St. Edmund of Abingdon

EDMUND OF ABINGDON, bishop. B. c 1170; d. near Pontigny,

1240; ed 1246; f.d. 16 November

Edmund Rich was born at Abingdon of a prosperous family and

was educated at the universities of Oxford and Paris. He was ordained priest,

taught theology at Oxford, and was soon reputed to be a man of very virtuous life who experienced heavenly visitations.

There are no certain dates or details forthcoming for these earlier years, but in 1222 he was appointed treasurer of Salisbury cathedral and in 1233 was elected archbishop of Canterbury after three other candidates had been rejected by Pope Gregory IX.

Edmund was essentially a teacher and preacher, a man of study and prayer,

but his brief episcopate of seven years was passed in a turmoil of pubIic affairs,with which he dealt reluctantly but resolutely. To lighten the burden he chose as his chancellor Master Richard of Wich, known to after ages as St Richard of Chichester. Immediately after his consecration St Edmund was successful in averting civil war in the Welsh marches, and he brought about a reorganisation of the government. But he was soon in difficulties with King Henry III over discrepancies between church law and the English common law and was involved in serious disputes with the monastic chapter at Canterbury.

In 1238 Edmund carried his case against the monks to Rome in person, but

he was not destined to see the trouble finally resolved. Fresh difficulties arose with the king, and in the autumn of 1240 Edmund left England, probably intending to make a second visit to Rome. But he got no further than Soisy near Pontigny in Burgundy, where he died. St Edmund was a learned and a holy man, and a good if not great bishop: on his deathbed he called God to witness, "I have sought nothing else but you."

Very little of his writing has survived, but his Mirror of Holy Church makes it clear that he is entitled to an honourable place among the English medieval mystics; in that treatise he sets out at various levels the contemplative's way to God. He was buried in the abbey church at Pontigny, where his body still lies; locally there he is called St Edme.