Holy Wells
An invitation to Saturday's live discussion with Mairi Bontorno!
After our chat, a link to its recording will be posted below!
Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.
Pax+bonum, Kristin.
Over the past few years, the connections I’ve been fortunate to enjoy, both online1 and offline, have grown and challenged and nourished me in ways that have constantly inspired (and surprised!) my introverted heart.
Years ago, via a dear mutual friend2, I got to connect through the ether with an immediate kindred spirit: Mairi Bontorno, author of Magpie Tidings, and an old soul with a Masters in Archaeology and a passion for the intersection between Faith and Place.
For Mairi, this passion was honed through the geography and history of the Holy Wells of the British Isles - ancient, natural springs that were held as sacred places, often serving as pilgrimage sites and holding a plethora of connections to regional saints. Many of these holy wells are at cultural intersections, being mutually recognized as sacred by Christians and pre-Christian cultures alike.
There’s a continuity of sacred storytelling embedded in holy wells, tangible reminders of our Living Water. Medieval Christians found, in these sacred springs, cultural & regional memories that spoke to their sacramental theology, spoke to the incarnational reality of their faith - and vice versa, the Word’s illumination of these springs.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
John 4:13-14 (ESV)
So, after years of exchanging letters and Christmas gifts, of getting to chat back and forth on video calls, I’m absolutely delighted to have Mairi joining us as a guest speaker this Saturday! She’ll be sharing more about her background in archaeology and her fascinating, enlightening research about Holy Wells.
A note from Mairi Bontorno:
“I grew up in Utah, in the Mormon church. I was raised with a very strong sense of my Scottish ancestry and felt like I had a pretty good grasp of Scotland’s history and interesting places to visit (having gone on a trip with my mother, my aunt and a friend of ours back in 2001 when I was nineteen).
“When I moved to Glasgow in 2010 to study archaeology I was pleasantly surprised by my ignorance, and learned so much about my ancestral home, and was able not only to visit so many incredible places in Scotland, but also participate in two archaeological digs the summers of 2012 and 2013. We were based in a charming village called Dunning and for both years I worked at an excavation along the outer wall of the medieval church.
“Holy wells was not my first choice for my dissertation, but as soon as I began studying it, I was ‘hooked’. At the time, I wasn’t able to visit many wells in person, but have had the opportunity on three different trips since my graduation, to go back to Scotland and find more holy wells (and revisit favorites!).
“My husband Nick and I married in 2021, having first met in 2007. We have lived in Idaho, Utah, upstate NY and again Utah since we got married. In 2024 we were able to travel to Scotland where I showed him some of my favorite spots, and we discovered parts of the country that were new to both of us - including some holy wells!
“I currently work as a reference librarian. As well as working on a manuscript about the holy wells (and Celtic Saints, etc!) I love to knit, sew, and sing folk songs with Nick.
“It has been 11 years since I graduated (!), but the holy wells and Celtic saints have stayed with me, influencing and affecting my life. Having encountered the liturgical calendar first through friends that had taught Waldorf school, I have since incorporated elements of it into my personal practice of religion and faith.”