07 works, Today, November 20th, is Edmund the Martyr's day, his story illustrated #323

Brian Whelan

Martrydom of St Edmund

Oil on Canvas

Lady Chapel of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St. Edmund, England

Brian Whelan (born 3 May 1957) is an Irish painter, author and playwright.

Whelan was born in Ealing, West London, UK, of Irish Roman Catholic parents. His childhood was spent both in London and Ireland. After his training at the Royal Academy of Arts, he lived and worked for 30 years in various parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, England. These early years were spent painting, organizing various multi-disciplined art events and making films.

Whelan first came to the attention of the public and media in a fringe event connected to the Aldeburgh Festival in 2000. Later years in England were devoted to exhibiting his works throughout England and internationally.

Since 2013, he and his American wife Wendy Roseberry have lived in the historic village of Waterford, Virginia, USA. More on Brian Whelan

Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Not to be confused with Edmund the Martyr or Edward the Confessor.

East Anglia was ruled by a good and wise king named Offa. But the Christian Offa was childless, and resolved to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, there to offer prayers in the hope of being blessed with a son and heir. On his journey across Europe, he stayed for a while with his kinsman Alcmund, a prince of Old Saxony, and was much impressed by the nobility and piety of Alcmund’s 12-year-old son, Edmund. On the return trip almost a year later Offa fell ill, and seeing that he was about to die, commanded his council to recognise Edmund as his true successor. This they did, and with his father’s consent, called upon Edmund to take up the throne.

Unknown artist

Saint Edmund the Martyr

Icon

I have no further description, at this time

The kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by the Vikings, who destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign. Later writers produced fictitious accounts of his life, asserting that he was born in 841, the son of Æthelweard, an obscure East Anglian king, whom it was said Edmund succeeded when he was 14. Later versions of Edmund's life relate that he was crowned on 25 December 855 at Burna, which at that time functioned as the royal capital, and that he became a model king.

Unknown Miniaturist, English (active 1130s in Bury)

Life of St Edmund, circa 1130

Illumination on parchment

Height: 204 mm (8.03 in); Width: 134 mm (5.27 in)

The Morgan Library & Museum,  New York

Unknown artist

Edmund being martyred

Illumination from a medieval manuscript

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

I have no further description, at this time

In 869, the Great Heathen Army advanced on East Anglia and killed Edmund. He may have been slain by the Danes in battle, but by tradition he met his death at an unidentified place known as Haegelisdun, after he refused the Danes' demand that he renounce Christ: the Danes beat him, shot him with arrows and then beheaded him, on the orders of Ivar the Boneless and his brother Ubba. According to one legend, his head was then thrown into the forest. 

Unknown artist

Miniature of the discovery of Edmund’s head with a scroll with gold inscription ‘heer heer herr’, with a wolf guarding it

Manuscript image from a late 15th century 
John Lydgate’s Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund

As Edmund's followers went seeking, calling out "Where are you, friend?" the head answered, "Here, here, here," until at last they found it, clasped between a wolf's paws, protected from other animals and uneaten. The villagers then praised God and the wolf that served him. It walked tamely beside them, before vanishing back into the forest.

Abbo of Fleury

Burial of St Edmunds, ca. 1130

Illustration

 274 x 187 mm

The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, New York

Abbo or Abbon of Fleury (c. 945 – 13 November 1004), also known as Saint Abbo or Abbon, was a monk and abbot of Fleury Abbey in present-day Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire near Orléans, France.

Abbo was born near Orléans and brought up in the Benedictine abbey of Fleury. He was educated at Paris and Reims, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. He spent two years (985-987) in England, mostly in the newly founded monastery of Ramsey, assisting Archbishop Oswald of York in restoring the monastic system. He was also abbot and director of the school of this newly founded monastery from 986 to 987.

Abbo returned to Fleury in 988, where he was selected abbot of Fleury. The new abbot was active in contemporary politics.

In 996 King Robert II (Robert the Pious) sent him to Rome to ward off a threatened papal interdict over Robert's marriage to Bertha. The royal petition for a dispensation was rejected. Abbo was influential in calming the excitement and fear about the end of the world which was widespread in Europe in 1000.

In 1004 he attempted to restore discipline in the monastery of La Reole, in Gascony, by transferring some of the monks of Fleury into that community. But the trouble increased; fighting began between the two parties and when Abbo endeavoured to separate them he was pierced in the side by a lance. He concealed the wound and reached his cell, where he died in the arms of his faithful disciple Aimoin. More on Abbo of Fleury

Luc Olivier Merson

Saint Edmund the Martyr King of England, c. 1872

Oil on canvas

Musèe de Rennes, France

Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 – 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator also known for his postage stamp and currency designs.

Born in Paris, France, he grew up in an artistic household. He studied under Gustave Chassevent at the École de Dessin and then Isidore Pils at the École des Beaux-Arts. Merson had his first work exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1866 and three years later was awarded the Prix de Rome. During the five years spent working in Italy, he concentrated on religious and historical subjects for his art.

Merson did major decorative commissions for such institutions as the Palais de Justice. His profile was raised considerably after being awarded a gold medal for his painting at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and in 1892 he was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts.

By 1900 Merson was designing postage stamps for the French post and the Monaco post. He was teaching at the Académie Vitti in 1903. By 1908 he had been contracted by the Bank of France to create a number of designs for some of the country's banknotes. Between 1906 and 1911 he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts. In recognition of his contribution to French culture, Merson was awarded the Legion of Honor.  More on Luc-Olivier Merson

A coinage commemorating Edmund was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex and a popular cult emerged. In about 986, Abbo of Fleury wrote of his life and martyrdom. The saint's remains were temporarily moved from Bury St Edmunds to London for safekeeping in 1010. His shrine at Bury was visited by many kings, including Canute, who was responsible for rebuilding the abbey: the stone church was rebuilt again in 1095. During the Middle Ages, when Edmund was regarded as the patron saint of England, Bury and its magnificent abbey grew wealthy, but during the Dissolution of the Monasteries his shrine was destroyed. Medieval manuscripts and works of art relating to Edmund include Abbo's Passio Sancti Eadmundi, John Lydgate's 14th-century Life, the Wilton Diptych, and a number of church wall paintings. More on Edmund the Martyr

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