Life of St. Edward the Confessor

When Henry II came to the throne of England he was hailed as ending the divisions caused by the Norman conquest, for both the Saxon and Norman royal lines met in him. To reinforce this new found unity, the cult of King Edward the Confessor was promoted, culminating in his canonisation in 1161. Shortly afterwards in 1163 the new saint's body was solemnly enshrined in Westminster Abbey by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, with several other bishops and earls present. On this occasion the honour of preparing a sermon was given to Aelred, the revered Abbot of Rievaulx. He took as his text "No man lights a lamp to place it under a bushel", but no copy of his sermon has yet been found. On the same occasion Aelred undertook to write the life of St. Edward.

Aelred's Life of St. Edward, largely based on the earlier history by Osbert of Clare, tells us very little about the historical personage of the king. In the finest tradition of English historians, Aelred gives only one date in the entire book, and that is 1066. The book is rather a hagiography, intended to inspire the reader to virtue and piety. It was widely circulated and became very well known, and survives in a great many manuscripts.

It is published for the first time in English by The Saint Austin Press as part of our commitment to resource the study of the central role of the Catholic faith in the life and history of our country.

This English translation of Aelred's work is illustrated with photographs of carvings in Westminster Abbey which depict scenes from the story.

Fr. Jerome Bertram is a priest of the Oxford Oratory, and editor of the forthcoming Honeycomb Series from The Saint Austin Press.

Life of St. Edward the Confessor, by Aelred of Rievaulx (trans. Fr. Jerome Bertram).
140 pages, paperback. ISBN 1 901157 75 X.
£9.95 ; $16.95 in the U.S.A.
Published by The Saint Austin Press.
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