Risen St Edmund

A modern statue of St Edmund stands outside Bury St Edmunds Cathedral. It was sculpted by Dame Elizabeth Frink and was commissioned back in 1974. Edmund was once England’s national saint before he was displaced by George. He had been a Saxon king of East Anglia, and was killed in 869 after the Great Heathen Army invaded. Whether he died in battle or was murdered afterwards, it is not clear, but the Vikings appear to have insisted that he renounce his faith in Jesus Christ before he expired, which he refused.

The statue received criticism for apparently dressing Edmund in just a pair of underpants, while others saw a rather prudish expression. Yet the Christian martyr usually looks weak and pathetic. Stripped of dignity, bereft of friends, derided by tormentors and pitied by onlookers, he goes to his death to claim a greater dignity, not his own. If Edmund was a real Christian and died for his faith, He looks more splendid right now, before Christ’s throne, than he did as a Saxon warrior or early English king.

“No one makes us afraid or leads us into captivity as we have set our faith on Jesus. For though we are beheaded, and crucified, and exposed to beasts and chains and fire and all other forms of torture, it is plain that we do not forsake the confession of our faith, but the more things of this kind which happen to us the more are there others who become believers and truly religious through the name of Jesus”. -Justin Martyr