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Saint Edmund, King and Martyr
King Edmund the Martyr 841-870 AD.
As King, Edmund won the hearts of his subjects by his care of the poor
and his steady suppression of wrong-doing.
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SAINT EDMUND
King Saint Edmund is generally depicted as a bearded king holding his emblem--an arrow. Sometimes he is shown suspended from a tree and shot, or his head between the paws of a wolf. He is sometimes confused with Saint Sebastien, who is never portrayed as a king (Roeder).
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For 15 years Edmund ruled over the East Angles with what all acknowledged as Christian dignity and justice. He seems to have modelled his piety on that of King David in the Old Testament, becoming proficient in reciting the Psalms in public worship.
From the year 866 his kingdom was threatened by Danish invasions. For four years the East Angles managed to keep a shaky peace with them. Then the invaders burned Thetford. King Edmund's army attacked the Danes but could not defeat the marauders. Edmund was taken prisoner and became the target for Danish bowmen.
The story goes that Edmund was captured at Hoxne. He refused to share his Christian kingdom with the heathen invaders, whereupon he was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, till his body was 'like a thistle covered with prickles'; then his head was struck off. He died with the name of Jesus on his lips.
Saint Edmund thus remains the only English sovereign until the time of King Charles I to die for religious beliefs as well as the defense of his throne. Edmund was quickly revered as a martyr and his cultus spread widely during the middle ages.
He is venerated at Bury Saint Edmund (Saint Edmund's borough), where his body is enshrined and a great abbey arose in 1020.
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The Collect for St Edmund's Day:
20th November
Eternal God,
whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end,
both with you and with his people,
and glorified you by his death:
grant us such steadfastness of faith that,
with the noble army of martyrs,
we may come to enjoy the fullness of the resurrection life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
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