IT was 1,300 years ago that a humble swineherd’s vision of the Virgin Mary in Evesham led to the building of an abbey in the town.

Although the abbey is long since gone – a victim of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monastries – the incredible milestone is due to be marked this year.

The anniversary will be an opportunity for people to revisit some themes associated with the abbey, such as how Christians envisage a feminine presence when they think about God, and inspired by the legend of Eof’s vision.

The Benedictine abbey was founded by St Egwin, the third Bishop of Worcester, in around 709AD following reports of visions of the Virgin Mary by the swine herd, whose statue now sits in the town’s Market Square.

During the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, in which monastic communities were disbanded throughout the country, the abbey was plundered with everything apart from the Bell Tower destroyed.

During Easter, anniversary events will be looking at how many young people are using monastic times of prayer to give shape to their spirituality.

The Parish Church of All Saints’ will be hosting members of two contemporary religious communities; the Northumbria Community and the Iona Community. These are both communities of ordinary working people, who shape their lives by following patterns of prayer which began in Benedictine establishments like Evesham.

The Revd Andrew Spurr, Vicar of Evesham, said: “This anniversary is an opportunity both to re-tell the story of Evesham’s abbey and to listen to it to see what it has to say to us, in our noisy, over-busy and stressful contemporary lives.”

A series of talks will begin during Lent, in March, as the parish church welcomes guest speakers like the Rev Dr Georgina Byrne, dean of women’s ministry in the diocese of Worcester, Rev Dr Hellen-Anne Hartley, tutor in New Testament at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and Rev Canon Lucy Winkett, precentor at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, among others.

Then in Holy Week and on Easter Day the Northumbria Community will be tracing Evesham’s links to Celtic churches in England.

On April 26 the Rev John Bell, of the Iona Community, will be preaching at the parish church, an event which will also form BBC Radio 4’s Thought For The Day.

The anniversary celebrations continue in May when the Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, will lead an ecumenical service followed by a pig roast and fayre in the churchyard.

In July, the theme for the Evesham Festival of Music will be ‘Evesham: Our History and Our Future’, before the celebrations are rounded off by a pilgrimage to the ecumenical monastic community at Taize in France, led by the Worcester diocesan youth officer, Dr Sarah Brush.