This “Come & Sing” Vespers is at 18:30 on Saturday 31st May on the eve of the feast of St. Wite. The service is at the Church of St. Candida and Holy Cross, in Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, and led by Fr Steven Martin. 

This is a Come and Sing event and singers are warmly invited to bring their cassocks and meet earlier in the afternoon at 3:00pm to rehearse together and enjoy the church and grounds before Vespers. There is an optional rehearsal for singers the day before on Friday 30th May at 5:00pm at Shute St Michael EX13 7QW (near Axminster). For requests to share transport to Whitchurch or Shute, please visit the Friends of St. Michael’s facebook group here.

Refreshments will be shared after the service, continuing the local custom of offering cakes and ale to St. Wite.

The Shrine of St. Wite:
The church contains the relics of the saint, St Wite (the English name of St Candida, 9th century holy woman and martyr, and patron saint of Dorset). It is one of only three churches in England to contain a pre-Reformation saint’s shrine still with relics (Westminster Abbey being one of the others). Her 13th-century shrine is located in the north transept of the church. It was opened in 1900 and fragments of bones and teeth were found as well as a leaden casket with the inscription Hie Reqeset Reliqe See Witey containing even more bones. The shrine has three oval openings which handkerchiefs and other small articles were traditionally placed to gain healing properties and then given to the sick.

Read more about Whitchurch Canonicorum on the British Pilgrimage Trust page.