Editing Edmund the Martyr (section)

==Veneration==
===Cult at Bury St Edmunds===
  {{Infobox saint
  |name=Saint Edmund the Martyr
  | image            = John Lydgate praying at St Edmund's shrine.png
  | imagesize        = 220px
  | alt              = medieval illustration of Edmund's shrine 
  | caption          = [[John Lydgate]] prays at the shrine of St Edmund, from a folio of ''Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund'' ([[British Library]])
  |feast_day=20 November
  |venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br />[[Anglican Communion]]<br />[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
  |major_shrine=[[Bury St Edmunds]], destroyed during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]]
  |attributes=<!-- Crowned and robed, --> An arrow or a sword, a hand-held [[Globus cruciger|orb]] and [[Sceptre#Christian_era|sceptre]], wolf<!-- , severed head --> 
  |patronage= Kings, [[pandemic]]s, wolves, torture victims, protection from the [[Plague (disease)|plague]] 
}}
Edmund's [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] was promoted and flourished, but it declined, with the production of St Edmund coins ceasing after around 910. The saint did not reappear in [[Liturgical year|liturgical calendars]] from the 9th century until the appearance of Abbo of Fleury's ''Passio Sancti Eadmundi'' three centuries later.{{sfn|Gransden|1992|pp=82{{ndash}}83}} In 1010, Edmund's remains were translated to London to protect them from the Vikings, where they were kept for three years before being returned to Bury.{{sfn|Farmer|2011|pp=136{{ndash}}137}} 

The Danish king [[Cnut the Great|Canute]], who ruled England from 1016,{{sfn|Lawson|2013}} converted to Christianity and was instrumental in founding the abbey at Bury St Edmunds.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=89}} The new stone [[abbey]] church was completed in 1032, having possibly been commissioned by Canute in time to be consecrated on the 16th anniversary of the [[Battle of Assandun]], which took place on 18 October 1016.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=90}} Edmund's shrine became one of the most famous and wealthy [[pilgrimage]] locations in England. The abbey's power grew upon being given jurisdiction over the western half of the county of [[Suffolk]] by the creation in 1044 of the [[Liberty of Saint Edmund]], established by [[Edward the Confessor]], and a larger church was built in 1095, into which Edmund's [[relic]]s were translated.<ref name="High">{{cite web |title=High Stewards |url=https://www.highstewardship.org/high-stewards |publisher=The High Stewardship of the Liberty of St Edmund |access-date=9 January 2022}}</ref>{{refn|1=The [[Liberty (division)|Liberty]] remained a separate jurisdiction under the control of the abbot of [[Bury St Edmunds Abbey]] until the [[dissolution of the monasteries]] in the 1530s.{{sfn|Redstone|1914|p=202}}|group=note}} After the [[Norman Conquest]] of England in 1066, the [[abbot]] planned out over 300 new houses within a [[Grid plan|grid-iron pattern]] at a location that was close to the abbey precincts, a development which caused the town to more than double in size.{{sfn|Cantor|1982|p=176}}{{sfn|Waller|2000|p=98}} [[John, King of England|King John]] is said to have given a great [[sapphire]] and a precious stone set in gold to the shrine, which he was permitted to keep upon the condition that it was returned to the abbey when he died.{{sfn|Yates|1843|loc=part II p. 40}}

Edmund's shrine was destroyed in 1539, during the [[dissolution of the monasteries]]. According to a letter (now in the [[British Library]]'s [[Cotton Library|Cotton Collection]]), the shrine was defaced, and silver and gold to the value of over 5,000 [[Mark (money)|marks]] was taken away. The abbot and his monks were expelled and the abbey was dissolved.{{sfn|Pinner|2015|pp=1{{ndash}}2}}

=== Cult at Toulouse ===
In 1664, a lawyer from the French city of [[Toulouse]] publicized a claim that Edmund's remains had been taken from Bury by the future [[Louis VIII of France]] following his defeat at the [[Battle of Lincoln (1217)|Battle of Lincoln]] in 1217.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=12{{ndash}}13}} The relics had then been donated by Louis to the [[Basilica of St. Sernin, Toulouse|Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse]].{{sfn|Gem|2020}} The first record of this is a relic list for Saint-Sernin of around 1425, which included St Edmund among the church's relics.{{sfn|Gem|2020}} 

