Editing Swithun (section)

==In legend==
[[File:St-Swithin.jpg|thumb|left|Swithun shown in the [[Benedictional of St. Æthelwold]], [[Winchester]], 10th century. [[British Library]], London.]]
The revival of Swithun's fame gave rise to a mass of legendary literature. The so-called ''Vita S. Swithuni'' of [[Lantfred]] and [[Wulfstan the Cantor|Wulfstan]], written about 1000, hardly contains any biographical fact; all that has in later years passed for authentic detail of Swithun's life is extracted from a late eleventh-century [[hagiography]] ascribed to [[Goscelin]] of St. Bertin's, a monk who came over to England with [[Herman (bishop of Salisbury)|Hermann]], [[bishop of Salisbury]] from 1058 to 1078. According to this writer 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 he appointed him tutor of his son, [[Æthelwulf of Wessex|Æthelwulf]] (alias Adulphus), and considered him one of his chief friends.<ref name=webster/>  However, [[Michael Lapidge]] describes the work as "pure fiction" and shows that the attribution to Goscelin is false.<ref>Lapidge, ''Cult of St Swithun'', p. 69</ref>

Under Æthelwulf, Swithun was appointed bishop of Winchester, to which [[Episcopal see|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 [[Eahlstan|Ealhstan]] of [[Sherborne]] was Æthelwulf's minister for temporal matters, Swithun was the minister for spiritual matters.<ref name=webster/>

Swithun's best-known miracle was his restoration on a bridge of a basket of eggs that workmen had maliciously broken. Of 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 the hagiography attributed to Goscelin, the latter in [[Thomas Rudborne]]'s ''Historia major'' (15th century), a work which is also responsible for the story that Swithun accompanied [[Alfred the Great|Alfred]] on his visit to [[Rome]] in the 850s. He died on 2 July 862. On his deathbed Swithun begged that he should be buried outside the north wall of his cathedral where passers-by should pass over his grave and raindrops from the eaves drop upon it.<ref name=webster>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm  Webster, Douglas Raymund. "St. Swithin." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 20 May 2013]</ref>