It was 8th century England. Christianity had arrived just a couple hundred years before, and the Anglo-Saxons in the new diocese of Worcester were still acclimating to their new faith.
A short time before, they had unanimously—along with the king and clergy—selected Egwin to be their bishop. They had to force him to take the office, but when he did, he set about discharging it with greater zeal than they liked. Now they just wanted to get rid of him.
Some people began spreading false tales about Bishop Egwin. When he heard this, he decided to go to Rome and clear his name before the pope in person.
He placed his mission in God’s hands in a concrete way—that is, by shackling his ankles and chucking the key into the Avon River. Then he set forth across the Channel, across Europe, and into Rome—shackled the whole way.
When Egwin arrived, he hobbled to the tomb of one of the Apostles and began to pray fervently. Eventually, he was interrupted by a hesitant tap on his shoulder. It was one of his servants. The servant placed something in the bishop’s hands, stammering out that the object had just been found in a fish caught in the Tiber.
Egwin looked down to find his own shackle’s key in his palm. Joyfully, he unshackled himself and went to the pope, who cleared his name and sent him back to England.
In His wisdom, however, God had prepared a solution for the trouble between Egwin and his diocese. He sent the Blessed Mother to dictate the founding of a Benedictine monastery to the bishop. Always cherishing solitude and prayer, Egwin joyfully resigned his see and established the Abbey of Evesham around 709, where he lived until his death 11 years later.
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