Monthly Archives: May 2017
An abecedary of Sacred springs of the world: Ethiopia
“Every morning, before six o’clock, a throng of men and women make their way to the edge of the ancient city of Gondar in northern Ethiopia. They are among many from across Ethiopia who have risen early to attend a holy spring in search of healing for their physical, spiritual and mental disorders. Some have walked for days from the remote countryside having heard of the power of this water at Ba’ata church. Others come from Gondar itself. Still more have taken the bus from the capital, Addis Ababa, 400km (250 miles) to the south. They believe that the cure they will find here will be more complete than any offered in the government hospitals in the city.”
Ethiopia: Washing away the demons Rachel Chambers 1999
Ethiopia is well endowed with notable springs. Many of them are simple springs such as Burkito where hundreds each day bath in the hot waters of the volcanic spring whereas others are developed into spas. Indeed the hot springs of Wondo Genet, Yirga Alem, where in 1964 it was developed by Haille Selassie by establishing a swimming pool and hotel
These springs are said to cure a wide range of medical issues. The list includes prevention of musculo-skeletal disorders (such as arthritis), chronic diseases of respiratory system (such as bronchitis, asthma), Chronic diseases of the digestive system, metabolic diseases (such as obesity, diabetes) and dermal diseases and allergies (such as atopic eczema, acne). Many claim these properties as spas other have a more spiritual sites such do the sacred springs of Gondar. Which at the break of dawn each day is a scene of religious reading, blessings, prayer, baptism and exorcism!
Unlike some other holy springs, the site is restricted site. The site, a walled around spring head is only accessible to the Ba’ata church’s priests who distribute the water, often sprinkling it to the pilgrims. Chambers (1999) notes that when she visited:
“An elderly woman is assisted by her two daughters. A young peasant girl stands to explain to those around her that she is poor and has travelled far. A few onlookers drop cents into her cup to help her pay for the treatment she will receive here. An elder from the community prays from a well-thumbed book of prayers and disturbs the flies with his horse-hair whisk. And a woman soothes the disabled child she is carrying on her back in a leather harness decorated with shells.”
The site is sacred to a tribal group called the Qemant who despite adopting Christianity still have pagan traditions. Gary R. Garner in his 2009 Sacred Wells states that:
“the Qemant are descendents of the Agaw and they continue many of the Agaw traditions including worshiping a sky god, and recognising personal spirits: genii loci, and sky spirits…the Qemant continue to annually sacrifice a white bull or sheep to the geni loci that are residing in…holy geographic places.”
These the author suggests are springs. Indeed, Lake Bishoftu remains a site of annual sacrifice by the country’s Muslim and Christian groups.
A priest holding a cross throws buckets of water over a group of men. Holy water is believed by many in the group to cure diseases including HIV and cancer. From https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/may/18/mass-exorcisms-performed-ethiopian-orthodox-church-in-pictures#img-5 Copyright The Guardian
At the sacred spring of Gondor. During the ceremony the water is said to be purified by retelling a hagiographical story of the Life of Saint Teklahaymanot. A saint said to have stood on one leg for so long in prayer that it went gangrenous and was cut off. By retelling the story it is said that the demons are driven away! Once done the water can be utilised. Chambers states that once the reading was done:
“The old priest is now at liberty to offer his blessing to the people who are already clamouring for his attention. A young woman seeks a blessing for her first pregnancy, another brings her sick child to be touched by the priest’s iron cross. A man with gastric problems has his stomach rubbed with the cross and is recommended to take the holy water for seven days. Another man reports difficulty in walking and duly has his legs massaged with the cross. The reading continues for over an hour and is only interrupted when a small child swallows a cent and needs a hefty thwack on the back to bring it flying out, to the immense relief of his mother.”
There are two types of pilgrim to this water. Some come to receive baptism. Many unclothe. This is undertaken by a priest who holds a cross upon the supplicant whilst the other hand holds a hose which douses the person with baptism water. The other group seek its purging affects and ask for water to fill cans and bottles. The deacons present dutifully fill these cans with holy water and each attendee pays 50 cents, a recommended price for seven days of treatment. The water is potent stuff. It is recorded that once the water is collected the pilgrims disperse to various rocks to drink it. Why? It is because the water has strong purging effects – rapid diarrhoea or vomiting will result! This is good because it will cleanse the body of the evil spirits within or whatever is calling the disease. These evil spirits are drawn out by the priest, the water causing them to be shouted out. It is said that the priests makes a plea with the demon to remove themselves over the seven day treatment.
