medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Many images of Edmund, of course. You can see a selection in glass and
mural paintings on my Flickr stream:
https://www.flickr.com/search/22274117@N08. Look under "Edmund, saint".
Includes Martyrdom in 15thC. wall paintings at Pickering in North
Yorkshire: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/9575875065.
Gordon Plumb
-----Original Message-----
From: Cate Gunn <[log in to unmask]>
To: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:33
Subject: [M-R] Saint of the Day: St Edmund King and Martyr
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
Edmund, King of East Anglia, is commemorated on 20 November so, since
I’m sure
I’m not the only one who misses ‘Saints of the Day’ I thought I’d send
an email
that is compiled from previous postings on Edmund, and a couple of
booklets I
have (by Anne Dineen and J. M. Matten) on St Edmund. May be others
could do the
same for their favourite saint on the appropriate day?
Edmund was born about 840/841 and elected king of East Anglia aged 14.
It is
believed he was crowned on the hillside at Bures, overlooking the
beautiful
Stour valley (just five miles from where I am writing this: hence my
interest).
He was renowned for his piety in his personal life, and desire for
justice. He
led the defence of his Christian realm against the Danish chiefs
Hinguar and
Hubba; Hinguar laid his land waste and killed the people ‘men, women
and
innocent children’ (according to the account from Alefric’s Lives of
Saints
translated by Anne Dineen); Edmund refused to defile his hands with
Hinguar’s
blood but ‘mindful of his Saviour’ he discarded his weapons and
imitated
Christ’s example. In order to save his people, he submitted to the
invaders; he
was ‘bound and humiliated and beaten with sticks. Soon the King was
taken to a
tree rooted in the ground and tied and was beaten there with whips for
a long
time; and he always, between the beatings, called with true faith to
Christ the
Saviour. Then, because of his faith, the heathens became made angry,
for he
called on Christ to help. They shot him then with arrows, as in sport,
until he
was all covered with arrows like a hedgehog’s bristles, as Sebastian
was.’
Finally his head was chopped off. Other sources suggest that he may
have had the
‘Blood Eagle’ carved on his back. This martyrdom is supposed to have
occurred
on 20th November 869/70, maybe at Hoxne in Suffolk.
When his men went later to recover his body, they couldn’t find his
head;
eventually it was found guarded by a wolf, who surrendered it and
followed the
procession to the grave in Heglesdune wood. Years later the body was
removed to
Beodricksworth [variously spelt] where a church was built, later to
become the
great abbey of Bury St Edmunds. When Edmund’s coffin was opened the
body was
found to be incorrupt and the head reattached to the body, with only a
thin red
mark round the neck.
Edmund’s shrine was guarded by the Benedictine Ailwin, but when, around
the year
1010 there was fresh trouble, the body was moved to London for safety,
where it
rested in St Gregory’s church. At this time, the martyr’s fame
increased; when
peace returned Ailwin wanted to take the body back to Suffolk, but
Alphun,
Bishop of London, planned to retain it and take it instead to St
Paul’s. Edmund,
however, seemed to have other ideas, and the coffin became too heavy to
move
until Alphun relented and Ailwin was able to leave London with the body
in
procession. All along the route people turned out to offer respect to
the
martyr, and were rewarded with miracles of healing.
Edmund’s body was returned in 1013, and last year a pilgrimage followed
the
route from London to Bury St Edmunds to celebrate the 1000th
anniversary.
Edmund’s cult is discussed in the essays in St Edmund, King and Martyr:
Changing
Images of a Medieval Saint, ed. by Anthony Bale, published York
Medieval
Press/Boydell & Brewer 2009.
Best wishes
Cate
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