#edmund the martyr

[illustratus]

St Edmund slain by the Danes, AD 870 by Harry Payne

[maypoleman1]

20th November

St Edmund’s Day

The Martyrdom of Edmund from the Passio Sancto Eadmundi. Source: Wikipedia

Today is St Edmund’s Day. Also known as Edmund the Martyr, he was king of East Anglia when the Anglo-Saxon kingdom was attacked by the Viking Great Heathen Army in 869. Edmund led his soldiers out to oppose the invaders but the East Anglians were defeated. Whether Edmund was killed in the battle of Hoxne in Suffolk or taken prisoner by the Danes and murdered thereafter is a matter of dispute. Tradition has it that the Vikings offered to spare Edmund his life and return him to the throne of East Anglia if he would embrace the Norse pagan religion and rule as a Scandinavian puppet. Edmund supposedly piously refused and paid a grisly price: the Viking warriors tied the king to a tree and shot him full of arrows. Sainthood and martyrdom were then mere formalities. Other traditions make Edmund less heroic. It is said that he fled the field of Hoxne and hid under Goldbrook Bridge, but that the glint of his royal golden spurs was spotted by a newly wed couple who immediately gave him away. As the king was hustled away by the Danes, Edmund cursed all married couples crossing the bridge and to this day, newlyweds in Hoxne take an alternative route home.

Edmund was buried in a Suffolk town which appropriately became named Bury St Edmunds thereafter. His feast day remained popular in the county with a special bun being baked and issued to schoolchildren every November 20th. Unsurprisingly it was called St Edmund’s Bun.

[lordwilde]

Flag of Saint Edmund the Martyr, original Saxon saint of England.

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day

Saint Edmund Campion

1540-1581

Feast day: December 1

Saint Edmund Campion was an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here. (website)

[verecunda]

I know we all love our St Sebastianification of Celebrimbor, for obvious gay reasons, but I'm going to throw this out as something more closely connected to Tolkien's own field of obsession:

St Edmund the Martyr

fwiw, I don't think we really have to go looking for historical/mythological parallels in every single thing Tolkien put down in his books (man had an imagination of his own), but he was your certified nut for all things Old English, so it's quite fun when you notice something that seems to resonate. :)

Edmund (d. AD 869) was King of East Anglia. Unlike St Sebastian, who was martyred during an imperial purge of Christians, Edmund died at the hands of an invading army. This was the time of the Great Heathen Army, a great Viking coalition that made war in Britain from 865, and in some versions Edmund died at the hands of the (in?)famous Viking king Ivar the Boneless. First Ivar sent him a message, demanding his submission, as well as all his treasure and heirlooms. (A bit like Sauron attacking Eregion in pursuit of the Three Rings and having his army ransack the House of the Mírdain in search of the Three Rings?)

Needless to say, Edmund refused these terms and Ivar attacked. Rather than flee, the King resolved to stand firm and face the attackers, not unlike Celebrimbor meeting the Mordor hordes alone at the door of his house. According to the most well-known version of his death, first he was tortured with whips and rods, but when that failed to break his spirit, they shot him through with arrows (or spears) "as if it was a game, until he was entirely covered with their missiles, like the bristles of a hedgehog."

The Vikings didn't use Edmund's body as a war-banner, but they did desecrate it by cutting off the head and hiding it in a bramble thicket, so he could not be buried properly. But, so the story goes, a friendly wolf guarded the head from being gobbled up by any other woodland scavengers, until it could be recovered by his people and buried along with the body. (Which has absolutely nothing to do with Celebrimbor; it's just a good story. Old saints' lives are the best.) Many miracles soon became attributed to the murdered king, and his shrine was moved from its original burial place to the town which is now called Bury St Edmund's. He was venerated as one of England's patron saints until St George was given the role in the later Middle Ages.

