medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Apologies to Rosemary and all others: try:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/
Gordon
-----Original Message-----
From: Rosemary Hayes And Andrew Milligan <[log in to unmask]>
To: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:05
Subject: Re: [M-R] Saint of the Day: St Edmund King and Martyr
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
Thank you very much both. Gordon, your first link does not seem to work.
Best wishes,
Rosemary Hayes
Sent from my iPad
> On 20 Nov 2014, at 19:09, Revd Gordon Plumb
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> 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
C
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