¹ Egbin, born in the parts of Britain, was educated in the liberal arts until his fifteenth year in the house of his most noble father. And when his father died, his mother fled to the monastery of Saint Sampson, who, consecrating her with the sacred veil, dedicated her to God, and, shaving the hair of her son Egbin’s head, made him a cleric. Remaining with him for some years and serving him continually, when he was celebrating one day, he heard the words of the Lord saying in the gospel: “He who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple.” Compelled by this voice he left everything, and went to the holy abbot Similianus, and assuming the monastic habit bent his neck to the Lord’s yoke in the monastery of Taualocus. In which monastery dwelt Saint Winwaloe, priest and monk; who, being chosen abbot, it was his custom to visit the abbot’s cell one mile distant from the monastery and there offer sacrifices, and for this he joined Egbin the deacon to himself as companion.

² On a certain day therefore, while they were going there, they found a leper lying in the harvest, all full of wounds, begging help of them in a tearful voice. He, asked about his infirmity, said sighing: “Grievous pains are suffered in my body; but there is one pain so harmful that if I pass this day without aid for it, I think my death is near: for my nostrils, full of foulness, are consumed by the burning of the infirmity.” Then Egbin, seizing him by the sides, raised him up from the ground, and Winwaloe stretched out his hand to his nostrils: but the poor man began to cry in a tearful voice: “Do not, elder, take my nostrils in your hands: for the pain does not permit it; but if you wish to lighten my pain, you can, if, touching my nostrils with the softenness of your tongue, you draw the itching from them.” Then he, humbling himself — when he thought to lighten the poor man’s pain, received in his mouth the flesh of the Son of God. As soon therefore as he drew it to himself, a wondrous stone fell into his mouth. And blessed Egbin, holding the Lord by the sides, looked up, saw heaven opened, and upon the head of the Lord whom he held a holy cross appeared, and he saw angels coming to meet the Lord: and he said to the priest: “Father, I believe that he whom I hold in my hands is the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.” And when they wished to hold the Lord in their hands, He lifted Himself into the clouds, saying: “You were not ashamed of me, my servants, in my distress, nor shall I be ashamed of you in the kingdom of my Father. Your inheritance is with me; and to those who are mindful of you in their prayers, there is salvation in my kingdom.” These things said, He vanished from their eyes, and was received into heaven with a great voice. The voice indeed they heard, but they saw no one. And when, astounded, they had praised the Lord, Winwaloe said to Egbin: “This has happened to us through your merits, my brother, who are of such humility and obedience that whatever human tongue can command, you fulfil with most devoted heart.” Egbin said: “It is not so, father: but you, who daily offer the flesh and blood of the Lord, have deserved to see Him in His own body, whom you unceasingly bear in your soul.”

³ At length, when the Franks had laid waste Britain, Saint Egbin seeking the parts of Ireland, in the wood which is called Nectensis made a hut and built a church as a poor pilgrim; in which serving the Lord assiduously, on a certain day he healed a lame man who begged alms of him in Christ’s name. A certain woman also asked him for the healing of her paralytic son. To whom he: “We are sinners, we have not this miracle in our usage: but if you wish your son to be healed, take him to Saint Brigid’s sepulchre.” And she: “There, O father,” she said, “I have already carried him, but on a certain night, the vigils completed, I heard a voice saying to me: ‘In the Nectan wood dwells Egbin, God’s servant; to whom if you bring your son, you will obtain his healing by his merits.’ The Lord lives, that I will not depart from you until I bring back my son sound before me.” Then the saint, entering the oratory, lay in prayer before the altar, until the youth, coming from his mother’s house, said: “I give you thanks, father, who visited me lying on the bed of sickness and raised me with your hands, and gave health to so great an infirmity.” Then the holy man, rising up, blessed God, and commanded the youth to tell no one, since he had been healed not by his own merits but by God’s grace.

⁴ And the saint of God lived in that same place twenty years, working the work of God and giving health to the infirm. There he was of such abstinence that food did not enter him for a week, except only bread and water on the fifth feria. And he did not drink wine except when he communicated. And when he was already nearly eighty-three years old, wearied by a sharp pain, he called together the brothers dwelling in the same island, foretold his death, and commending them to God, gave up his spirit on the fourteenth kalends of November.

An account. #

¹ Certain brothers came to a certain old man, having with them one who was vexed by a demon, that he might be cured by that old man. The old man therefore, after long begging, said to the demon: “Come out of God’s creature.” And the demon answered: “I am coming out. But I ask you one word: that you tell me who are the kids, and who are the lambs.” And the old man said: “The kids indeed are such as I am: but the lambs of God, who knows?” And the demon hearing this cried with a great voice, saying: “Look — on account of that humility of yours I come out.” And he came out the same hour.

² To a certain brother the devil appeared transformed into an angel of light, and said to him: “I am Gabriel, and I am sent to you.” But he said to him: “See that you have not been sent to another: for I am not worthy that an angel should be sent to me.” The devil at once disappeared. The old men used to say that if in truth an angel appear to you, do not readily receive him, but humble yourself, saying: “I am not worthy to see an angel, living in sins.”