ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 16th of November
SAINT EDMUND OF ABINGDON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, CONFESSOR
Saint Edmund Rich [13th century] was the eldest son of Reynold Rich, a tradesman of Abingdon in Berkshire, and his wife Mabilia. His parents were but slenderly provided with the goods of this world, but possessed abundantly the true riches of virtue and divine grace.
Reynold from the sale of his stock, leaving a moderate competence for the education of his children, and for a foundation for their industry to work upon, committed them to the care of his prudent and virtuous consort; and with her free consent made his religious profession in the monastery of Evesham, where he finished his mortal course with great fervour.
ASPIRING ARDENTLY TO CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
Mabilia, who remained in the world, was not behindhand with him in aspiring ardently to Christian perfection. To accomplish the course of her penance, and to tame her flesh she practised great austerities, and constantly wore a rough hair cloth: she always went to church at midnight to matins, and by her own example excited her children to the heroic practice of virtue.
HE RECITED THE WHOLE PSALTER ON HIS KNEES
Our saint in his childhood, by her advice, recited the whole psalter on his knees every Sunday and holiday, before he broke his fast, and on Fridays contented himself with only bread and water.
How zealous soever the mother was in inspiring into the tender minds of her children a contempt of earthly things, and the greatest ardour in the pursuit of virtue, and in suggesting to them every means of attaining to the summit of Christian perfection, Edmund not only complied joyfully with her advice, but always went beyond her directions, desiring in all his actions to carry virtue to the greatest heights; though in all his penances and devotions he studied secrecy as much as possible, and was careful to shun in them the least danger of attachment to his own sense.
CONTEMPT OF EARTHLY THINGS
For that fundamental maxim of virtue he had always before his eyes, that even devotion infected with self-will and humour, becomes vicious, and nourishes self-love and self-conceit, the bane of all virtue and grace in the heart.
As for our young saint he seemed to have no will of his own, so mild, complying, and obliging was he to every one, and so dutiful and obedient to his mother and masters.
DUTIFUL AND OBEDIENT
How grievously are those parents the enemies and spiritual murderers of their own children, who teach them to place their happiness in the gratification of their senses; and by pampering their bodies, and flattering their humours and passions, make their cravings and appetites restless, insatiable, and boundless, and their very bodies unfit for, and almost incapable of, the duties of penance, and even of the labours of civil life.
The saint performed the first part of his studies at Oxford, in which he gave very early indications of a genius above the common standard. Retirement and prayer were his delight, and he sought no companions but those in whom he observed the like pious inclinations.
THEY WERE SENT TO PARIS
He was yet young when Mabilia sent him and his brother Robert to finish their studies at Paris. At parting she gave each of them a hair shirt, which she advised them to use two or three days in a week, to fortify their souls against the love of pleasures, a dangerous snare to youth.
Edmund had spent some time in that seat of arts and sciences, when his mother falling sick of a lingering illness, and perceiving that she drew near her end, ordered him over to England that she might recommend to him the care of settling his brother and his two sisters in the world.
HIS MOTHER GAVE HIM HER LAST BLESSING
Before she died she gave him her last blessing. The saint begged the same for his brother and sisters, but she answered: "I have given them my blessing in you: for through you they will share abundantly in the blessings of heaven." When he had closed her eyes, and paid her his last duties, he was solicitous where to place his sisters, and how to secure them against the dangers of the world, particularly as they were both extremely beautiful.
HE SETTLED HIS SISTERS
But they were yet far more virtuous, and soon put him out of this pain, by declaring that it was their earnest desire to live only to God in a religious state.
The saint was, in the next place, perplexed where to find a sanctuary, in which they might most securely attain to that perfection to which they aspired.
After a diligent inquiry and search, the saint placed his two sisters in the small Benedictine nunnery of Catesby, in Northamptonshire, famous for strictness of its discipline, where both served God with great fervour, were eminent for the innocence and sanctity of their lives, and died both successively prioresses.
HE WENT BACK TO PARIS TO PURSUE HIS STUDIES
St Edmund had no sooner settled his sisters, but he went back to Paris to pursue his studies. Whilst he lived at Oxford he had consecrated himself to God by a vow of perpetual chastity, under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin, in whom, under God, he placed a special confidence; and this vow he observed with the utmost fidelity his whole life, shunning, with the most scrupulous care, all levity in the least action, every dangerous liberty of his senses, and all company that could be an occasion of temptation.
