In the summer, while I was in Cambridge to do some research on Edmund of Abingdon, the dean of St Edmund’s College, Father Ed, very kindly showed me round the college and over lunch discussed with me what he thought made Edmund a saint. I even got the chance to converse with Edmund himself:

I was interested in how different Edmund was from his namesake, the King of East Anglia and martyr Edmund

and wanted to explore how ideas about sainthood and canonisation changed and developed over the course of the Middle Ages.

This was the core of the lecture I gave at St Michael’s College, Vermont, at the invitation of the Edmundite brothers. I have uploaded a copy of the text I prepared for the lecture to my academia page https://www.academia.edu/92863062/Edmund_of_Abingdon_The_Making_of_a_Saint though the lecture I gave differed somewhat as I responded to my lively audience and went ‘off-piste’.

I am very grateful to the brothers for their wonderful hospitality and engaging conversation.