Saint Edward II, King of England

The king died on July 8, 972, according t o Cardinal Baroni cardinal Baronius Disciple of Philip, historian and cardinal, author of the Annales ecclesiastici. us; the precaution he had taken did not prevent great strife from arising then among the English princes: Elfrida, taking the interests of her son, although he was the youngest (he was only seven years old), wanted to make him reign to the prejudice of his brother Edward, who was from the first marriage. Upon this dispute, the archbishops of the kingdom, Dunstan of Canterbury and Oswald of York, assembled with the other bishops, abbots, dukes, and lords of the crown, and without regard for the murmurs of Ethelred's partisans, they consecrated Edward king, following the will of Edgar. The holy archbishop always took great care of this young prince, for whom he had conceived a tender affection since he had baptized him. Thus, he made such progress in such a good school that, following in the footsteps of the late king his father, he became an excellent prince, both during the troubles of war and during the calm of peace, showing himself on one hand terrible and severe to the enemies of the State, and on the other hand gentle and favorable to good men. He likewise loved the clergy and the religious, favoring them with all his power, and imitating in this his ancestors, who had built several monasteries in England. After the public affairs of the kingdom, this very pious king took singular pleasure in doing good to the poor, in feeding them, in clothing them, and in distributing to them generally everything they needed, considering that one of the principal functions of royalty was to assist the unfortunate. Thus, good people blessed God in their hearts to see their king, in his youth, devote himself to these acts of piety. He was affable to all his subjects, extremely gentle toward everyone, judicious in his counsel, prudent in all his conduct, and particularly cherished chastity; so that everyone promised themselves a golden age under the reign of such an excellent prince.

This happiness, however, was not of long duration; his stepmother, being a king's daughter, could not bear that her son had not been preferred to that of a simple princess; she sought means to harm her king and legitimate lord: she soon found the opportunity. One day Edward, being out hunting and finding himself near the castle of Wareham, which belonged to his stepmother, wished to go there to see the young prince Ethelred, his brother, whom he loved tenderly; his men having strayed on the way, he went there alone: Elfride, being warned that he was approaching, came to meet him with assassins, feigning to be delighted to see him, and had a drink brought to him. Edward, suspecting nothing, took the cup, and, as he was raising it to his mouth, the cruel princess had a dagge la cruelle princesse Stepmother of Edward and instigator of his assassination. r thrust into his side. As soon as he felt himself wounded, he spurred his horse to return to his men who were looking for him; but, losing blood in abundance, he fell stone dead on the spot, on March 18, 978, only the third year of his reign.

The stepmother, seeing the king dead, to mark the great contempt she held for him, had his body dragged by the feet into the house of a poor woman blind from birth, whom the queen supported, in order to bury him there secretly and thus hide her regicide. But what can human malice do against the wisdom of God? The poor blind woman approached the holy body, and immediately she opened her eyes to the brilliance of a great light, which, appearing in the middle of the night, illuminated her entire house. This having come to the knowledge of that detestable princess, who may be compared to the impious Athaliah mentioned in Scripture, she had this holy body thrown into a marsh, in order to extinguish its memory forever, and withdrew to another place in her domain, a few miles from the first, where this horrible murder had been committed. On represents Edward II on his horse, drinking the stirrup cup, while an assassin treacherously advances toward him. The young king suspected, it is said, something of his stepmother's evil designs; but not wishing, as the true Christian he was, to let it be thought that he returned hatred for hatred, he paid her the visit that led to his death. In certain paintings, a serpent emerges from the cup he holds in his hand, an energetic symbol of the part the demon had in the evil deed.

## RELICS OF SAINT EDWARD.

A year had already passed without anyone having found this holy body, when the Almighty, wishing to make known to the world the merits of His martyr, stirred up some faithful who sought it out of devotion; they finally discovered the place where it was by means of a pillar of fire that often appeared above it. A great concourse of the faithful immediately gathered there, who, mourning the loss of their king and powerful protector, removed this precious relic and placed it in the church of the Most Holy Virgin of Wareham: this was done on February 13, the year after his death. As for the place where this holy deposit was found, God caused a fountain of fresh water to spring up there, which has since been called Saint Edward's Fountain, where many people afflicted with various illnesses have received healing for their ailments.

Meanwhile, as the news of this discovery spread throughout the island of Great Britain, everyone detested the malice and impiety of the queen and raised to the heavens the merits, innocence, and virtues of the holy Martyr. Aldred, prince of the Mercians, to honor the memory of his king, invited as many bishops, abbots, and other persons of note as he could to attend the translation of his body. Above all, he begged Saint Wilfrida, abbess of a famous monastery in Winchester, where Editha, sister of the holy king, was a nun, to be present with all her daughters. Thus, the body of Saint Edward was solemnly raised and found to be entirely whole and as fresh as if he had died but a moment before: a great consolation for all that illustrious company, who gave thanks to God for showing, by such a sensible mark, the innocence of His Martyr; his holy sister Editha, who was present, threw herself upon the body, pressed her cheeks against his, and watered the face of the dear departed with her own tears, unable to satisfy herself with gazing upon him. Finally, this precious treasure was deposited in the famous monastery of Shaftesbury, which King Alfred, great-grandfather of Saint Edward, had built and endowed in consideration of his daughter Helen, who had consecrated herself there as a bride of Jesus Christ. So many wonders could not be hidden from the miserable Elfrida, murderess of the Saint; she was touched by repentance and also wished to visit his relics, but she was repelled by a just judgment of God, who did not permit her to approach, neither on foot nor on horseback; the Almighty thus made Himself the avenger of her perfidy against the holy Martyr; nevertheless, later, as penance for her crime, she had two monasteries of nuns built. These monasteries are Wherwell and Amesbury; she died in the former. Her son Ethelred, whom she had so desired to see king, was a cowardly and unfortunate prince. Englan d, under his reign, was ex prince lâche et malheureux King whose reign's misfortunes were prophesied by Dunstan. posed to all sorts of calamities, and especially to the invasion of the Danes.

In the course of time, various distributions of the relics of Saint Edward were made: one part was transferred to Leominster, in the county of Hereford, another to Abingdon, in the county of Berks. The English celebrated three feasts in his honor each year, until the time of the schism: the first and principal one was that of the day of his death, March 18; the second, that of the day of his first translation to Wareham, February 18; and the third, that of his elevation from the earth or second translation to Shaftesbury, June 20. The Protestants have preserved the memory of the first and third feasts in the calendar of their new liturgy, by the effect of some shadow of veneration that remained with them for their saintly king. The martyrologies of the Catholics almost all mention him with the quality of martyr, no doubt to distinguish him from Saint Edward the Confessor, for the Roman Martyrology does not give him this title.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates Saint Edward, king and martyr, on March 18. Surius wrote his life amply, according to several manuscripts, in his second volume. We have followed him in this collection, and the Annals of Cardinal Baronius, as well as Polydore Vergil and the other historians of England.