In his study he had an image of the Mother of God before his eyes. By virtue he sanctified all his studies, and the purity of his heart replenished his soul with light, which enabled him to penetrate, in them, the most knotty questions, and the most sublime truths.
HE CONSTANTLY ATTENDED AT THE MIDNIGHT OFFICE IN ST MARTIN'S CHURCH
He constantly attended at the midnight office in St Martin’s church, and after that was over, spent some hours there in prayer, early heard mass in the morning, and then repaired to the public school, without taking food or rest. He went to vespers every day; studies, works of charity, holy meditation, and private prayer, took up the rest of his time. He fasted much, and every Friday on bread and water; wore a hair shirt, and mortified his senses in every thing. Allowing very little for his own necessities, he employed in alms the rest of the money which he received for his own uses.
After he had gone through a course of the liberal arts and mathematics, and had taken the degree of master of arts, he was employed six years in teaching those sciences, especially the mathematics.
TEACHING SCIENCE - AND ESPECIALLY MATHEMATICS
Though, to avoid the danger of the distraction of the mind from heavenly things, to which these studies generally expose a soul, he used, as a counterbalance, much prayer and meditation, to nourish constantly in his heart a spirit of devotion.
Yet this at length suffered some abatement; and he seemed one night to see his mother in a dream, who pointing to certain geometrical figures before him, asked him what all that signified? and bade him rather make the adorable Trinity the object of his studies.
HE HAD SEEN HIS MOTHER IN A DREAM
From that time he gave himself up entirely to the study of theology, and though out of humility he was long unwilling, he suffered himself to be overcome by the importunity of his friends, and proceeded doctor in that faculty, though whether this was at Paris, or Oxford, after his return to England, authors disagree.
He interpreted the holy scriptures some time at Paris: it was his custom always to kiss that divine book out of religious respect, as often as he took it into his hands. As soon as he was ordained priest, he began to preach with wonderful unction and fruit.
Returning to England, he was the first who taught Aristotle’s logic at Oxford, where he remained from 1219 to 1226; but in frequent missions travelled often through all Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, preaching the word of God with great fruit and zeal.
PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD WITH GREAT FRUIT
After having refused many ecclesiastical preferments, he at length accepted of a canonry, with the dignity of treasurer in the cathedral of Salisbury; but gave far the larger part of the revenue to the pool, leaving himself destitute the greatest part of the year.
He had not been long in this post, when the pope sent him an order to preach the crusade against the Saracens, with a commission to receive an honorary stipend for his maintenance, from the several churches in which he should discharge that office.
The saint executed the commission with great zeal; but would receive no honorary stipend, or any kind of present for his maintenance.
THE RAIN DID NOT AFFECT THEM
As he was preaching in the open air near the church at Worcester, a heavy shower fell all round the place, but the saint having given his blessing, and bade the people not to disperse, not a single drop touched any of them, or fell on the spot where they stood.
When he preached, the words which came from his inflamed heart were words of fire, which powerfully converted souls. Persons the most profoundly learned were moved to tears at his sermons, and many became imitators of his penance and virtues.
TEACHING CHRISTIANS TO PRAY IN AFFECTION AND SPIRIT
What he chiefly inculcated was a sincere spirit of humility, mortification, and holy prayer; and he was principally solicitous to teach Christians to pray in affection and spirit.
The see of Canterbury had been long vacant, when Pope Gregory IX pitched upon Edmund to fill it. The chapter of Canterbury was unanimous in his favour, King Henry III gave his consent, and the election was confirmed by his holiness.
Edmund submitted after much resistance, but had not quite conquered his fears and difficulties when he was consecrated, on April 2, 1234. This dignity made no alteration in the humble sentiments or behaviour of our saint.
HE SUBMITTED AFTER MUCH RESISTANCE
He had still the same mean opinion of himself, and observed the same simplicity and modesty in his dress, notwithstanding the contrary fashions of the bishops of that age. His chief employment was to inquire into and relieve the corporal and spiritual necessities of his flock, and he soon got the reputation of a primitive pastor. His revenues he chiefly consecrated to the poor, and had a particular care to provide portions for young women, whose circumstances would have otherwise exposed them to great dangers.
