what is called St .Patrick’s Chair, a collection of rocks half-way up the hill, and bo turned in the chair three times by an attendant, who claimed that his family had performed this office ever since the days of St. Patrick. The penitents then descended to the plain, where they moved round cairns of stone, moving as they did when they climbed the hill. Around these they would .go a number of times, seven, or seven-times-seven, and so on, according to their guilt. Then they touched a sacred stone in a certain wall, and lastly bathed, naked in the public gaze, in the holy wells, and drank of the water of the fourth well, which was supposed to have properties similar to those of the mythical Waters of Lethe. But the waters of Struile were good for the body as well as for the soul. .At midnight midsummer eve and midsummer day, the waters of the wells, according to tradition, were troubled by an angel, so that they overflowed on to the plain. At all times many people came from -different parts of Ireland to bo cured of various ills by the waters of these wells—the limb-well for sores and lameness, the eye-well for impaired and destroyed vision, and the drinking well for internal disorders. But at the midsummer season, when the angel had disturbed the waters, the veils possessed greater curative power than usual. Whosoever was first immersed in the overflowing waters was invariably cured of whatever ills afflicted him. When the writer visited Struile in 1822, a blind man was the object of much interest, because he had had his infirmity removed by immersion in the waters at that most favourable moment. He produced as witnesses two people ,who had led him from Downpatrick to Struile, and had convinced themselves ot .his blindness, and another person to prove that ho had entered the pool precisely at the time of overflowing. Then, turning to the crowd, the man said he could tell how each person was dressed, and describe any coins they liked to place before him. The writer

was quite satisfied with the genuineness of this and other similar euros. “The most incontestable evidence oi tile fact is produced on such occasions by those who arc cured.” he wrote of the general practice, while oi the Mind man’s claim he said: “Such is the plain, solid ,matter of fact reasoning, that carries conviction to every mind.” The correspondent to whom, wo arc indebted for the reprint of this article, says that Strode is still a place of pilgrimage, health-seekers going there from many parts of the Tinted Kingdom, as well as from foreign countries. “I have known lots of people,” he writes, “who possitively assert that their complete recovery from divers maladies was entirely duo to the efficacy of the Strode waters.” Of course these claims do net carry conviction to every mind now, lull even the most sceptical cannot help being interested in this survival of an old belief.