Saint of the Day - St. Edward the Confessor (October 13th)
Channel: House of Prayers for Everyone (HOPE)
Date: 2023-10-12

Saint Edward the Confessor was an Anglo-Saxon English king and is considered the last king of the House of Wessex. His feast day is every October 13.

Early Life

Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy. He was born in Islip, Oxfordshire around 1003. He had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu.

During his childhood, England was the target of Viking raids and invasions. Thus, he grew up in exile in Normandy when the Danes gained control of England. The early experience of loss, coupled with his earnest religious piety, caused him to renounce worldly ambition and devote himself to the love of God.

King of England

After the death of the Danish king in 1042, the most powerful of the English earls supported Edward to succeed to the throne. Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons, on April 3, 1043.

Edward's position when he rose to the throne was very weak and needed the backing of the three leading earls. While the wealth of Edward's lands exceeded that of the greatest earls, they were scattered among the southern earldoms. He also had no personal power base yet he did not attempt to build one. 

Edward married the most powerful earl's daughter, Edith, in 1045. However, historians believe that Edward had already decided to be celibate before he married.

Still, his humble actions made him a popular sovereign. Unfortunately, he became the target of many controversies such as the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1051, the structure of the earldoms, the policies in dealing with neighboring kingdoms, and the succession to his throne among others.

Westminster Abbey

Edward played a vital role in the development of English Romanesque architecture, as clearly seen in the major building project of his reign, Westminster Abbey, the first Norman Romanesque church in England.

The construction commenced between 1042 and 1052 as a royal burial church and was consecrated on December 28, 1065, only a week before Edward's death on January 5, 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church and nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him.

Canonization

In 1103, thirty-seven years after his death, Edward's tomb was re-opened by Abbot Gilbert Crispin and Henry I, who discovered that his body was still in perfect condition. This was considered proof of his saintliness, and he was canonized in 1161.

Edward was called 'Confessor' as the name for someone who was believed to have lived a saintly life but was not a martyr.

He was the only king of England to be canonized by the pope, but he was part of a tradition of uncanonized Anglo-Saxon royal saints. 

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Images attributed to the following:
- By Σπάρτακος (changes by Rabanus Flavus) - File:Westminster-Abbey.JPG, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76031882
- By Unknown Master, English or French (second half of 14th century) - The National Gallery, London, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38178951