St Edmund of Abingdon
November 16
Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in Abingdon in about 1175, to devout parents Reginald and Mabel, Edmund studied in Oxford and Paris as a young man and soon became a respected lecturer in mathematics, dialectics and theology at the Universities of Paris and Oxford.
He was ordained a priest, took a doctorate in divinity and soon became known not only for his lectures on theology but as a popular preacher, spending long years travelling within England, and engaging in 1227 preaching the sixth crusade.
In 1233 he accepted an appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Gregory IX. Known as a peacemaker, he was said to combine a gentle personal temperament with a strong public stature. He stood up to King Henry III in defence of Magna Carta was known for his firm but just approach to civil and Church government.
He also worked for strict observance in monastic life and negotiated peace with Llywelyn the Great. His policies earned him hostility and jealousy from the king, and opposition from several monasteries and from the clergy of Canterbury Cathedral. He died in France at the beginning of a journey to Rome in 1240. He was canonised in 1246.
He is patron of Abingdon, the Diocese of Portsmouth, St Edmunds College Cambridge, St Edmund College Oxford. There is a Shrine to St Edmund at Pontigny Abbey France.
( One of ICN’s favourite bloggers, the Clerk of Oxford, has written a fascinating piece about St Edmund of Abingdon’s life. See: https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2017/11/st-edmund-and-abingdon.html )