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!
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