52. SAINT EGWIN, BISHOP OFWORCESTER

Our holy Father Egwin was born of royal stock in the region of Worcester. When he came of age, he left the world and embraced the monastic life, wherein he soon achieved a high standard of excellence. He was ordained through all the degrees of the priesthood, and in 693, on the repose of the bishop of Worcester, he was elected to the episcopal see of Worcester by all the clergy and the people, and with the assent of King Aethelred of Mercia and the archbishop of Canterbury. In this exalted position he showed himself to be a pattern of all virtue: a father of orphans, a protector of widows, a righteous judge of the oppressed and comforter of the afflicted. And by his powerful preaching many were converted from paganism or from an evil way of life.

The righteous, however, must expect tribulation in this world, and malicious tongues began to wag against the saint. He decided to travel to Rome and put his case before the highest tribunal in the West. But before leaving, and although he was innocent of the charges brought against him, he imposed a severe penance upon himself both for his own sins and for the sins of the people. He locked his feet in iron fetters and threw the key into the river Avon. Thus bound, he set off on the arduous journey to Rome.

As he and his companions were passing through an arid region of 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 love. The saint prostrated himself in prayer to the Lord with his companions. On arising, they saw a pure stream of water gush forth out of the rock; whereupon everybody, believers and unbelievers alike, gave heartfelt thanks to God Who is wondrous in His saints.

When they arrived in Rome and had prayed in the church of St. Peter, the saint told his companions to go down to the river Tiber and see if they could catch a fish. They did as he said, and to their delight caught a medium-sized salmon which they brought to the holy father. When he saw it he gave thanks and ordered them to slit it open. Great was their astonishment when they found inside the fish the key which the saint had cast into the river Avon! News of the miracle spread throughout Rome, and from all sides the faithful came to seek the holy man's blessing.

Pope Constantine, who had heard of Egwin's arrival, the great labours of his journey and the miracle of the key, did not allow the saint to prostrate before him, but himself asked his blessing. And for the rest of his stay in Rome he treated him with great respect, celebrating the Divine Liturgy with him and having many private talks with him. The case against the saint was examined and annulled, and he returned to England laden with honours. The people greeted him with joy, and by the decree of the archbishop he was restored to the see from which he had been dismissed. King Aethelred, too, received him with love, ready to fulfil whatever the saint might ask for.

One of the saint's first requests was to be granted the pastureland beside the Avon where he had thrown the key into the river. One of the king's shepherds had once had a vision at this same spot, in which a Virgin of extraordinary splendour appeared holding a book in her hands and chanting psalms in the company of two other virgins. When the shepherd told this to the saint, he turned it over in his mind for a long time, praying to God with vigils and fasting. Then, early one morning, after the saint and three companions had spent the whole night in prayer, they set out barefoot to the spot, chanting psalms and hymns. Parting company with the others, St. Egwin fell to the earth with tears and groans. On arising from his prayer, he saw three virgins, of whom the middle one was most wondrous to behold, shining in light and surrounded by an ineffable fragrance. In her hands she held a book, and a cross which shone with a golden radiance. When Egwin realized that this was the Most Holy Mother of God, she, as if approving his thought, blessed him with the cross and disappeared.

This vision gave the saint to understand that it was God's will that this place, later called Evesham, should be dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary. And he determined to build a church there in accordance with a vow he had made during a period of especially fierce temptation. So he bought the land and carried out the task to completion, endowing the foundation with many gifts from the English kings. At his request, the Pope granted his foundation stavropegial status, which was confirmed by a council of the English Church held at Alcester in 709.

In 711 the saint retired from his see and devoted himself exclusively to the government of his monastery at Evesham. With fastings and vigils, with tears and groans, he poured out his prayers to the Lord, and was accounted worthy of many visitations of the angels and the saints. He was particularly devoted to the Mother of God, whose praises were always on his lips.

