Saint Edmund

Edmund was king of East Anglia, and he came to the throne in 855, when he was little more than a boy. Of the next fourteen years nothing is known. What is known is what was happening around him: the Danes had begun invading England, and in 865 what the chronicles call the Great Heathen Army landed, led by the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok. In 869 or 870 Edmund faced them and was defeated. What happened next is told by Abbo of Fleury, a century later, who said he had heard it from someone who had heard it from the king’s armor-bearer: he was offered his life in exchange for dividing the kingdom and renouncing his faith; he refused; they tied him to a tree, used him as a target for their arrows “until he looked like a hedgehog,” and finally beheaded him. The legend adds that his head, thrown into the woods, was found guarded by a wolf that held it between its paws without touching it. His body was taken to a monastery that came to be called Bury St Edmunds, and for centuries it was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in England. Edmund was the country’s national patron before Saint George took his place, and in recent years some have proposed giving that role back to him. If your name is Edmund, today is your name day.