Edmund the Martyr

Who they were

Edmund was King of East Anglia, crowned in 855 when only about fifteen. He ruled justly, would not listen to flatterers, and once withdrew for a year to learn the whole Psalter by heart so that he could pray it regularly.

In 870 he drove back a Danish invasion, but the Danes returned in overwhelming numbers and demanded terms he could not accept as a Christian. To spare his people a useless slaughter he disbanded his army and was captured. He refused the Danish leader's demands, saying his faith was dearer to him than his life; he was beaten, whipped, shot with arrows while calling on the name of Jesus, and beheaded at Hoxne in Suffolk on 20 November 870. His relics were later taken to Bury St. Edmunds.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

The young king of East Anglia who died rather than deny his faith to the Danish invaders.

Connected on this site

• Abbo of Fleury Saint
  “A series of coins commemorating him was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex in 918, and in about 986, the French monk Abbo of Fleury wrote of his life and martyrdom.” — Wikipedia
• Humbertus Saint
  “The twelfth-century Annals of St Neots says that he crowned Edmund the Martyr as king at Burna on Christmas Day 856, but no source is known for this statement.” — Wikipedia