He gave vice no quarter, maintained church discipline with an apostolic vigour, and was most scrupulously solicitous and careful that justice was impartially administered in all his courts, abhorred the very shadow of bribes in all his officers, and detested the love of filthy lucre, especially in the clergy. For the reformation of abuses, he published his Constitutions in thirty-six canons.
HIS ZEAL COULD NOT FAIL TO RAISE HIM ADVERSARIES
Amidst a great corruption of manners, and decay of discipline, his zeal could not fail to raise him adversaries.
There, perhaps, was never a greater lover of charity and peace than our saint; yet he chose to see his dearest friends break with him, and turn his implacable enemies and persecutors, rather than approve or tolerate the least point which seemed to endanger both his own and their souls.
HOLY PATIENCE
And, from their malice, he reaped the invaluable advantage of holy patience. For their bitterness and injustice against him never altered the peace of his mind, or his dispositions of the most sincere charity and tenderness towards them; and he never seemed sensible of any injuries or injustices that were done him.
He often used to say, that tribulations were a milk which God prepared for the nourishment of his soul, and that if ever they had any bitterness in them, this was mixed with much sweetness, adding, that they were, as it were, a wild honey, with which his soul had need to be fed in the desert of this world, like John Baptist in the wilderness.
"TRIBULATIONS ARE A MILK WHICH GOD PREPARED FOR THE NOURISHMENT OF MY SOUL"
He added, that Christ had taught him by his own example to go to meet and salute his persecutors, and only to answer their injuries by earnestly recommending their souls to his heavenly Father. The more the saint suffered from the world, the greater were the consolations he received from God, and the more eagerly he plunged his heart into the ocean of his boundless sweetness, in heavenly contemplation and prayer.
THE SAINT'S TRIALS GREW EVERY DAY HEAVIER
The saint’s trials grew every day heavier, and threatened to overwhelm him; yet he was always calm, as the halcyon riding on the waves amidst a violent tempest. King Henry III being by his bad economy, and the insatiable thirst of his minions, always needy, not content to exact of his subjects, both clergy and laity, exorbitant sums, kept bishoprics, abbeys, and other benefices, a long time vacant, only that, under the title of protecting the goods of the church, he might appropriate the revenues to his own use; and, when he nominated new incumbents, preferred his own creatures, who were usually strangers, or at least persons no ways qualified for such posts.
St Edmund, not bearing an abuse which was a source of infinite disorders, obtained of Pope Gregory IX. a bull, by which he was empowered and ordered to fill such vacant benefices, in case the king nominated no one, within six months after they fell vacant.
HE OBTAINED A BULL FROM POPE GREGORY IX.
But, upon the king’s complaint, his holiness repealed this concession. The zealous prelate, fearing to injure his own conscience, and appear to connive at crying abuses which he was not able to redress, passed secretly into France, thus testifying to the whole world how much he condemned such fatal enormities.
Making his way to the court of France, he was graciously received by St Lewis, all the royal family, and city of Paris, where his virtue was well known.
Thence he retired to Pontigny, a Cistercian abbey in Champagne, in the diocess of Auxerre, which had formerly harboured two of his predecessors, St Thomas, under Henry II., and Stephen Langton, in the late reign of King John.
FASTING AND PRAYER
In this retreat the saint gave himself up to fasting and prayer; and preached frequently in the neighbouring churches. His bad state of health obliging him, in compliance to the advice of physicians, to change air, he removed to a convent of regular canons at Soissy or Seysi. Seeing the monks of Pontigny in tears at his departure, he told them he should return to them on the feast of St Edmund the Martyr; which was verified by his body, after his death, being brought thither on that day.
"IN THEE, O LORD, I HAVE BELIEVED"
His distemper increasing, he desired to receive the viaticum, and said in presence of the holy sacrament: "In Thee, O Lord, I have believed; Thee I have preached and taught. Thou art my witness, that I have desired nothing on earth but Thee alone. As thou seest my heart to desire only Thy holy will, may it be accomplished in me."
St Edmund died at Soissy, near Provins in Champagne, on November 16, 1242, having been archbishop eight years.
Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 Texts on the ten commandments and the corporal works of mercy, Medieval English, by St Edmund
[St Edmund's intercession to God is invoked when you are worried about your baby's health during pregnancy]
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