The St. Edmund Cult

After Edmund of East Anglia began to be treated as a saint, he became an important focal point for Christians in East Anglia, and embraced by important figures.

The Danish King Cnut (c.990 - 1035), who conquered England in 1016, was a good Christian who supported the Church. Cnut founded an abbey at Bury St. Edmunds.

The shrine of St. Edmund became famous, and fame brought wealth in the form of donations, making the abbey wealthy. (The illustration shows John Lydgate worshipping at the shrine.) King Edward the Confessor in 1044 created the Liberty of St. Edmund, placing the entire area of the County of West Suffolk under the jurisdiction of the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. A Steward was appointed by William the Conqueror to manage the Liberty on behalf of the abbot. Although Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries eliminated the abbot's prerogative, the position of Hereditary High Steward of the Liberty of St Edmund still exists.

King John gave the abbey a great sapphire and a stone set in gold. His son, King Henry III, prayed to St. Edmund for a second son, which he eventually received, and named him Edmund. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the shrine was defaced and silver and gold valued at 5000 marks was taken away.

Edmund's cult was revived in, of all places, France. The city of Toulouse was spared from a plague (1628 - 1631), which they ascribed to the intercession of relics in their basilica of a saint referred to as Aymundus. They built a new reliquary to hold the saint's relics. In 1664, a Toulouse lawyer published the theory that the relics of Edmund had been taken from England by King Louis VIII of France in 1217 after the Battle of Lincoln, giving them to the basilica in Toulouse. This newly revived cult of St. Edmund flourished in Toulouse until the French Revolution (1794), but found and returned to the basilica in 1845.

The relics were offered to the Archbishop of Westminster by Toulouse in 1901 to be placed in the altar of the under-construction Westminster Cathedral.

There was another Edmund connected to Cnut, the man he killed to take over England. Tomorrow we look at Edmund Ironside, often mentioned but never examined.

Saint Edmund

When King Edmund of East Anglia bought off the Vikings of the Great Heathen Army in 865, he might have thought he was safe from that point on. They returned to East Anglia in 868, however. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

...here the army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, and took winter-quarters at Thetford; and that winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danish took the victory, and killed the king and conquered all that land.

Originally buried at a chapel near the site of his death, years later it was removed and taken to a place then called Beodricesworth, but is now appropriately called Bury St. Edmunds.

About 890, moneyers who were responsible for minting the coins during Edmund's reign started minting new commemorative coins for Edmund. The coins (see illustration) are proof that a cult was cropping up around veneration of Edmund's burial place and his reputation. They are mostly half-pennies, but also include pennies with the inscription SCE EADMVND REX, "O St. Edmund King."

The coins were minted in numerous locations. The Cuerdale Hoard found in 1840 includes over 1800 commemorative Edmund coins.

The importance of Edmund as a saint did not attach him to liturgical calendars until three centuries after his reign. Abbo of Fleury (c. 945 – 13 November 1004), while running the school at Ramsey Abbey,  wrote the Passio Sancti Eadmundi ("Passion of Saint Edmund") that is no doubt highly fictitious, but nevertheless brought Edmund into prominence. Abbo depicts the Vikings as emissaries of the devil, there to make Edmund fall into despair. Edmund resists and is put to death (not dying in battle).

Whatever the strength of the Edmund cult was, the minting of coins declined by 910. In 1010, Edmund's remains were considered important enough (probably thanks to Abbo's account, which survives in several manuscripts) to translate them to London to keep them out of the hands of invading Vikings. They were kept there for three years before being returned to Bury St. Edmunds.

Edmund remained a symbol worthy of veneration, however, and was promoted by kings to come along, one of which was Canute. I'll explain what Canute did for the saint next time.

King Edmund of East Anglia

The Kingdom of East Anglia formed in the first half of the 6th century. Its first king was Wehha, ruling people who came from Frisia and Jutland. He was followed by Luffa, who was followed by Tytila. Except for references in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, we have no real evidence of these men.

There is scant evidence for King Edmund of East Anglia; what we have is thanks to Dudda, Eadmund, and Twicga. These three men were moneyers, men allowed to mint coins. They were responsible for coins of King Æthelweard of East Anglia, who died c. 854. Æthelweard is not even mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but the evidence of the coins confirm his existence and royal title.

The same three moneyers were responsible for the coins made for the reign of Edmund, who followed Æthelweard. The coins usually have the inscription + EADMUND REX AN[glorum] ("Edmund, King of the Angles"). The large number of coins still existing from his reign suggest that he reigned for several years, but there are no contemporary records from his time as king.

Later accounts say that he was crowned on Christmas Day in 856.

The lack of records is attributed to the Vikings. In 865, a Viking invasion, called by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Great Heathen Army, came to England and seemed to intend to stay, rather than make their usual raiding parties on defenseless monasteries and then go back home. Edmund assuaged them with horses and other supplies. In the summer of 866 they went north to York, but they were back in East Anglia in 868.

This time they fought, and Edmund took the first step in becoming a saint: he died. We'll continue this tomorrow.