Edmund Rich

St Edmund of Abingdon
Archbishop of Canterbury
Image of Edmund from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
Enthroned	unknown
Reign ended	1240
Predecessor	John Blund
Successor	Boniface of Savoy
Consecration	2 April 1234
Personal details
Birth name	Edmund Rich
Born	20 November c. 1175 St Edmund's Lane, Abingdon, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), England
Died	16 November 1240 Soisy-Bouy, Seine-et-Marne, France
Buried	Pontigny Abbey, Burgundy, France
Sainthood
Feast day	16 November
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion
Title as Saint	Archbishop
Canonized	Pope Innocent IV
Canonized by	Pope Innocent IV
Attributes	archbishop making a vow before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary; embracing the Child Jesus; placing a ring on the finger of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary; receiving a lamb from the Blessed Virgin Mary; with Saint Richard of Chichester; with Saint Thomas of Canterbury
Patronage	Abingdon, Oxfordshire; Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth
Shrines	Pontigny Abbey, Pontigny, Yonne, France

Edmund Rich (also known as Saint Edmund or Eadmund of Canterbury, and as Saint Edmund of Abingdon) (1175–1240) was a 13th-century Archbishop of Canterbury in England.

Life

Early life and career

He was born at Abingdon in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), (7 miles south of Oxford, England), circa 1175.

'Rich' was an epithet sometimes given to his wealthy merchant father. It was never applied to Edmund or his siblings in their lifetimes. Edmund may have been educated at the monastic school in Abingdon. He studied at the universities of Oxford and Paris and became a teacher about 1200, or a little earlier. For six years he lectured on mathematics and dialectics, apparently dividing his time between Oxford and Paris, and winning distinction for his part in introducing the study of Aristotle. He is the first known Oxford Master of Arts and the site where he lived and taught was formed into a mediaeval academic hall in his name and eventually incorporated as the current college St Edmund Hall. Through the influence of a pious mother he had led from boyhood a life of self-denial and austerity; and it is not surprising that he tired of secular subjects and went over to theology.

Though for some time he resisted the change, he finally entered upon his new career between 1205 and 1210. He received ordination, took a doctorate in divinity, and soon won fame as a lecturer on theology and as an extemporaneous preacher. After expounding the "Lord's Law" for a number of years, Edmund became disgusted with scholasticism and gave up his chair at Oxford. Ironically, after his death and canonisation, an academic Hall was founded in his name at the site where he taught. St Edmund Hall, Oxford, remains the last of the University's medieval Halls.

Some time between 1219 and 1222 he was appointed vicar of the parish of Calne in Wiltshire and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, and held this position for eleven years, during which time he also engaged in preaching. In 1227, he preached the sixth crusade through a large part of England.

Archbishop of Canterbury

In 1233 came the news of his appointment, by Pope Gregory IX, to the archbishopric of Canterbury. The chapter had already made three selections which the pope had declined to confirm, and Edmund's name had been proposed as a compromise by Gregory, perhaps on account of his work for the crusade, and he was consecrated 2 April 1234.^[1]

Before his consecration he allied himself in political life with those who emphasised independence from Rome, maintenance of the Great Charter and the exclusion of foreigners from civil and ecclesiastical office. In the name of his fellow bishops he admonished King Henry III of England at Westminster on 2 February 1234, to heed the example of his father, King John. A week after his consecration he again appeared before the king with the barons and bishops, this time threatening his sovereign with excommunication, if he refused to dismiss his councilors, particularly Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester. This threat was sufficient. The objectionable favorites were dismissed, Hubert de Burgh (whom they had got imprisoned) was released and reconciled to the king, and soon the archbishop was sent to Wales to negotiate peace with Prince Llywelyn the Great.

In 1237, in order to destroy the authority of Edmund, Henry induced the pope to send Cardinal Otto (Oddone di Monferrato) as legate to England. Through numerous disputes with bishops and monks, not to speak of the rupture with the king, and the excommunication of Simon de Montfort and his bride, Edmund had already made his position a difficult one.