Already rich in years and Divine Grace, he fell ill in the monastery which he had founded, and, feeling the approach of death, he called together the brethren and said: «Most reverend and beloved sons, I beseech you, be zealous in observing the commandments of God, and keep the vow which you made to Him. For it is written: «Make your vows and pay them to the Lord.» And as the Apostle says: »Follow peace and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord."» Then, having commended them to the Father and having partaken of the Body and Blood of the Lord, he departed this life on December 30, 717. Great was the sorrow of the brethren and all the people.

But during the burial of the saint, sorrow at his departure was mixed with joy at his triumph. And after his burial many miracles proved that St. Egwin had obtained great favour with the Lord. On praying to him, the blind were given their sight, the deaf their hearing, the sick in body and soul were healed. And so his fame spread throughout the country, and many came to his tomb to seek his intercession.

Once a penitent, grieving over a serious crime he had committed, bound himself with a number of iron fetters. He vowed that he would not loose himself from them until God had shown him that he was loosed from the fetters of his sins. He dragged himself to several shrines of the saints, and after diligent prayer and fasting all but one of the fetters broke.

However, the ninth fetter was fastened more tightly than the others, so that the flesh around it began to swell. In hope of being released from this one, too, the unfortunate man travelled to Rome, to the tombs of the holy Apostles. There, after heartfelt prayer, he was told in his sleep: «Go to England and seek the place of the blessed bishop Egwin, and when you have given him due veneration, you will obtain mercy.» Joyfully, the penitent set off on his journey, and, arriving at the church of St. Egwin, spent several days there in prayer and fasting. One day, after the brethren had chanted the third hour and celebrated the Divine Liturgy, the ninth fetter snapped with such force that all the brethren heard it, and the penitent himself was thrown some distance as if by the hand of a man. When the brethren ascertained the truth of the miracle, they rejoiced and gave glory to God.

On the death of King Harold in 1040, the abbot of Evesham, Bishop Alfward of London, took part in an embassy to bring Canutés other son, Hardicanute, to the English throne. As they were crossing the Channel to Flanders, a fierce tempest arose such that even the sailors were close to despair. Bishop Alfward turned in prayer to St. Egwin, begging him to free them from their peril, and promising that if God showed them mercy through his prayers, he would make a new reliquary for the saint and cause his feast day to be celebrated with even greater honour. No sooner had he made this petition than the sea suddenly became calm, and they shortly reached their port of destination. The bishop was true to his word. A splendid reliquary of gold and silver was prepared, and the translation of St. Egwin's relics took place on September 10.

A few years later, a craftsman named Godric was working on this shrine, carving little figures onto it with his scalpel. Suddenly the scalpel he was holding in his right hand went straight through his left, causing blood to flow on the other side. In his distress Godric cried: «O Saint Egwin, am I not here in your service? If you have any care for the service of a wretched sinner, display it now!» No sooner had he spoken these words than the wound was miraculously healed with no pain or trace of blood.

There was a woman by the name of Algitha who during the reign of King Edward used to frequent the church of St. Egwin and who, for love of the saint, wished to acquire a part of his relics. So she bribed some boys to steal it secretly. Coming by night, they opened the reliquary and stole a part of the arm of the saint and one of his teeth. Then they brought the relics to the woman, who joyfully stored it away among her own things. That night St. Egwin appeared to her in a vision and told her to return the relics, saying that they had been unjustly taken away. She ignored his command, whereupon he appeared to her a second time. But when she in her greed persuaded herself that these visions were demonic phantoms, St. Egwin appeared to her a third time and sternly ordered her to return the relics. When she refused he replied: «Before the sun rises, you will regret your obstinacy in disobeying my commands.» The woman rose from her bed blind, and so she remained for the rest of her life. However, she went to Abbot Manny and asked him to let her have the relics, promising that she would make a reliquary of gold and silver in their honour. She also promised that after her death St. Egwin and his servants would receive some of her land. So much for the woman. As for the boys, God punished them severely. One drowned in water, while another was afflicted with a painful illness for the rest of his life.