[willowswriting]

for @dcynnight continued from here

Josephine didn't think that Teddy was clueless at all. In fact she was aware that he was quite intelligent. She never went into something without first having done her research, she was a professional after all. However he was really the only chance that she had at receiving any type of insider information. She was fully aware that they were feeding her bullshit... that was usually always the first step when the person that she sat down with knew the line of work that she was in. "Are the two of you close?" she questioned, steering it away from a business intensive conversation into one a little more casual, hoping to maybe lower his guard just a smidge.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Saint Edmund the Martyr by Karl Fitzgerald

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (December 1)

Edmund Campion was born in London on 25 January 1540. He was raised as a Catholic.

He had such a powerful and flamboyant intellect that at the age of only 17, he was made a junior fellow at Saint John’s College of Oxford University.

On visiting the university, Queen Elizabeth I was so taken by Edmund’s brilliance, as were a few of her dignitaries, that she bid him to ask for anything that he wished.

The exaltation and praise of so many fed his vanity and eventually led him away from his Catholic faith.

He took the Oath of Supremacy and acknowledged the Queen as head of the church. He also became an Anglican deacon.

However, his brilliant intellect and his conscience would not allow him to be reconciled to the idea of Anglicanism for too long.

After staying a period of time in Dublin, he turned back to his Catholic faith and returned to England.

At this point, he was suspected of being too Catholic and was shaken when he witnessed the trial of a soon to be martyr.

It carried him to the conviction that his vocation was to minister to the Catholic faithful in England who were being persecuted. He also felt the call to convert Protestants.

He set off to Rome barefoot. In 1573, he entered the Society of Jesus.

He was ordained in 1578 and had a vision in which the Virgin Mary foretold him of his martyrdom.

When he returned to England, he made an immediate impression, winning many converts.

On 17 July 1581, he was betrayed by one of the faithful who knew his whereabouts and was thrown into prison.

The queen offered him all manner of riches if he would forsake his loyalty to the Pope, but he refused.

After spending some time in the Tower of London, he was sentenced to death by hanging, drawing, and quartering.

His martyrom in Tyburn on 1 December 1581 sparked off a wave of conversions to Catholicism.

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 December 1886. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

[scholarofgloom]

[kentengland]

Martyrs Memorial ~ Bury St Edmunds #burystedmunds #martyrsmemorial #cat...

[emvidal]

[illustratus]

The Wilton Diptych (1395–1399)

The kneeling King Richard II is presented by Saints John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr, each holding their attribute. In the right-hand panel the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her arms is surrounded by eleven angels, against a golden background and field of delicately coloured flowers.

[gravedigg]

The Martyr

(Saint Edmund the Martyr King of England, Luc-Olivier Merson)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Edmund Arrowsmith

1585-1628

Feast Day: August 28

Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, born Brian Arrowsmith, but preferred his confirmation name Edmund was a Jesuit martyr. His family suffered steadfastly for their Catholic faith through the anti-Catholic period in England. His parents were arrested when Edmund was a child. He never saw them again. In 1605, he left England and became a priest in Douai, Belgium, and returned in 1612 to serve for 15 years in Lancashire. In 1622, he was arrested for being a priest, only to be pardoned by King James I. He became a Jesuit after he completed the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in 1624. Once again he was betrayed as a priest in 1628 and hanged and quartered. His last words were, “Bone Jesu” (O good Jesus). He’s one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[foursaints]

completely unrelated to the topic of this blog (dead gay wizards) but i wanted to know if you have book recs (not necessarily fiction) about catholicism and/or the middle ages. i know it’s VERY random but it’s always something that interested me even though i never really researched about it and i see you talk about saints (literally the name of tour blog) so i guess you are knowledgeable about that topic!! anyways thanks <3

okay i’m lightly stoned in my bedroom so i’m given to sentimentality but i smiled reading this… yes i CAN give you recs on those things

books

the myth and cult of the virgin mary, marina warner - longtime favorite. 100/10 could not recommend more.

