Saints of Britain: Saint Swithun of Winchester (15th July)

Saint Swithun was born in the reign of Egbert of Wessex, and was ordained priest
by Helmstan, bishop of Winchester (838-c. 852). His fame reached the king's ears, and heappointed him tutor of his son, Æthelwulf (alias Adulphus), and considered him one of hischief friends.

Under Æthelwulf, Swithun was appointed bishop of Winchester, to which see he was
consecrated by Archbishop Ceolnoth. In his new office he was known for his piety and his zeal in building new churches or restoring old ones. At his request
Æthelwulf gave the tenth of his royal lands to the Church. Swithun made his diocesan journeys on foot; when he gave a banquet he invited the poor and not the rich. William of Malmesbury adds that, if Bishop Ealhstan of Sherborne was Æthelwulf's minister for temporal matters, Swithun was the minister for spiritual matters.
Swithun's best known miracle was his restoration on a bridge of a basket of eggs that workmen had maliciously broken. Of other stories connected with Swithun the two most famous are those of the Winchester egg-woman and Queen Emma's ordeal. The former is to be found in Goscelin's Life (c. 1100), the latter in Thomas
Rudborne's Historia major (15th century), a work which is also responsible for the not improbable legend that Swithun accompanied Alfred on his visit to Rome in 856. He died on 2 July 862, and gave orders that he was not to be buried within the church, but outside in a vile and unworthy place.