- Also called:
- Saint Edmund the Martyr
- Born:
- 841/842
- Died:
- November 20, 869
- Title / Office:
- king (855-870), East Anglia
Edmund
Who was Edmund?
What is Edmund the patron saint of?
What is the legend of King Edmund?
How was Edmund martyred?
Edmund (born 841/842—died November 20, 869; feast day November 20) was the king of East Anglia (from 855) and, by some accounts, a Christian martyr who was the patron saint of England until he was replaced by St. George in the Middle Ages. In the modern era he is the patron of Douai Abbey (a Benedictine monastery in Reading, England) and of wolves. Edmund is also invoked on behalf of kings and victims of torture, during pandemics, and for protection against plague.
Little is known of his life. In 869 the Danes, who had been wintering at York, marched through Mercia into East Anglia and took up their quarters at Thetford. Edmund engaged them fiercely in battle, but the Danes under their leaders Ubba and Inguar were victorious and remained in possession of the field of battle. The king himself was slain, whether on the actual field of battle or in later martyrdom is not certain. The most widely repeated version of the story says that he fell a martyr to Danish arrows when he refused to renounce his faith or hold his kingdom as a vassal from the “heathen” overlords. This version must have arisen early, for the existence of St. Edmund pennies afford evidence of his veneration by about 890–910.
He was ultimately buried at Beadoricesworth (now Bury Saint Edmunds, West Suffolk), where his shrine became famous. Later, fictitious versions make him a Continental Saxon, born at Nürnberg (Germany) and adopted by Offa, king of East Anglia, when on his way to Rome. They also invented names for his parents, Alkmund and Scivare.