woman defamed and woman defended: an anthology of medieval texts, alcuin blamires - really good collection of primary sources

lieutenant nun: memoir of a basque transvestite in the new world - autobiography of a runaway nun who lived as a man & swashbuckled <3

giovanni and lusanna: love and marriage in renaissance florence, gene brucker - combined scholarship and narrative. really beautiful

the nonexistent knight, italo calvino & the name of the rose, umberto eco are my fave literary fiction set at the time <33

articles / scholarship

“Negotiating for Agnes’ Womb”, Bastress-Dukehart

“Did Women Have a Renaissance?”, Kelly-Gadol

“Heretics, Martyrs, and Witches”, Alec Ryrie

primary sources / medieval lit

if anything at all read hildegard of bingen, julien of norwich, and margery kemp. <3 all timers

the heptameron, marguerite de navarre

sir orfeo, anonymous (trans. jrr tolkien)

the faerie queene, edmund spenser

the facetious nights of straparola, giovanni straparola

the ultimate ambition in the arts of erudition, shihab al-din al-nuwayri <- so so good

most of these are taken from the syllabus for a class i took called “perceptions of medieval and early modern women”. but i tried to include deep cuts and major favorites. I LOVE YOU MIDDLE AGES <3

[psychologeek]

It's long and incoherent, bc I'm sick (39.3 bb) and tired and everything hurts. Might try to edit/make a more organised about it later. But anyway.

[ID: a twitter screenshot of a poster in Paris, France, showing an olympic podium. On the the first place, there's a bodybag with two Israeli flags waving on it. The second and third place has missiles on the podium. Under every number (1,2,3) is written "Israel". The whole podium is flooded with blood, dripping and staining it. There's a big writing: "when it comes to killing for sport, there's no competition". Smaller writing: "from using starvation as a weapon of war to bombing hospitals, there's no war crime off limits for the team"./ID end].

So, this is not only wrong and inaccurate (on all accusations), this is also antisemic af. Historically, this is where I'd be telling ppl to be super careful. But I guess we all are. Also love how ppl ignore the bloody history of Olympics. Murder of 11 Israeli participants rings a bell? No? Ah of course. Why would it. Jews being murdered is no news.

Why is it antisemic?

Oh, hello OG blood libels! Didn't miss you at all.

Subtext of this poster is: (The Jews Israelis) Kill for profit (ritualic reasons, sports).

Which is. You know. Very normal thing to do TM.

Why is it problematic?

In England in 1144, the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich, was found dead in the woods with stab wounds. William's hagiographer, Thomas of Monmouth, falsely claimed that every year there is an international council of Jews at which they choose the country in which a child will be killed during Easter, because of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. According to Monmouth, England was chosen in 1144, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing, after which they abducted and crucified William. The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of a martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church. This was followed by similar accusations in Gloucester (1168), Bury St Edmunds (1181) and Bristol (1183). In 1189, the Jewish deputation attending the coronation of Richard the Lionheart was attacked by the crowd. Massacres of Jews at London and York soon followed. In 1190 on 16 March 150 Jews were attacked in York and then massacred when they took refuge in the royal castle, where Clifford's Tower now stands, with some committing suicide rather than being taken by the mob. The remains of 17 bodies thrown in a well in Norwich between the 12th and 13th century (five that were shown by DNA testing to likely be members of a single Jewish family) were very possibly killed as part of one of these pogroms.

~

At Bösing (Bazin, today Pezinok, Slovakia), it was charged that a nine-year-old boy had been bled to death, suffering cruel torture; thirty Jews confessed to the crime and were publicly burned. The true facts of the case were disclosed later when the child was found alive in Vienna. He had been taken there by the accuser, Count Wolf of Bazin, as a means of ridding himself of his Jewish creditors at Bazin.

~

The Massena blood libel was an instance of blood libel against Jews in which the Jews of Massena, New York, were falsely accused of the kidnapping and ritual murder of a Christian girl in September 1928.

On September 22, 1928, two days before Yom Kippur, four-year-old Barbara Griffiths went for a walk and did not come back home.

