Saint Credan of Evesham (died 19 August 780) is a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

in the calendar of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and of the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

. He is also known in Latin as Credus or Credanus.

Life and cult

Credan was the

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

of the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Eves ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, during the reign of King

Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æth ...

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...

. His office is attested by charters in King Offa's reign, but no details of Credan's life have been preserved. 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 Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and the ...

, 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. According to legend, the relics not only survived but shone like gold when moved to a place of devotion. 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." 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. Credan's feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is 19 August, which was the day of his death in 780. It is celebrated in the Orthodox Church.

Cornwall

Credan is sometimes reputed to have founded the church of

Sancreed Sancreed (''Cornish: Eglossankres'') is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance. Sancreed civil parish encompasses the settlements of Bejouans, Bosvennen, Botreah, Drift, Sancr ...

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. A more likely candidate is St. Credan of Cornwall, a follower of

Saint Petroc Saint Petroc or Petrock ( lat-med, Petrocus; cy, Pedrog; french: link=no, Perreux; ) was a British prince and Christian saint. Probably born in South Wales, he primarily ministered to the Britons of Devon (Dewnans) and Cornwall (Kernow) then ...

. 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. The Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network (CASPN) considers Credan of Cornwall to be "mythological".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Credan 780 deaths 8th-century Christian monks 8th-century English people Abbots of Evesham Mercian saints Medieval Cornish saints Year of birth unknown Burials at Evesham Abbey