No reliable information exists about the female saint known as Wite, Whyte, or Candida, whose shrine can be found in the church of St Candida and the Holy Cross, at Whitchurch Canonicorum in west Dorset.  In 1900 when the shrine was opened it was found to contain the bones of a small woman in her 40s.  Thus it’s claimed that the shrine of St Wite is one of two remaining English shrines which still hold the remains of their saint; the other being that of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.

For many years the shrine received little attention, but in the last 50 or so years it has become a place of pilgrimage, and Wite has become recognised the patron saint of Dorset.  Today, the shrine has flowers placed by it, and people place prayer requests in its three openings, which in earlier times it’s thought that  pilgrims  thrust diseased limbs.

Photographed 21 June 2025.