Being wrapped up in the Relics of St Thérèse and Latin and other things, I forgot to pay my due respects to St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of the English (although he was technically half-Norman through his mother Emma, and his mother tongue was Norman-French, and he had lived in Normandy for 30 years since his mother had brought the young prince as a child refugee from the wars between the Saxons and the Danes!), who happens to be one of my favourite Saints. I think he should be, as he was in the days of the Angevins, the Patron Saint of this Isle. He at least had something to do with it. In a certain sense, he was ''bullied'' or ''forced'' into a religious life by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, but he got his ''revenge'' if that can be said of a Saint, by producing no children by Godwin's daughter, thrust upon him in marriage in 1045. He was a saintly man and a wise king, and his reign was good (even if he kept having to look over his shoulder at Godwin). I am yet, however, to read the famous Vita Ædwardi Regis. Tolkien probably knew it well. I believe, though I am not sure, that it was at around his time that the Sovereigns were first called the ''kinsman and advocate of the poor.'' Here is my translation of the Collect for his Mass. I did this in the Sacristy whilst going through the old Missal before Benediction this evening:
Deus, qui beatem regem Eduardum Confessorem tuum aeternitatis gloria coronasti: fac nos, quaesumus; ita eum venerari in terris, ut cum eo regnare possimus in caelis. Per Dominum. O God, who has crowned blessed Edward thy Confessor with eternal glory: make us, we beseech thee, so as to venerate him on earth that we may be able to reign with him in heaven. Through the Lord.
St Edward the Confessor, pray for us.
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