medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anne Willis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Feasts and Saints of the Day - Feb 24

> I have often wondered why such persons as Edmund King and Martyr and
> Margaret of Scotland are numbered with the Saints.


I hope I am wrong in detecting a rather disagreeable political bias to this 
question! Since when has an anointed and crowned Christian monarch, or the 
crowned consort of a Christian monarch been disqualified "ex officio" from 
being considered for canonisation ?

Excerpts from the Accounts of St Edmund & St Margaret copied from the 
on-line Catholic Encyclopedia of 1911. Thus these are the "basic" 
traditional accounts which hold good although minor details have been 
revised by modern scholarship. I have included some comments in [ ]

BMC


(1)St. Edmund the Martyr

King of East Anglia, born about 840; died at Hoxne, Suffolk, 20 November, 
870.  ...

 Though only about fifteen years old when crowned in 855, Edmund showed 
himself a model ruler from the first, anxious to treat all with equal 
justice, and closing his ears to flatterers and untrustworthy informers. In 
his eagerness for prayer he retired for a year to his royal tower at 
Hunstanton and learned the whole Psalter by heart, in order that he might 
afterwards recite it regularly. In 870 he bravely repulsed the two Danish 
chiefs Hinguar and Hubba who had invaded his dominions. They soon returned 
with overwhelming numbers, and pressed terms upon him which as a Christian 
he felt bound to refuse. In his desire to avert a fruitless massacre, he 
disbanded his troops and himself retired towards Framlingham; on the way he 
fell into the hands of the invaders. Having loaded him with chains, his 
captors conducted him to Hinguar, whose impious demands he again rejected, 
declaring his religion dearer to him than his life. [This was that he should 
swear allegiance to the pagan Dane and become his vassal - something he 
would have seen personally as a betrayal of his coronation oath and 
politically of his Christian subjects.] His martyrdom took place in 870 at 
Hoxne in Suffolk. After beating him with cudgels, the Danes tied him to a 
tree, and cruelly tore his flesh with whips. Throughout these tortures 
Edmund continued to call upon the name of Jesus, until at last, exasperated 
by his constancy, his enemies began to discharge arrows at him. This cruel 
sport was continued until his body had the appearance of a porcupine, when 
Hinguar commanded his head to be struck off.  [Other sources suggest that he 
may have had the "Blood Eagle" carved on his back - but the final result 
would have been the same.] From his first burial-place at Hoxne his relics 
were removed in the tenth century to Beodricsworth, since called St. 
Edmundsbury, where arose the famous abbey of that name. [The modern town is 
now called "Bury St Edmunds" ] His feast is observed 20 November, and he is 
represented in Christian art with sword and arrow, the instruments of his 
torture. [Or stuck full of arrows like St Sebastian.]

(2)St. Margaret of Scotland

Born about 1045, died 16 Nov., 1092, was a daughter of Edward "Outremere", 
or "the Exile", by Agatha, kinswoman of Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen of 
Hungary. She was the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.

 The date of Margaret's birth cannot be ascertained with accuracy, but it 
must have been between the years 1038, when St. Stephen died, and 1057, when 
her father returned to England. It appears that Margaret came with him on 
that occasion and, on his death and the conquest of England by the Normans, 
her mother Agatha decided to return to the Continent. A storm however drove 
their ship to Scotland, where Malcolm III received the party under his 
protection, subsequently taking Margaret to wife. This event had been 
delayed for a while by Margaret's desire to entire religion, but it took 
place some time between 1067 and 1070.
In her position as queen, all Margaret's great influence was thrown into the 
cause of religion and piety. A synod was held, and among the special reforms 
instituted the most important were the regulation of the Lenten fast, 
observance of the Easter communion, and the removal of certain abuses 
concerning marriage within the prohibited degrees. Her private life was 
given up to constant prayer and practices of piety. She founded several 
churches, including the Abbey of Dunfermline, built to enshrine her greatest 
treasure, a relic of the true Cross. Her book of the Gospels, richly adorned 
with jewels, which one day dropped into a river and was according to legend 
miraculously recovered, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford. She 
foretold the day of her death, which took place at Edinburgh on 16 Nov., 
1093, her body being buried before the high altar at Dunfermline.
In 1250 Margaret was canonized by Innocent IV, and her relics were 
translated on 19 June, 1259, to a new shrine, the base of which is still 
visible beyond the modern east wall of the restored church.
...

The chief authority for Margaret's life is the contemporary biography 
printed in "Acta SS.", II, June, 320. Its authorship has been ascribed to 
Turgot, the saint's confessor, a monk of Durham and later Archbishop of St. 
Andrews, and also to Theodoric, a somewhat obscure monk; but in spite of 
much controversy the point remains quite unsettled. The feast of St. 
Margaret is now observed by the whole Church on 10 June.

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