Third Bishop of Worcester; date of birth unknown; d. (according to
Mabillon) December 20, 720, though his death may have occurred three
years earlier. His fame as founder of the great Abbey of Evesham no
doubt tended to the growth of legends which, though mainly founded on
facts, render it difficult to reconcile all the details with those of
the ascertained history of the period. It appears that either in 692, or
a little later, upon the death of Oftfor, second Bishop of Worcester,
Egwin, a prince of the Mercian blood royal, who had retired from the
world and sought only the seclusion of religious life, was forced by
popular acclaim to assume the vacant see. His biographers say that king,
clergy, and commonalty all united in demanding his elevation; but the
popularity which forced on him this reluctant assumption of the
episcopal functions was soon wrecked by his apostolic zeal in their
discharge.
The Anglo-Saxon population of the then young diocese had had less
than a century in which to become habituated to the restraints of
Christian morality; they as yet hardly appreciated the sanctity of
Christian marriage, and the struggle of the English Benedictines for the
chastity of the priesthood had already fairly begun. At the same time
large sections of England were more or less permanently occupied by
pagans closely allied in blood to the Anglo-Saxon Christians. Egwin
displayed undaunted zeal in his efforts to evangelize the heathen and no
less in the enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline. His rigorous
policy towards his own flock created a bitter resentment which, as King
Ethelred was his friend, could only find vent in accusations addressed
to his ecclesiastical superiors. Egwin undertook a pilgrimage to seek
vindication from the Roman Pontiff himself. According to a legend, he
prepared for his journey by locking shackles on his feet, and throwing
the key into the River Avon. While he prayed before the tomb of the
Apostles, at Rome, one of his servants brought him this very key—found
in the maw of a fish that had just been caught in the Tiber. Egwin then
released himself from his self-imposed bonds and straightway obtained
from the pope an authoritative release from the load of obloquy which
his enemies had striven to fasten upon him.
It was after Egwin's triumphant return from this pilgrimage that
the shepherd Eoves came to him with the tale of a miraculous vision by
which the Blessed Virgin had signified her will that a new sanctuary
should be dedicated to her. Egwin himself went to the spot pointed out
by the shepherd (Eoves ham, or "dwelling") and to him also we are told
the same vision was vouchsafed. King Ethelred granted him the land
thereabouts upon which the famous abbey was founded. As to the precise
date of the foundation, although the monastic tradition of later
generations set it in 714, recent research points to some year previous
to 709. At any rate it was most probably in 709 that Egwin made his
second pilgrimage to Rome, this time in the company of Coenred, the
successor of Ethelred, and Offa, King of the East Saxons, and it was on
this occasion that Pope Constantine granted him the extraordinary
privileges by which the Abbey of Evesham was distinguished. One of the
last important acts of his episcopate was his participation in the first
great Council of Clovesho.
Ewan Macpherson (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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