The story goes that Saint Lewinna's bones (some of them) with their miraculous healing powers lie beneath the altar of St Andrew's church near the Sussex coast. But which St Andrew's? There's a St Andrew's at Alfriston, another at Jevington and yet another at Bishopstone. (There are so many St Andrew's because he is the patron saint of fishing and all these villages have connections with the sea and fishing.) All these churches have histories reaching back into Saxon times - the period when St Lewinna is supposed to have lived. The story of her bones was written down in the Middle Ages by the monk Drogo and this is my telling of it, taken from Drogo's version

Lewinna lived somewhere near the coast of Sussex during the reign of the Saxon king Egbert who died in 674. She was probably one of the first converts to the new religion brought to Sussex by St Wilfrid. Sussex remained Pagan long after many other parts of these islands had adopted Christianity and there are many stories of St Wilfrid's efforts to bring these heathens into the fold. It seems that Lewinna's devotion to this new God offended her neighbours and she was killed - a martyr for her faith, perhaps a virgin martyr, a condition of highest honour in those early days of the church. From the moment of her death her body and the casket in which it was laid had miraculous healing powers. Monks took care of her remains in their wooden church building and they made parchment scrolls recording the stories of the illnesses and injuries that had been healed and cured by people just touching the casket.

Years passed. Lewinna was declared a saint in honour of her willingness to die for her faith and it was recognised that her bones in their casket were a holy relic of great importance. The monks continued to record miracles of healing.

Around 1040 a Benedictine monk of Bergues in Flanders was travelling by ship to Britain in search of holy relics. He felt that his monastery would be a fitting resting place for these holy objects, and that to have them would bring more honour and renown (and money?) to his monastery. Balgerus appears to have been a dedicated relic hunter.

The ship he was in was caught in a gale in the English Channel and driven in the high winds past the port it was aiming for. The sailors and passengers feared for their lives in that stormy sea and were glad to find safety in the harbour at Seaford. There they rested to wait out the storm. Most of those on board stayed on the boat. They were uncertain of the temper of the Seaford folk - it wasn't their usual port of call and the Sussex folk were known for ruthlessness with regard to strangers and shipwrecks on their shores.

But Balgerus wanted to go ashore because it was Easter and he was obliged to celebrate Mass. He took one companion, a servant boy, and they took a small boat and rowed themselves to land. Once ashore Balgerus looked for someone to tell him where he could hear Mass, but it was early in the morning and there was hardly anyone about. Eventually he heard that there was a minster church nearby. (A minster is a church attached to a monastery). He was told it was a walk that would take an hour or so.

He set off but on the way felt faint and had to rest at the side of the path. He would have been fasting because of the Easter Observances and so maybe, not unnaturally, his strength failed him. An old man approached Balgerus and asked the monk, in Latin, where he was going. When Balgerus told him the old man said,
"Be of good courage then, because when you come to the church of St Andrew you will find healing for all your weakness and ailments. The bones of Saint Lewinna lie in a casket there and you will be able to read about their miraculous powers if you look at the scrolls on the walls of the church."
When Balgerus heard this, he revived and felt strong enough to continue. The old man disappeared quickly from view and afterwards Balgerus wondered whether he had been real or some holy vision guiding the seeker to the relics he sought.

At the church Balgerus heard Mass and then looked around. He saw the scrolls and read about the miraculous powers of the bones. Then he saw the casket which must be the one with the bones inside. He felt the lid - it was loose! He opened it just far enough to see the red cloth that wrapped the holy bones of the saint. Balgerus was greatly excited. He felt sure that these bones should have pride of place in his rich and famous monastery, not be hidden away in this remote settlement where only a few people would ever make their way to find them.

He approached the priest and asked if he could buy the bones.

The priest was outraged by such an offer. How dare this presumptuous foreigner insult him and his church so! The priest responded with a vehement refusal. Balgerus quickly backtracked. He'd only been making a joke. Of course he wouldn't presume to make such an insulting and unholy offer. The priest should forgive his clumsy attempt at humour. And then Balgerus asked if he could keep an Easter vigil - staying in the church to pray.

The priest accepted the apologies and, without enthusiasm, agreed that Balgerus as a Christian monk had every right to stay and pray in the church for as long as he wanted.

Balgerus stayed and prayed….and stayed…..and prayed….and stayed…. through the night. He prayed and chanted until the doorkeeper went home and left him to it. When he was at last alone in the church, Balgerus approached the casket again and tried to lift the lid. This time it wouldn't budge.

He went back to ever more fervent praying. He addressed his pleas directly to Saint Lewinna,
"If you will allow yourself to be moved to where you will receive far greater honour than is possible here, I will be your devoted servant for ever," he promised fervently.
He went back to the casket and tried the lid. It lifted up easily now, and high with excitement, prayer and fasting, Balgerus set about stealing the bones. He wrapped them in a cloth he had with him and carried them to where he'd put his bag. There was a clatter on the floor behind him which made him jump nervously and nearly drop his precious bundle. He looked down in the dim candle-light and saw that some bones had fallen from the bundle. He noticed that they were finger bones. He picked them up, re-wrapped the bundle, and went on his way. Another clatter. The same finger bones were on the floor. Once more, he picked them up and carried on towards the door. When the finger bones fell a third time from the now tightly wrapped bundle, Balgerus realised that maybe Saint Lewinna was trying to communicate.