After a long search by townspeople and state police, a rumor began to circulate that the girl had been kidnapped and killed by the town's Jews for a religious ritual associated with the impending holiday

.....

Barbara Griffiths was found in the woods later that afternoon roughly a mile from her home. She told authorities she had become lost during her walk and slept in the forest. Nevertheless, some citizens of Massena continued to believe that Griffiths had been kidnapped by the Jews. They attributed her safe return to the discovery of the Jews' plot. The mayor may have led a boycott of businesses owned by Jews.

Does it sounds familiar?

"oh, but it was long ago!"

The Matzah of Zion was written by the Syrian Defense Minister, Mustafa Tlass in 1986. The book concentrates on two issues: renewed ritual murder accusations against the Jews in the Damascus affair of 1840, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The book was cited at a United Nations conference in 1991 by a Syrian delegate. On 21 October 2002, the London-based Arabic paper Al-Hayat reported that the book The Matzah of Zion was undergoing its eighth reprinting and it was also being translated into English, French and Italian.Egyptian filmmaker Munir Radhi has announced plans to adapt the book into a film.

~

In 2002, the Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi said, "People always talk about what the Germans did to the Jews, but the true question is, 'What did the Jews do to the Germans?'"[140] Gilad Atzmon stated, "Jewish texts tend to glaze over the fact that Hitler's 28 March 1933, ordering a boycott against Jewish stores and goods, was an escalation in direct response to the declaration of war on Germany by the worldwide Jewish leadership."

~

In 2003, a private Syrian film company created a 29-part television series Ash-Shatat ("The Diaspora"). This series originally aired in Lebanon in late 2003 and it was subsequently broadcast by Al-Manar, a satellite television network owned by Hezbollah. This TV series, based on the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, shows the Jewish people engaging in a conspiracy to rule the world, and it also presents Jews as people who murder the children of Christians, drain their blood and use it to bake matzah.

~

In an address that aired on Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas run TV station in Gaza, on 31 March 2010, Salah Eldeen Sultan (Arabic: صلاح الدين سلطان), founder of the American Center for Islamic Research in Columbus, Ohio, the Islamic American University in Southfield, Michigan, and the Sultan Publishing Co. and described in 2005 as "one of America's most noted Muslim scholars", alleged that Jews kidnap Christians and others in order to slaughter them and use their blood for making matzos. Sultan, who is currently a lecturer on Muslim jurisprudence at Cairo University stated that: "The Zionists kidnap several non-Muslims [sic] – Christians and others... this happened in a Jewish neighborhood in Damascus. They killed the French doctor, Toma, who used to treat the Jews and others for free, in order to spread Christianity. Even though he was their friend and they benefited from him the most, they took him on one of these holidays and slaughtered him, along with the nurse. Then they kneaded the matzos with the blood of Dr. Toma and his nurse. They do this every year. The world must know these facts about the Zionist entity and its terrible corrupt creed. The world should know this." (Translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute)

~

In April 2013, the Palestinian non-profit organization MIFTAH, founded by Hanan Ashrawi apologized for publishing an article which criticized US President Barack Obama for holding a Passover Seder in the White House by saying "Does Obama, in fact, know the relationship, for example, between 'Passover' and 'Christian blood'...?! Or 'Passover' and 'Jewish blood rituals?!' Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe is real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover." MIFTAH's apology expressed its "sincerest regret".

~

In a sermon broadcast on the official Jordanian TV channel on 22 August 2014, Sheik Bassam Ammoush, a former Minister of Administrative Development who was appointed to Jordan's House of Senate ("Majlis al-Aayan") in 2011, stated (as translated by MEMRI): "In [the Gaza Strip] we are dealing with the enemies of Allah, who believe that the matzos that they bake on their holidays must be kneaded with blood. When the Jews were in the diaspora, they would murder children in England, in Europe, and in America. They would slaughter them and use their blood to make their matzos... They believe that they are God's chosen people. They believe that the killing of any human being is a form of worship and a means to draw near their god."