**SWITHUN**, Saint. - Biographers maintain a prudent reserve regarding his life. According to some, he became bishop of Winchester after 837; according to others, in 852, at the request of the people and the clergy. He died on 2 July 862.
He was a great builder of churches, which he loved to consecrate, going to the site barefoot. He often spent the night in prayer and deprived himself of meals. After his death, many miracles occurred through his intercession.
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BIBL.:** rather than the texts collected in *Acta SS. Julii*, I, Paris 1867, pp. 285-99, one must refer to those published by E. Sauvage in *Anal. bolland.*, 4 (1885), pp. 367-410; 5 (1886), pp. 53-58; 7 (1888), pp. 373-80 and by Fr. P. Grosjean, *ibid.*, 58 (1940), pp. 187-96. Guglielmo Mollat