The Alleged Incorruption of the Body of St Edmund, King and Martyr

Abstract

Bede, writing about St Cuthbert, quotes Psalm 16:10 ‘neither wilt Thou [i.e. God] suffer thine Holy One to see corruption’ (Jaager 1935, 121 line 821; Rollason 1989, 38). It was believed in the medieval west that incorruption of the body after death was a sign of especial sanctity. Ælfric remarked that England was rich in the incorrupt bodies of saints (Skeat 1900, 333 lines 250–63). Bede dwells on the incorruption of St Æthelthryth of Ely (Plummer 1896, i, 245–6, Book iv ch. 1), besides that of St Cuthbert (ibid., 1, 276–7 Book iv ch. 30), and also mentions the incorruption of St Æthelthryth's sister, Æthelberga (ibid., i, 144 Book iii ch. 9), and of St Fursey (ibid., 1, 168 Book iii ch. 19). Felix alleges that the body of St Guthlac of Crowland (died AD 715) was incorrupt (Colgrave 1956, 160–2 ch. 51; see below), and Abbo of Fleury claimed the same distinction for St Edmund, king of East Anglia (AD 841–69; Winterbottom 1972, 82 ch. 14 lines 1–11, 85 ch. 15 lines 58–61).