Edmund the Martyr

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Saint Edmund the Martyr

The Wilton Diptych. Saint Edmund is depicted on the far left, holding an arrow.
Born c. 840, Nuremberg
Died November 20, 869/870
Venerated in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy
Major shrine Bury St Edmunds
Feast November 20
Patronage kings, pandemics, torture victims, wolves and England.
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Edmund the Martyr (circa 840 – November 20, 869 or 870) was a King of East Anglia. He succeeded to the East Anglian throne in 855, while still a boy. He is seen as the patron saint of kings, pandemics, torture victims and wolves. Many consider him the first and true patron saint of England.[1]

According to Abbo of Fleury, followed by Florence of Worcester, he came "ex antiquorum Saxonum prosapia," which apparently means that he was of foreign origin and that he belonged to the Old Saxons of the continent. This is a very doubtful tradition, but later expanded into a fuller legend which spoke of his Old Saxon parentage, his birth at Nuremberg, his nomination as successor to Offa, king of East Anglia, and his landing at Hunstanton to claim his kingdom. His coronation took place in the next year at "Burna" (probably Bures St Mary, Suffolk), which then functioned as the royal capital.

Of the life of St Edmund during the next fourteen years we know nothing. Around 870 the Danes, who had wintered at York, marched through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford. According to the Life of King Alfred (written by Bishop Asser in c.895) Edmund engaged them fiercely in battle, but the Danes under their leaders Ubbe Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless had the victory, killed King Edmund, and remained in possession of the battlefield. In Abbo of Fleury's (945-1004) alternative and later version of events Edmund refused to meet them in battle himself, preferring to die a martyr's death:

"When Hingwar (Ivar) came, Edmund the king stood within his hall, mindfull of the Saviour, and threw away his weapons, desiring to imitate Christ, who forbade Peter to fight with weapons against the...Jews. Then those wicked men bound Edmund and shamefully insulted him and beat him with clubs, and afterwards they led the faithful king to an earth-fast tree and tied him to it with hard bonds, and afterwards scourged him a long while with whips, and among the blows he was always calling the true faith of Jesus Christ. Then the heathen were madly angry because of his faith, because he called upon Christ to help him. They shot at him with javelins as if for their amusement, until he was all beset with their shots, as with a porcupine's bristles, even as Sebastian was. When Hingwar, the wicked seaman, saw that the noble king would not deny Christ, but with steadfast faith ever called upon Him, he commanded men to behead him, and the heathen did so. For while he was yet calling upon Christ, the heathen drew away the saint to slay him, and struck off his head with a single blow, and his soul departed joyfully to Christ. There was a certain man at hand, whom God was hiding from the heathen, who heard all this and told it afterward just as we tell it here."

We do not know which account is true. The conquerors may have simply killed the king in battle, or in a later martyrdom episode. However the widely current version of the story, which makes him fall a martyr to Danish arrows when he had refused to renounce his faith or hold his kingdom as a vassal from heathen overlords, dates from comparatively soon after the event. According to Abbo of Fleury (945-1004), St. Edmund's earliest biographer, it came to him (Abbo) via Dunstan, who heard it from the lips of Edmund's own standard-bearer. This is chronologically just possible, but that is all.

The battle took place at Hoxne, some 20 miles east of Thetford, and the king's body was ultimately interred at Beadoriceworth, the modern Bury St Edmunds. The shrine of Edmund soon became one of the most famous in England and the reputation of the saint became Europe-wide. The date of his canonization is unknown, although Archdeacon Hermann appears to state that it happened in the reign of Athelstan (924–939). Churches dedicated to his memory are found all over England.

There are controversial calls from some in the English community to recognise Saint Edmund as the true patron saint of England, suggesting that the current Saint George was a 13th century import by Norman-descended monarchs as a way of eradicating any trace of the English folk memory. Those who call for this also wish to change the English flag from the Cross of St. George (Red Cross on field of White) to the Cross of St Edmund (White cross on a field of Green).

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[edit] Edmund's Martyrdom

According to legend, Edmund was killed by being tied to a tree, shot to death with arrows and finally decapitated and his head thrown into a nearby forest so that his entire body could not be buried; a form of mockery towards his people.

When his body was found, but without a head, eyewitnesses reported to the villagers that the head was lost in the forest. For several days they searched for the head in the brambles and bushes, calling out "Where are you, friend?" to which the head would answer, "Here, here, here." After almost a week of searching, they found Edmund's head in the possession of a great grey wolf, clasped between its paws. The wolf, sent by God to protect the head from the dangers of the forest, was starving but did not eat the head for all the days it was lost. After recovering the head the villagers marched back to the kingdom, praising God and the wolf that served him. The wolf walked beside them as if tame all the way to the kingdom, after which it turned around and vanished into the forest.

After giving the head and body a speedy burial, the kingdom rebuilt itself for several years before finally erecting a church worthy of Edmund's burial. The wolf from before, now very old, returned to witness the reburial of Edmund's body. Upun unburying the body, a miracle was discovered - all the arrow wounds upon Edmund's corpse were healed and his head reattached to his body; the only evidence of his previous decapitation was a thin, red line around his neck. Despite being buried for many years in a flimsy coffin, his skin was soft and fresh as if he were merely sleeping the entire time.

[edit] When did he die?

The traditional date of his death, quoted by most reference works, is 870. However recent research has led to the claim that he actually died in 869, and this is now quoted in some histories. This uncertainty has arisen because the compilers of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle supposedly dated the start of the year from September, so an event that took place in November 869 according to the modern calendar would be considered by them to take place in 870. The Great Heathen Army undoubtedly invaded Wessex, the most important English kingdom at the time whose history is best documented, in December 870. This uncertainty raises the question of whether they did so within a few weeks of killing Edmund, or whether they spent a year pillaging and consolidating their position in East Anglia.

[edit] Edmund in fiction

A realistic and possible account of Edmund's martyrdom is given in Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novel, The Last Kingdom.

There is also a description of Edmund just before his death in The Namesake, a juvenile historical novel by C. Walter Hodges.

An alternative fictional version of Edmund's martydom is given in the short story, "November Saints", included in Alan Moore's novel/story collection, Voice of the Fire (1996/2004).

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[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • La Passiun de Seint Edmund. Ed. by Judith Grant. (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1978) ISBN 0-905474-04-X
  • Asser's Life of Alfred, ed. W.H. Stevenson
  • Annals of St Neots
  • Saxon Chronicle
  • Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Series), including the Passio Sancti Edmundi of Abbo of Fleury
  • Corolla Sancti Eadmundi, edited by Lord Francis Hervey (1907).
Preceded by:
Æthelweard		 King of East Anglia Succeeded by:
Oswald

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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