Edmund, St.

Edmund, St. (prosperity, guardian) (841– 870) King and martyr, invoked against plague. Feast, 20 November. When the Danes invaded East Anglia in 870, they slew King Edward, who had been crowned king of the East Angles in 855. The king was shot with arrows and then beheaded. According to legend, when his followers sought his body, they found a huge gray wolf reverently watching over it. They bore it away, the wolf quietly following, and interred the saint in a town now known as Bury St. Edmund’s. In Christian art St. Edmund is portrayed with an arrow in his hand. Sometimes a gray wolf crouches at his feet.

SOURCE:

Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante