Egwin of Worcester was of a noble family, possibly a descendant of the Mercian kings.
Devoted
to God since his youth, he succeeded to the see of Worcester in 662.
Though a good bishop, protector of orphans and widows, and a fair judge,
he incurred the animosity of people who resisted his insistent teaching
on marital morality and clerical celibacy.
The resentment of
some found its way to his ecclesiastical superiors, and Egwin undertook a
pilgrimage to Rome to place his case before the Pope. One account
relates that on crossing the Alps with a few companions, there was no
water. Parched, those who did not appreciate his sanctity, mockingly
suggested that he ask for water, like Moses. But others, who knew him
well, reverently beseeched him to, indeed, pray for water. As Egwin
prostrated himself in prayer, a stream of crystalline water issued forth
from a rock.
On his return to England, Egwin founded the famous abbey of Evesham under the patronage of Mary Most Holy.
Around
709, he again journeyed to Rome, this time in the company of Kings
Cenred of Mercia, and Offa of the East Saxons, and received many
privileges for his monastery from Pope Constantine. In the tenth century
Evesham became one of the great Benedictine abbeys of Medieval England.
St. Egwin died on December 30, 717 and was buried at the monastery he had founded.
First Photo by: Oosoom
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