Holy Virgin-Martyrs Sidwell of Exeter and Juðwara of Dorset

Saint Sidwell of Exeter

The first of August in the Holy Orthodox Church is the feast-day of Sidwell [also Sativola], a virgin-martyr of fifth-century Britain who was murdered at the behest of her stepmother. She is sometimes associated with Saint Juðwara [also Juthware or Judith], whose story is similar and whose feast falls on the eighteenth of November. The similarity of their stories is often attributed to their being sisters.

Sidwell and Juðwara lived at a time of transition and uncertainty in Great Britain. The old Romano-British population was being supplanted or mixed with one of Angles, Saxons and Jutes – heathen barbarians invited as fœderati to settle in Roman Britain by Vortigern to stave off Pictish raids and incursions. It is unknown whether she belonged to a British family, to a Saxon family or to a mixed one – cases have been made for each. However, her story indicates the insecurities of family rule and civil law in such an environment.

Sidwell, a young girl of blameless life in Exeter, saw her mother die at a young age, and her father remarry. Her stepmother, who was jealous of Sidwell’s qualities, bade a group of threshers to take her outside the city of Exeter and behead her. This they did, but no sooner had they done so but a spring of pure water gushed forth from the earth where her head fell, attesting to the girl’s saintly innocence.

Saint Juðwara suffered a similar fate. After her father died, she took ill with complaints of a pain in her chest. Because she prayed and fasted often, and gave alms to the poor besides from her own plate, her illness was accounted for by these ascetic disciplines she set on herself, as well as grief over her father’s death. However, her stepmother saw a chance to discredit her and have her killed. To the girl’s face, she suggested that she place soft cheeses on her breasts to ease the pain. But to her son Bana, the stepmother intimated that Juðwara might be suffering from morning-sickness. Bana went to Juðwara and felt her undergarments. Finding them moist and smelling of milk, he flew into a rage and struck off Juðwara’s head with his sword. Again, a spring of fresh water appeared where her head fell; and Juðwara wondrously picked up her own head and bore it into the church. Bana knew from this that he had committed a wicked deed against his blameless stepsister, repented and became a monk.

The centre of Saint Sidwell’s cultus is at Exeter – or rather, more specifically, St Sidwells, which was heavily bombed by the Nazis during the Second World War. The centres of Saint Juðwara’s cultus are Halstock in Dorset, and also Sherborne Abbey where her relics were kept prior to the dissolution of the monasteries. Holy virgin-martyrs Sidwell and Juðwara, pray to God for us!

Church of St Juthware and St Mary in Halstock, Dorset