In 1644, after the city was saved from the [[Plague (disease)|plague]] from 1628 to 1631, which the population ascribed to the intercession of a saint known to the church authorities as ''Aymundus'', who they decided was Edmund. In gratitude for its deliverance, the city vowed to build a new [[reliquary]] for the saint's remains. Edmund's cult flourished there for over two centuries.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=133}} The reliquary, designed by [[Jean Chalette]], was silver and adorned with solid silver statues.{{sfn|Julien|1996}} In 1644, the relics were verified and catalogued for interment in the newly-completed shrine, by which time the cult's origins had been forgotten.{{sfn|Young|2018|pp=133{{ndash}}134}} Edmund's shrine was removed in 1794 during the [[French Revolution]]. The saint's relics were restored to the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in 1845 and placed in a new reliquary.{{sfn|Young|2018|pp=135{{ndash}}136}}

=== Relics at Arundel ===
[[File:Arundel Castle -West Sussex, England-23June2011 (2).jpg|thumb |alt=aerial photo of Arundel|upright=1.3|[[Arundel Castle]] in [[West Sussex]]]]
In 1901 the [[Archbishop of Westminster]], [[Herbert Vaughan]], received "certain relics" from the Basilica of Saint-Sernin. The relics, believed at the time to be those of St Edmund, were intended for the high altar of London's [[Westminster Cathedral]], which was then under construction.{{sfn|Gem|2020}}

The acceptance of the relics required the intercession of [[Pope Leo XIII]], after an initial refusal by the church in France.{{sfn|Houghton|1970|p=78}} Upon their arrival in England they were housed in the [[Fitzalan Chapel]] at [[Arundel Castle]] prior to their translation to Westminster. Although their validity had been confirmed in 1874, when two pieces were given to [[Henry Edward Manning|Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster]], concerns were raised about the authenticity of the Arundel relics by [[M. R. James|Montague James]] and Charles Biggs in ''[[The Times]]''. The relics remained at Arundel under the care of the [[Duke of Norfolk]] while a historical commission was set up by Cardinal Vaughan and Archbishop Germain of Saint-Sernin. They remain {{As of|1993|lc=y}} at Arundel.{{sfn|Gem|2020|p=45}} In 1966 three teeth from the collection of relics from France were given to [[Douai Abbey]] in [[Berkshire]].{{sfn|Gem|2020}}

===Commemoration and attributes===
[[File:St.Edmunds Monument (geograph 2705742).jpg|thumb|right|Monument in [[Hoxne]], Suffolk, marking the location of an ancient oak tree, supposed to be the site of Edmund's death.]]
The [[Calendar of saints|feast day]] of Edmund, King and Martyr in the Catholic Church is 20 November.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=100}} He is also remembered in the [[Church of England]], with a [[Lesser Festival (Anglicanism)|Lesser Festival]] on this day of the year.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=27 March 2021|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> Edmund's particular attributes are the arrow and the sword,{{sfn|Olderr|2012|pp=20, 198}} being an English king, his attributes include the [[Globus cruciger|orb]] and [[Sceptre#Christian_era|sceptre]].{{sfn|Olderr|2012|p=177}} According to the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of Saints]]'', his attribute can also be a wolf.{{sfn|Farmer|2011|pp=136{{ndash}}137}}

A stone cross at [[Hoxne]] in Suffolk marks one supposed location of Edmund's death. The monument records that it was built on the site of an ancient oak tree which fell in 1848 and was found to have an arrow head embedded in its trunk.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1458357|access-date=24 May 2022}}</ref> Some fifty-five [[Church of England parish church]]es are dedicated to Edmund, perhaps the most notable being the Church of [[St Edmund, King and Martyr]], [[Lombard Street, London|Lombard Street]] in the [[City of London]]. The [[Benedictine]] community of [[Douai Abbey]] also has Edmund as its patron.<ref>Mackinlay 1893, pp. 324–325</ref> There is a St Edmunds chapel at the East end of [[Tewkesbury Abbey]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22260/22260-h/22260-h.htm#imagep061 | title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury, by H.J.L.J. Massé. }}</ref>