EDMUND RICH, Saint. - Archbishop of Canterbury, b. ca. 1180, d. 16 Nov. 1240. Also called Edmund of Abingdon from his birthplace in the county of Berks, or of Pontigny from that of his last dwelling (while the name Rich seems to be late and suspect: cf. Anal. Bolland., 46 [1928], p. 437), he was the son of a merchant named Edward or Reginald, who later, with the consent of his wife Mabel, withdrew to monastic life in the monastery of Eynsham. Educated as a Christian by his mother, at a very young age (about 15) he was sent with his brother Robert to study in Paris, where he became a master in the arts, which he taught for ca. 6 years, then returning to England, to Oxford.
He later returned again to Paris (the Vita would have it that this happened following a vision of his deceased mother, who urged him to devote himself to the study of sacred things instead of profane sciences), where he studied theology and was ordained a priest. It seems certain that he taught theology in Paris. Having returned to Oxford after being chancellor of the Church of York, in 1222 he was made treasurer of that of Salisbury and later by Gregory IX was charged with preaching the Crusade in England. For the defense of the rights of ecclesiastical liberty he had to sustain long struggles, especially against King Henry III and the magnates of the realm. As a consequence of these, in the last years of his life he found himself forced to abandon England and passed to the continent, to the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, then to Soisy, where he died in holiness.
An intense love of chastity, defended with harsh penances and mortifications from his boyhood, characterized his life, and in this regard it is narrated how he consecrated his virginity to the Madonna. He was favored in life with the gift of miracles and had frequent communications with the supernatural world. On 11 Jan. 1247 he was canonized by Innocent IV and a few months later (7 June) the translation of his relics took place.
He also left some writings: Speculum Ecclesiae (Bibliotheca Patrum, V, Paris 1624, p. 765), testimonies of his episcopal activity; there also remain to us the Constitutiones Provinciales v. Edmundi Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi circa an. 1236 (Macai, XXIII, 416-28), and a Summa Abendoniensis, unpublished. Other works, the fruit especially of his years of teaching, have been lost.
Bibliography6 works
Alberto Ghinato