Perhaps the most noted Ethiopian ceremony associated with water is orthodox Timkat, itself meaning baptism being as it does on the 19th January celebrate Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan. Recorded by Author Donald N. Levin in his 1974 Greater Ethiopia: the evolution of multi-ethnic society it is noted that the day starts with the divine liturgy is celebrated near a stream or pool early in the morning around 2 am, this nearby body of water is then blessed and its water sprinkled on those present in a form of symbolic renewal of baptismal vows. Many jump into 17th-century Fasiladas’ Bath on the third day after the priest enters the pool at 7 am, praying and dipping his cross in pool.
Ethiopia has a rich water heritage to explore
The hidden well on the hill – St Ann’s Well of St Ann’s Hill, Chertsey
Taken from S.C. Hall’s 1853 Chertsey and neighbourhood
Hidden deep in the woods on St. Anne’s Hill is the mysterious St Ann’s or Nun’s well…mysterious for many reasons, least of all its difficulty in finding (although read at the end of a sure-fire way to find it)
St Ann’s well or Catholic folly?
Although the first account of the well is by John Aubrey in his 1718 Surrey he describes it as:
“Westwards of this Town, on a steep Hill, stood St Anne’s Chapel, where, in the Time of the Abbots, was Mass said every Morning… Near the Top of the Hill is a fine clear Spring, dress’d with squar’d Stone.”
Manning and Bray in their 1809 History and Antiquities of Surrey similarly do not name it only stating it was:
“a spring, lined on the sides with hewn stone”
It is only in S.C. Hall’s 1853 Chertsey and neighbourhood that the name appears. It is also curious that the the current structure does not resemble that shown in Hall’s work either more in keeping with Aubrey’s description. It is probable that as the site was gaining a more religious name that it was getting a new structure. This is probably to do with the then owners of the hill, Lord and Lady Holland, who had converted to Roman Catholicism which would explain the improvements in 1850s and its associated with the saint and closer affinity to the chapel. This lending it to the idea of being a sort of romanticised folly.
The chapel itself is first mentioned in 1402 as the capella Sancte Anne is recorded although a chapel was licensed in 1334, but in 1440 St Anne’s hill was still the “hill of St Anne… otherwise called Eldebury Hill.” when a fair was granted which continues today although not unbroken as the Blackcherrry Fair in the town. The chapel is associated with an Abbey which was founded by St Erkenwald in 666 and such the cradle of Christianity in Surrey but it is a big jump to assume the well dates from then. This chapel remains on the hill, the guide in the car park refers to a mound near the house but the nearby mysterious Reservoir cottage incorporated most. However, it is improbable that a considerable amount of water would have been left untapped. The area was a hill fort whose exact history is unclear due to the predations over the centuries, but a Bronze Age date has been suggested.
Healing waters
A Topographical History of Surrey by Edward Brayley and Edward Mantell (1850) state
“and up to within recent years the country folk round about have been used to fetch away water from it, in the belief that it has virtues as an eye lotion. It has a strong taste of iron; would that be good for the eyes?”
Manning and Bray in their 1809 History and Antiquities of Surrey were stating that the waters were:
“not now used for any medicinal purpose. It rarely freezes when other springs do”.
Yet Hall (1853) under the name Nun’s Well states that:
“even now, the peasants believe that its waters are a cure for diseases of the eyes.”
Looking at its dirty murky waters today one would suggest it might cause as many eye problems as it cures!
Ghostly goings on!
Long in his 2002 Haunted Pubs of Surrey records the legends associated with the hill. It is possible that the nun’s well name may derive from a legend of a murder of a nun at St Ann’s convent who was buried in a sandpit. The veracity of this story and even the location of a convent is unclear. The well, it is said being the resort of the nun:
“whose deep begging signs can be heard on certain nights…on such a day, this place reeks of remorse, suffering or sorrow.”
On a spring evening with no one around one could quite imagine such ghostly cries.
A prehistoric landscape
In A Topographical History of Surrey by Brayley and Mantell (1850) it notes:
“Another curiosity is the so-called Devil’s Stone, or Treasure Stone. Aubrey calls this “a conglobation of gravel and sand,” and says that the inhabitants know it as “the Devil’s Stone, and believe it cannot be mov’d, and that treasure is hid underneath.” There have been many searchers after the treasure. One of them once dug down ten feet or more, hoping to come to the base of the huge mass, but his task grew unkinder as he got deeper, and he gave it up. He might well do so, for what is pretty certain is that he was trying to dig up St. Anne’s Hill. All over the face of the hill there are masses of this hard pebbly sandstone cropping up, though they are not so noticeable as the so-called Devil’s Stone because they are flat and occasionally crumbling, and have not had their sides laid bare by energetic treasure-seekers.”
