170 



" Notes and Queries" supply us with notices of numerous rain- 

 ing saints in foreign countries. Thus there are two or three in 

 France the days on which their festivals occur, the 8th and the 19th 

 of June, being marked respectively by the following couplets : — 



S'il pleut le jour de Saint Medard 



n pleut quarante jours plus tard. 



S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint ProtaiB 



II pleut quarante jours apres.* 

 In Flanders the raining Saint is St, Godelieve. In Germany 

 there are three raining Saints, one of the days being the festival of 

 the Seven Sleepers, the 27th July.t In Tuscany the same thing 

 that is said of St. Swithin's Day is said of St. Galla's Day, the 5th of 

 October ; and at Rome the same saying is said to be applied to any 

 day within the octave of the Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, 

 the 24th of August.J 



Lastly, there is said to be preserved in the office of the Registrar 

 of the Diocese of Norwich a " very splendid manuscript, known as 

 the Norwich Domesday, preceded by a calendar, in which there is 

 the following weather-distich for July 2, the day of SS. Processus 



and Martinianus : — 



Si pluat in festo Processi et Martiniani, 

 Tmber grandis erit, ac suffocatio grani." || 



This day nearly coincides with Bullion's Day before mentioned. 

 The 2nd July is also, according to Butler, § the day of the festival 

 of St. Swithin in the Roman Martyrology, being the day of his 

 death ; though in England his chief festival is on the 15th, the day 

 of his translatioa Whether these Saints may not have got 

 confusedly mixed up together with reference to the saying about wet 

 weather, I leave to be determined by others. 



Thus there would seem to be a host of raining Saints. We must 

 remember, however, that if the number of these Saints tends to 

 make us loosen om* hold of the legend of St. Swithin, at the same 

 time it leads to a belief that, whether the legend itself be true or 

 not, there must be some truth in the idea of wet weather, of longer 

 or shorter continuance, ordinarily occurring about the time of year 



* N. and Q., vol. is., p. 278; and vol. xii., p. 137. 



t Id., vol. xii., p. 253. J Id. New Ser., vol. vi., p. 328 ; and p. 403. 



B Id., N.S., vii.,p. 450. § Lives of the Saints. Edit. 1833, vol. 2, p. 78. 



