St. Edmund of East Anglia, KM

Today is also the Feast of St Edmund King and Martyr. An old English Saint of the Sarum Calendar, his Feast is not kept in the Universal Roman Calendar, but he is remembered in the Roman Martyrology thus, "In England, St. Edmund, king and martyr."

The Collect from the Anglican Breviary:

O God of unspeakable mercy, who didst give Thy blessed Saint King Edmund grace to overcome the enemy by dying for Thy Name: mercifully grant to us Thy servants; that by his intercession we may be found worth to conquer and subdue the temptations of our ancient adversary. Through.

The Proper Lesson from the Anglican Breviary:

Edmund was born of the nobility of the old Saxons, and was a Christian worshipper from his early youth. He was chosen King of the East Angles by the voice of all his fellow country-men, whereafter he was good toward his subjects, but stern toward evildoers. For he went straight along the King's Highway, neither turning aside to the right-hand by puffing himself up with his own good deeds, nor to the left-hand by yielding to the weakness of man's frailty. When Hinguar, duke of the heathens of the north, came into East Anglia, and the country-folk could not withstand the poilers, he took King Edmund out of his kingly town of Hoxne, and when he had set him before him, he commanded him to forswear the Christian Faith. When he would not, they bound him to a certain tree and most direfully hided him with many stripes, but neither keenness of torture nor the threats of tormentors could change his will. When the savages saw it, they became as it were mad, and pierced the King's whole body with arrows, making breach upon breach. But he was still alive when they haled him away from the bloody stock, and a headsman struck off his head at one blow. Holy Edmund offered himself to God as a burnt offering of a sweet savour on November 20th, 870, and was crowned with martyrdom in the dying of the Lord Jesus, which he had so eminently borne in his body.

For more information on St Edmund, check out this excellent post from Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate