Egwin of Evesham
Saint Egwin OSB | |
---|---|
Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church | |
Major shrine | Evesham Abbey |
Feast | 30 December |
Attributes | bishop holding a fish and a key[1] |
Egwin of Evesham[a] (died 30 December 717) was a Benedictine monk and, later, the third Bishop of Worcester in England. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Life
Egwin was born in
As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and widows and a fair judge. [4] He struggled with the local population over the acceptance of Christian morality, especially Christian marriage and clerical celibacy. Egwin's stern discipline created a resentment which, as King Æthelred was his friend, eventually found its way to his ecclesiastical superiors. He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome to seek vindication from the pope himself. According to a legend, he prepared for his journey by locking shackles on his feet, and throwing the key into the River Avon.
According to one account, as Egwin and his companions were passing through the Alps, they began to thirst. Those among his companions who did not acknowledge the bishop's sanctity asked him mockingly to pray for water as Moses once did in the desert. But others, who did believe in him, rebuked the unbelievers and asked him in a different tone, with true faith and hope. Egwin prostrated himself in prayer. On arising, they saw a pure stream of water gush forth out of the rock.[5]
While he prayed before the tomb of the Apostles in Rome, one of his servants brought him the very key—found in the mouth of a fish that had just been caught in the Tiber.[2] Egwin then released himself from his self-imposed bonds and straight away obtained from the pope an authoritative release from his enemies' obloquy.
Upon his return to England, he founded
One of the last important acts of his
A
Notes
- ^ Also Ecgwin, Ecgwine and Eegwine
Citations
- ^ Patron Saints Index entry for St Egwin of Worcester Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine accessed on 3 November 2007
- ^ a b c d Macpherson, Ewan. "St. Egwin." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 17 May 2013
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 223
- ^ Monks of Ramsgate. "Egwin". Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 22 November 2012
- ^ Moss, Vladimir. "Saint Egwin of Worcester", Orthodox America
- ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7
- required)
- ^ Jennings "Writings" English Historical Review p. 298
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Egwin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
References
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
- Jennings, J. C. (April 1962). "The Writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham". .
Further reading
- Lapidge, Michael, ed. (2009). Byrhtferth of Ramsey: The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955078-4.
External links
- Ecgwine 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- The Benedictines of Stanbrook. Saint Egwin and His Abbey of Evesham
- Butler, Alban. The Lives of the Saints, Vol. I, 1866