44. SAINT EDGAR «THE PEACEABLE», KING OF ENGLAND

Our holy Father Edgar was born in 943, the son of King Edmund and the grandson of St. Aelgifu. He succeeded to the throne after the death of his brother Edwy in 959, having already been elected king of Mercia and Northumbria in 957. His early life was marred by sin, which is why St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury did not allow him to wear his crown from the beginning of his reign until he was thirty years old. Accepting this penance with humility, St. Edgar was crowned for a second time in Bath Abbey in 973, when he accepted the allegiance of rulers in Wales, Scotland and the Danelaw.

St. Edgar's reign marked the peak of the English Orthodox monarchy. The king worked very closely with the Church and helped in the foundation of about thirty monasteries. He passed just laws, and maintained the peace, hence his name: «Edgar the Peaceable».

St. Edgar died in 975, and was buried at Glastonbury. In 1052, when his tomb was opened, his body was found to be incorrupt and emitted blood.

St. Edgar is commemorated on July 8.

Holy Father Edgar, pray to God for us!

(Sources: William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; Lives of several tenth-century saints; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978, pp. 119–120)