Conflict with Rome

As the champion of the national Church against the claims of Rome, Edmund now found himself arrayed against the pope. In December, 1237, he set out for Rome, hoping to enlist the pope on the side of ecclesiastical reform. From this futile mission he returned to England in August, 1238, to find himself reduced to a cipher. If he excommunicated his monks, they appealed to Rome and paid no attention to his interdict. Finding himself foiled at every turn he finally submitted to the papal demands; and early in 1240, hoping to win his cause against his monks, he paid to the pope's agents one fifth of his revenue, which had been levied for the pope's war against Emperor Frederick II. Other English prelates followed his example.

Then came the demand that 300 English benefices should be assigned to as many Romans. This attack upon the rights of the national Church was more than Edmund could endure. In the summer of 1240, broken in spirit, he retired to the Cistercian Pontigny Abbey, France, which had been the refuge of his predecessors, Saint Thomas Becket and Stephen Langton.

Death and canonization

A few months later he died, on 16 November 1240,^[1] at the house of Augustinian Canons at Soisy-Bouy (60 miles south-east of Paris), France. In less than a year after his death miracles were alleged to be wrought at his grave. However, he was not canonised until Henry III lifted his objections in 1247. His feast day is 16 November.^[2] A few years later the first chapel dedicated to him, St Edmund's Chapel, was consecrated in Dover by his friend Richard of Chichester (making it the only chapel dedicated to one English saint by another). His incorruptible right arm is currently located at a church on Ender's Island, CT, but has also been at St Michael's College in Colchester, VT for a short period of time and Nativity Parish in Swanton, VT for over 50 years.

Character, life, and works

Edmund is one of the most attractive figures of medieval history. His life was one of self-sacrifice and devotion to others. From boyhood he practised asceticism; and throughout his life he wore sackcloth next his skin, pressed against his body by metal plates. After snatching a few hours' sleep without removing his clothing, he usually spent the rest of the night in prayer and meditation.

Bibliography

Besides his "Constitutions," issued in 1236 (printed in W. Lynwood's Constitutiones Angliae, Oxford, 1679), he wrote Speculum ecclesiae (London, 1521; Eng. transl., 1527; reprinted in M. de la Bigne's Bibliotheca veterum patrum, v., Paris, 1609).

Congregation of St Edmund

His life inspired the formation of the Society of St Edmund at Pontigny, France, in 1843 by Rev. Jean Baptiste Muard to keep Saint Edmund's memory and life alive through faithful service, for the work of popular missions. The members also devote themselves to parochial work, to the education of youth in seminaries and colleges, to the direction of pious associations, and to foreign missions.

Members of the Society, based in Pontigny, fled to the United States in 1889 after widespread anticlericalism seized France. The Society of St Edmund settled in Winooski Park, Vermont, and established Saint Michael's College [1] in 1904 where the deeds and values of Saint Edmund's life continue through fulfillment of the College's mission. The original motherhouse is at Pontigny, but since the expulsion of the religious orders the superior general resided at Hitchin, England. In the early 20th century, the congregation has two houses in the United States: a missionary house and apostolic school at Swanton, Vermont, for the training of young men who wish to study for the priesthood and the religious life; and a college at Colchester, Vermont, with 12 fathers, 8 scholastics, and 100 pupils.

Notes

Sources

• Royal Berkshire History: St. Edmund of Abingdon
• St. Edmund Hall, Oxford: Birth of St Edmund of Abingdon
• Saint Edmund's Parish in Calne
• Society of St. Edmund, Roman Catholic Community of Priests and Brothers
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
• Walsh, Michael A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West London: Burns & Oats 2007 ISBN 0-8601-2438-X
• This article incorporates text from the entry St. Edmund Rich in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

External links

• St. Edmund Rich at Catholic Online
• St. Edmund Rich of Abingdon at Patron Saints' Index