Biddy's Eyes Traditional Cache
Berrow Cachers: There are plenty of other caches in the area following the camping event this summer, so I would like to let the residents continue to rest in peace.
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A nice quick cache n dash (if you can park!) at St. Bridget's Anglican Church in Brean.
A small container, hidden along "caravan alley" to Brean Down!
St Bridget was born about 455 AD.
Bridget grew into a beautiful young girl, and a nobleman sought her hand in marriage. Her father was delighted and encouraged the young man. Bridget, however, would have none of it. She had alredy resolved to become a nun, and prayed that she might be made unsightly so that her suitor would be discouraged. She developed an eye disease, and became "so disagreeable to the sight that no one thought of giving her further molestation".
In the circumstances her father readily agreed that Bridget should become a nun, and at the age of 14 she took the veil. Her sight was then fully restored, and she became more beautiful than before.
As a nun, Bridget almost certainly came to Somerset.
There are two churches in Somerset dedicated to Bridget; at Brean, on the coast, and at Chelvey, some miles inland from Clevedon. Maybe she founded these on her visit to Glastonbury, or perhaps she made more than one visit to Somerset.
Other evidence in support of the idea that Bridget did indeed come to somerset includes the fact that she appears in a 13th century calendar of Muchelney Abbey, and there were until quite recent times folk memories of her.
One such memory is enshrined in a Somerset custom which survived until the beginning of the 20th century. In the west of the county the mountain pansy (viola lutens) was known as "Biddy's eyes". Beds of these flowers, called "Biddy's beds" were prepared around St Bridget's Eve (1st of February) each year, and on May Eve a wax doll dressed in a light blue skirt and a dark blue cloak was laid in the bed and covered with perriwinkle petals. A children's rhyme associated with the custom went; "Ring the bell, Biddy's dead; Give us a flower for Biddy's bed".
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Urnq urvtug