He put his bundle down, picked up the finger bones and returned them to the red cloth inside the casket. He understood that the saint was determined that some of her remains should remain in St Andrew's.

After this Balgerus had no further problems putting the precious bundle into his own bag. When the bones were safely stowed away it was already early morning. Balgerus woke the servant lad who'd slept soundly throughout the proceedings, and they set off back to Seaford harbour. But Balgerus was very nervous about being discovered, and to throw off suspicion, he decided not to board the ship immediately but to stay visible in the town - as a monk with a clear conscience might do. He sent the bag with the bones aboard ship with the servant. He said he would stay ashore to buy fresh fish for the crew and would come aboard later in the day.

But the captain decided to sail from the harbour immediately. It was high tide and the winds were good - it was an opportunity not to be missed. Balgerus could rejoin the ship later from further down the coast. So Balgerus was left ashore - the story doesn't say whether he'd already bought the fish or not at this point. It seems that the next day, further misfortune hit Balgerus' plans in the form of a gale blowing again and the sea soon becoming too rough for a small boat to take the monk for his rendezvous with the ship. Balgerus was stranded but no-one seems to have suspected his crime.

That night on board the ship the sailors were again anxious for their safety. The winds and waves seemed to be attacking the ship and all feared that they must be destroyed. Balgerus' servant had told them what was in the bag he'd brought aboard for his master, because the monk had insisted that this cargo be recognised and treated as precious and holy. Some of the sailors began to murmur about it bringing bad luck. Maybe the saint was angry and she would wreck the ship for revenge. They should throw the bag and its bones overboard. But others said no, it was a natural storm and their best protection would be to keep the holy saint's relics aboard for the protection they would bring. The saint would surely not want her bones to lie at the bottom of the sea where no-one could come and honour them.

This argument was persuasive and the bones were kept aboard. The ship rode out the storm and continued on its way. But there were merchants and others aboard who'd lost valuable time already with the storms and delays and they weren't prepared to wait for a monk to be picked up when the weather allowed. Balgerus was left behind. When, some weeks later, the ship arrived back in its home port in Flanders the steersman offered to look after the bag. He gave it to his wife for safe-keeping.

Meanwhile Balgerus had to find a ship to bring him home, then trace what had happened to his bag and then find his way to the house of the steersman and his wife. When he finally managed this, the indefatigable relic hunter was astonished to find that the good woman had become so attached to the holy relics herself that she was reluctant to return them. Balgerus could hardly claim that he was the rightful owner. In the end, he had to part with a considerable sum of his monastery's gold in order to recover the bag.

So, imagine Balgerus at last walking triumphantly towards his home monastery in Bergues proudly carrying his precious booty. He sent messengers ahead with the good news and a procession came to meet and welcome Saint Lewinna's bones to their new resting place. Procession it seems was ten parts of the law. Balgerus was rewarded with celebration and acclaim for his theft. The bones were ceremoniously washed in holy water and placed in a casket decorated with silver and gold. There they remained for 500 years and it is said that they gave many miraculous healings to the people who came (and paid) to touch and honour them.

In 1522 the monastery was destroyed during the religious battles of the Reformation and apparently only one rib bone of Saint Lewinna survived. This was preserved in a silk bag until 1791 but then the Abbey was completely destroyed and the last relic of Sussex's Saxon saint was lost for many years. It was rediscovered in 1905 in a little wooden box in St Martin's church where it can be seen to this day in St Roch's chapel in the church which is the parish church of Bergues.

But the story doesn't tell us where exactly are the finger bones that were left behind in Sussex.

St Andrew's of Bishopstone has a strong claim - it was a minster church and it is close to where the harbour of Seaford used to be. But perhaps too close. The sea came right up to the village in those days, so it would have been no distance to the church whereas the story says that Balgerus had to walk for an hour - long enough to become exhausted.

Then there's St Andrew's at Alfriston. Its claims rest on the argument that Balgerus' boat sheltered in Cuckmere Haven, not Seaford - that the teller of the tale got the name wrong. It was a mistake that could easily have been made in the days when there were no signposts. And the description of the harbour where the boat sheltered, some people say, matches better with how Cuckmere Haven would have looked then. Also, there is a Saxon stone carving in a prominent position in the Alfriston church depicting a woman with a deep wound on her head which is traditionally said to be St Lewinna, the wound showing her martyrdom.

And what about Jevington's claim? It's certainly a Saxon church, dedicated to St Andrew and there is evidence of other buildings which might have been a small monastery in the field nearest the church. But it's a long walk from Seaford - or Cuckmere Haven - and Balgerus would have had to walk past other churches to get there.

I've told St Lewinna's story outside each of the three churches in question but have not experienced a sign suggesting that one is the true resting place, The three churches that claim them are all well worth visiting and maybe one day Saint Lewinna will find a way to reveal the presence of her earthly remains - who knows