Such stones are often found in conjunction with stones and the treasure may suggest the giving of votive offerings. The combination of a healing spring, an ancient stone and as the name of the hill might suggest a sacred tree is something of considerable interest to those interesting in sacred landscapes and suggests a possible old cult hereabouts. The existence of a ghostly nun may also be significant, there are near identical legends at Canwell and Newington Kent and, the later associated with another Devil’s stone. Do they remember old pagan deities, water spirits who lived by the spring? But this is the only evidence, the old writers are silent on anything more! My musing are just that musings!
The well today is indeed a substantial is ruined structure. It resembles an ice well in structure, its plan being a key shape with a rectangular basin and a dome over the source, although this is difficult to locate. Much of the dome has been weathered and ruined by the ages and being built into the earthen back this has preserved it. The brick work is a curious mix of redbrick, iron slag, cobbles and some older possible reused squared medieval stone work.
Another healing spring?
In their A Topographical History of Surrey by Brayley and Mantell (1850) again:
“Another Spring, once highly reputed for its medicinal virtues, rises on the north-east side of the hill, in the wood or coppice called Monk’s Grove, which gives name to the seat inhabited by the Right Hon. Lady Montfort. This spring, according to Aubrey, had been long covered up and lost; but was again found and re-opened two or three years before he wrote. The water is now received into a bason about twelve feet square, lined with tiles. “
James Rattue in his indispensable 2008 Holy wells of Surrey found this site stating that it resembled in part the Nun’s well and was clearly part of the landscapers attempt to improve the area. It was a dry circle of brickwork and filled with leaves. He describes it as being on the flat part of the hill. However with his instructions, OS reference and old maps showing a spring I failed to find it – although I did find another spring overgrown in the rhododendrons.
However, despite this author and others claims I did find the Nun’s well easy and here the fail-safe way to find it. Don’t go through the car park and continue along the road, passing the second car parking area in the dingle and then as the lane drops just past a house on the right there is a signposted public footpath. Take this and continue until passing a crossroads of another public footpath just past a hedge in the field on the left. As you past this and before the path you are on drops into a series of wooden steps there is a path to the right where the Nun’s well can be seen – simple! Good luck!
A holy well reborn or a new holy wells for the 21st century? Eastbourne’s Holy Well
Holy Well Eastbourne By Seagull123 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41931905
For many years, the only evidence of Eastbourne’s claim in sacred spring history was the area named Holywell, favourite of the retiree. However, since 20 the town has some real tangible evidence for a holy well, although whether the spring is the original holy well is open to debate.
The first record of a settlements called Holywelle dates from 1316 and by the 15th century the name Haliwell, Hallywell is recorded. Yet the first reference to a spring is by James Royer (1787) East-Bourne, being a descriptive account of that village who reports that:
“one of the springs is called Holy-well, supposed to be so named from the many advantages received from drinking those waters”.
In in the anonymous 1861 book Eastbourne as a Resort for Invalides [sic] it notes:
“At Holywell there is a chalybeate spring, the curative properties of which have given the name of the Holy Well. However, a subsequent analysis of the water demonstrated that it had no particular ‘curative properties”.
A location has been suggested by historians by associating it with the Chapel of St Gregory once near the South Cliff Tower in Bolsover Road, however it is thought that this was too far from the current area so called. Thomas Horsfield (1835) History of Sussex noted:
“the chalybeate springs at Holywell, a short distance west of the Sea House, are highly worth the attention of the visitor. The quality of the water is said intimately to resemble the far-famed springs at Clifton”.
George Chambers A Handbook of Sussex (1862) records that:
“they have however been analysed, at the instance of the present vicar, and found to consist of simple but very fine surface water.”
A rediscovery
The well was apparently rediscovered in 2009 as a spring arising at the foot of the chalk cliff. A wooden sign has now been affixed as well as a cup and chain. Akyildiz (2011) notes in Landscape and Arts Network Articles – The rediscovery of a Fresh Water Spring beside the sea: a local holy well?
“The low stone wall built by Dan and fellow helpers, Pat and Shaun, is both a built physical structure designed to protect the site and a creative act of care. All these three have a passion for the well and provide their labour for free; they say “We feel we are doing a job of worth at the spring and that we are helping people access an alternate source local freshwater…the Holywell spring is such a peaceful place to be, and we have made many new friends here.” The low wall of large stones gathered from around the site protects the spring – and its vital source: the spring water.”
He also notes that a local Catholic church has blessed this site twice and on each occasion has attracted a gathering of nearly 50-70 people and in 2014 there was an evening concert at the well with a New Age flavour, so it is good to see this local spring being embraced by its local community, whether is the titular spring is unclear however.
holyandhealingwells 