Near Canterbury there lived a man who had been dumb from his mother's womb. While still young, he decided to go to Rome to venerate the tombs of the holy apostles. On arriving, he prayed for three years for the healing of his infirmity. But having received no cure, he was sorrowfully contemplating the possibility of never being healed when a man in shining white vestments appeared to him in the night and said: «Why have you been lying here for so long to no avail? Go back to your native land of England, look for the monastery of St. Egwin, go there with an offering, and when you have prayed to God and that saint you will be immediately healed.» The man obeyed this command and with God's help arrived at St. Egwin's monastery. It was a Saturday, and all the brethren were standing in the choir during Vespers when the man came up to the altar with a candle in his hand. After praying for a long time he offered the candle, and then again stood in prayer. Suddenly blood began to flown from his mouth and onto the pavement. When the Vespers prayers were over, Prior Avicius and some of the senior brethren came up and asked him what the matter was and why he was lying there coughing up blood. So the man stood up in the midst of the brethren, and, stretching out his hands and lifting up his eyes to God, he said: «Thus have I been helped by Almighty God and my lord St. Egwin, though whose prayers Christ has worked a miracle in me the wretched one, as I shall not tell you truly.» Then he told them the whole story from the beginning. When he had finished, the brethren rejoiced, and, bringing together the people, they all sang the Te Deum.

There was a man who had been ill for a long time with a horrifically swollen and tumerous foot and leg, so that he had to be supported by crutches on both sides. One day he came to the relics of St. Egwin and prayed fervently to God and the saint. The brethren were at that time in the choir, and one could see the fearful hope on their faces as they prayed for the poor man's recovery. Suddenly the intent silence was broken by the sound of the sick man throwing away his crutches, falling to the ground and then joyfully jumping up again, completely healed. Amidst general rejoicing he left his crutches by the holy altar and returned home praising God.

A leper whose whole body was disfigured by the disease sought St. Egwin's intercession. His prayer was answered, and you could see the scab come clean off his body like a shield. Many others were healed through St. Egwin: the blind, the deaf, the mute, the lepers, the paralytics; and many who were bound with fetters saw them struck off and bounding a long distance away, filling the whole church with clatter.

Once a monk of Coventry name Sperckulf, a man of very ascetic life (he sometimes fasted for four or six days continuously), came as was his custom to the feast of St. Egwin, and was spending the night in hymns and prayers in the crypt dedicated to the saint. While he was chanting the psalms of David, he saw the doors of the crypt open and an unearthly light descend into it, chasing away all shadows. Then an extraordinarily beautiful procession of saints met his fearful gaze. First came some boys carrying candles, then deacons, then some older men with shining white hair. These were all dressed in white vestments. At the rear came a person dressed in indescribably beautiful pontifical vestments whom two of the older men were escorting, one on either side. Going up to the altar of St. Egwin, they chanted Mattins with great reverence, followed by the Divine Liturgy, which was celebrated in the normal manner with wonderful grace. Then came the canonical Hours. Finally, the whole company processed out the church in the same order in which they had entered.

Another night, the same monk was keeping vigil in the church of the Mother of God. Suddenly all the doors of the church opened of their own accord and he saw with extraordinary clarity a procession entering in the same manner as before, but with St. Egwin this time escorting the Holy Virgin. Coming up to the altar dedicated to her, St. Egwin proceeded to celebrate Mattins and the Divine Liturgy most beautifully. Sperckulf, who was watching with great trepidation, was also amazed to see some monks of Evesham whom he had known and who had reposed some time before. Going up to one of them, he asked him who it was for whom the Liturgy was being celebrated. «Be quiet,» he replied: «Don't you know that our lord St. Egwin is celebrating the sacred mystery to the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary?» Terrified by this reply, Sperckulf returned to his place and waited to see what would happen. At the end of the Liturgy and the service to the Mother of God, two bishops escorted her, one on either side, while the procession went out as it had come in, in great glory.

St. Egwin is commemorated on December 30.

Holy Father Egwin, pray to God for us!

(Sources: Vladimir Moss, «Saint Egwin of Worcester», Orthodoxy America, December, 1985; W.D. Macray, Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, Rolls series, 1863, pp. 36–38, 44–53; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, pp. 127–128)