Eof
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Eof (also Eoves) was a swineherd who claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary at Evesham in England, about 701.[1] Eof related this vision to Egwin, Bishop of Worcester, who founded the great Evesham Abbey on the site of the apparition. Evesham means Eof's ham (homestead).
Legend
The standard Lives,[2] and Saint Egwin and his Abbey of Evesham [3] say Eof was a swineherd. In the legend, Eof encountered three supernaturally beautiful women singing in the woods while he searched for a missing pig. He immediately shared the experience with Bishop Egwin, who returned to the site and also encountered the three women. One of the women carried and book and a gold cross and St. Egwin identified her as the Virgin Mary. According to this legend, this is how the site of Evesham Abbey was selected.[4]
A letter, apparently written by Ecgwin, says "... primum cuidam pastori gregum ...", and the Acta Sanctorum (Lives of the Saints) states something similar: " ...pastores gregum ..." The Latin means either a shepherd or a herdsman. William Dugdale in Monasticon Anglicanum says "Eoves, a herdsman of the bishop ...". George May, the most eminent of Evesham historians, gives both herdsman and swineherd.[5]
The story that Eof was a swineherd goes back at least to William of Malmesbury, writing in the twelfth century. The obverse of the conventual seal of Evesham Abbey clearly shows stylised pigs rather than sheep;[6][7] the monks of the Abbey clearly thought Eof kept pigs.
The legend of Eof's vision has been commemorated by a bronze statue sited in the town centre paid for by public subscription and created by the British born sculptor John McKenna. The statue was unveiled in a public ceremony that took place on Sunday 15 June 2008.[8]
Eof vs. Eoves
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This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (August 2025) |
The question of whether the swineherd was named Eof or Eoves is a long-standing question. Writing in 1920, the historian O.G. Knapp argued that the real name of the Swineherd was not Eoves, Eofes, or even Eofa, but Eof.[9]
References
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- ^
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- ^ Butler’s Lives of the Saints, vol. IV, p.643
- ^ Saint Egwin and his Abbey of Evesham, by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, p.14
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Saint Egwin and his Abbey of Evesham. Montreal CA: D. & J. SADLIER & CO. p. 14-15.
- ^ Descriptive History of Evesham, p22
- ^ George May, Descriptive History of Evesham, p.87.
- ^ The Book of Evesham, p.24
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.""The Statue of Eof", Evesham Town Council". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ 'Evesham and Eof', by O.G. Knapp, part III, in Old Days in and around Evesham (edited by E.A.B. Barnard), no.13 (Evesham Journal April 3, 1920)
