Saint Credan of Evesham (died 19 August 780) is a saint in the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is also known in Latin as Credus or Credanus.
Credan was the Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey at Evesham, England, during the reign of King Offa of Mercia. [1] His office is attested by charters in King Offa's reign, but no details of Credan's life have been preserved. [2]
Relics of St Credan at Evesham Abbey were put through an ordeal by fire in 1077, apparently because of Norman suspicion of this local saint, about whom little was known. The ordeal was conducted by the new Norman abbot, Walter de Cerisy, who, after consultation with Archbishop Lanfranc, ordered a three-day fast, and had the seven penitential psalms and appropriate litanies chanted while the sanctity of the bones was tested by fire. [3] According to legend, the relics not only survived but shone like gold when moved to a place of devotion. [4] This may, however, be a confusion with a similar account of the uncovering of St Credan's bones by Abbot Mannig when his cult was originally developed. It is said that Mannig "was frequently admonished in vision to take up the holy Abbot's relics and lay them in a shrine. When at length he came with great solemnity to do this, the body was found between two others, but distinguished from them by the great brightness with which it shone." [5]
The shrine established for St Credan by Walter of Cerisy in 1277 was one of only three to survive the destruction of the Abbey sanctuary when the tower of Evesham fell in 1207, and this was also thought to be miraculous. [5]
Credan's feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is 19 August, which was the day of his death in 780. [1] [6] It is celebrated in the Orthodox Church. [7]
Credan is sometimes reputed to have founded the church of Sancreed in Cornwall, which is named for St. Credan, but there were other Cornish saints of this name whose names may have been confused with his. [8] A more likely candidate is St. Credan of Cornwall, a follower of Saint Petroc. This is the St. Credan who is said to have accidentally killed his own father, by which he was so moved as to abandon the world and become a hogherd, and lived so exemplary as he was after esteemed a saint. His feast day is observed on 11 May. [9] The Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network (CASPN) considers Credan of Cornwall to be "mythological". [10]
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof.
Bec Abbey, formally the Abbey of Our Lady of Bec, is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure département, in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay. It is located in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, and was the most influential abbey of the 12th-century Anglo-Norman kingdom.
Werburgh was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is the 3rd of February.
Wigstan, also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia.
St Neots Priory was a Benedictine monastery beside the town of St Neots in the historic county of Huntingdonshire, now a non-metropolitan district in the English county of Cambridgeshire.
Wigbert, (Wihtberht) born in Wessex around 675, was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and a missionary and disciple of Boniface who travelled with the latter in Frisia and northern and central Germany to convert the local tribes to Christianity. His feast day is August 13 in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
May 10 – Eastern Orthodox Church calendar – May 12
June 19 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - June 21
August 18 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - August 20
The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) is a congregation of autonomous abbatial and prioral monastic communities of Catholic Benedictine monks, nuns, and lay oblates. It is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations affiliated to the Benedictine Confederation.
Meinrad, OSB was a German Benedictine hermit and is revered as a Catholic and Orthodox saint. He is known as the "Martyr of Hospitality". His feast day is 21 January.
The Musée Saint-Remi is an archeology and art museum in Reims, France. The museum is housed in the former Abbey of Saint-Remi, founded in the sixth century and which had been keeping since 1099 the relics of Saint Remigius. The Basilica of Saint-Remi, adjacent to it and consecrated in 1049, was its abbey church. Both buildings have been listed as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 because of their outstanding architecture and importance in the early French monarchy.
Tre Fontane Abbey, or the Abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, is a Roman Catholic abbey in Rome, held by monks of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, better known as Trappists. It is known for raising the lambs whose wool is used to weave the pallia of new metropolitan archbishops. The pope blesses the lambs on the feast of Saint Agnes on January 21. The wool is prepared, and he gives the pallia to the new archbishops on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Holy Apostles.
Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. The Abbey was surrendered in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and St Rumon, was destroyed by Danish raiders in 997 and rebuilt under Lyfing, the second abbot. The church was further rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey between 1457 and 1458.
Branwalator or Breward, also referred to as Branwalader, was a British saint whose relics lay at Milton Abbas in Dorset and Branscombe in Devon. Believed to come from Brittany, he also gives his name to the parish of Saint Brélade, Jersey. "Brelade" is a corruption of "Branwalader". He is also known as Breward or Branuvelladurus or Brélade and Broladre in French.
Saint Honorina was a 3rd-century virgin martyr of Gallo-Roman northern France, venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Believed to have been killed in the first years of the 4th century during the persecutions of Diocletian, very little is known of her life, apart from her reputed martyrdom for maintaining her Christian faith.
Herluin otherwise Hellouin was a knight at the court of Gilbert of Brionne and subsequently a Benedictine monk. He founded the Abbey of Our Lady of Bec, Normandy.
Walter, Abbot of Evesham or Walter de Cerisy, Gauthier de Cerisy was an 11th-century abbot and church leader in England under the Norman conquest. He is known from the Domesday Book and several legal documents.
Rumon of Tavistock is a saint venerated in the traditions of the Catholic, Anglican Communion, and Western Orthodox churches.
Mannig or Manni, also called Wulfmær, was an English monk and artist who became Abbot of Evesham in 1044. After suffering from paralysis, he resigned in 1058.