Died 680. Bede mentions Owen as a monk of great merit who forsook high
office and a distinguished career for the love of his Lord. He came with
Queen Etheldreda from East Anglia, and was her prime minister and the
governor of her household. To these great employments he brought not
only a high sense of duty, but also, under the influence of
St. Chad (f.d. March 2)
and other Celtic missionaries, a growing sense of
Christian faith and obligation, until there came a day when he resolved
to surrender his secular offices and devote himself entirely to the
service of God.
He did not go about this matter without careful thought, for a man does
not lightly cast aside rank and honour for the humble and anonymous role
of a serving monk in a religious community, nor does he easily shed the
habits of a secular life. The story of his arrival at the monastery of
Lastingham is worth recalling.
One day a stranger was observed at its gates seeking admittance. He was
plainly dressed, but obviously, he was no common pilgrim, and in his
hand he carried an axe and a hatchet. When asked his business, he
replied that he had come with all he possessed, having quit all that he
had, and that he had come not to live idly but to work, hence the axe
and the hatchet, which he would wield industriously in the service of
the monastery.
For as he was less capable of meditating on the Holy
Scriptures, he the more earnestly applied himself to the labour of his
hands.
Moved by his sincerity and humility, those who received him took him
before the bishop, who was none other than the saintly Chad, and he,
seeing before him in the guise of a labourer the former chamberlain of
Queen Etheldreda, welcomed him gladly into their fellowship. Thus, Owen
became their handyman. When the bell sounded, calling the monks to
their studies, he took his tools and laboured in the fields: cutting
wood, mending walls and fences, and doing it to the glory of God. He
was of those of whom it is written:
In the handiwork of their craft is
their prayer
(
Benedictines,
Encyclopaedia,
Gill).