ST/EW/193
Edward the Confessor
- Gender
- Male
- Floruit (period)
- None
- Floruit date range
- 1003 - 1066
- Description
- King of the English, known as ‘the Confessor’ after his canonization in 1161. The cult of St Edward the Confessor was a product substantially of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Some ‘miraculous’ cures seem to have occurred at his tomb shortly after his burial. In 1160, Laurence, abbot of Westminster, supported by Henry II, and the English hierarchy, petitioned Pope Alexander III for Edward's canonization; the pope issued the necessary bull on 7 February 1161. Edward was to be inscribed in the catalogue of saints and numbered among the holy confessors. See Frank Barlow, ODNB, 'Edward [St Edward; known as Edward the Confessor]'.