SaintFamous
The Boy King's Light
A pillar of light over a murdered prince.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A church with an Anglo-Saxon crypt
- Legend from
- Medieval hagiography
- Best time
- 1 June
- Tone
- Curious
Where the young prince died, a column of light rose and hair grew from the ground each June.
Wigstan, or Wystan, was a young Mercian prince murdered in 849, reportedly after objecting to his godfather's plan to marry his widowed mother. He was buried at Repton in the tomb of his grandfather King Wiglaf. Legend says a column of light rose from the place of his murder and stayed visible for thirty days, and that human hair sprang from the ground there on the anniversary of his death, 1 June. His crypt at Repton became a place of pilgrimage until King Cnut moved his relics to Evesham Abbey. The Anglo-Saxon crypt still survives.