Solemnity of St Edmund of Abingdon
Given at St Edmunds College, Ware on 15 November.
In his rich work, The History of St Edmund’s College, Fr Nicholas Schofield quotes from the homily preached by Bishop Cahill of Portsmouth on 24th May 1905, ‘It seems to me that gentleness is distinctly the characteristic quality of St Edmund’s life. Though I know not their reason for choosing him, their early action in setting the form and giving a character to this College seems to me to have shown their appreciation of his gentleness; and therefore that their desire was that this gentleness should be the character of the training to be given in this place.’ He recalls this description of the ‘gentle St Edmund’ from the day in 1869 when Cardinal Manning announced that the seminary would transfer to London since: ‘It is now time that they should leave the gentle sway of St Edmund, and pass out into the stern discipline of St Thomas.’ If Cardinal Manning thought that the divines needed a sterner regime, the same debate had taken place in 1793 between Bishop Douglass and Bishop Gibson, formerly Rector of Douai, who desired that the new seminary in England would be on the harsh, windswept moors of Ushaw, rather than in gentle Hertfordshire countryside because he thought that the academy at Old Hall Green was too worldly. The same discussion would take place again when Cardinal Bourne brought the seminary back to St Edmund’s, and sought to develop it on the Sulpician model. The Westminster clergy were resistant and Mgr Bernard Ward argued that St Edmund’s, based on the Douai tradition, offered ‘something much broader’[1], providing boys with ‘a reasonable amount of liberty, increasing as they grow older, to habits of self-command and true manliness, based on solid Christian principles.’[2] Whether you think that your education at the College was characterised by the gentleness of St Edmund, or excessively worldly, or whether it developed these gifts, I leave to your later discussion.
As a scholar at Paris and Oxford who was familiar with the thought of Peter Lombard and Aristotle, St Edmund, like many boys, had the habit of ‘nodding off’ during lectures; not though because of distraction, but rather because of long prayer vigils and strict asceticism. In a dream he received a vision from his dead mother, who said that it was God’s will that he study theology. This he found more enriching, and soon developed a deep devotion to Christ’s Passion and the Cross. In Isaiah’s suffering servant, who acted for justice, spoke the truth and did the will of God, St Edmund recognised the meekness of Jesus in face of his persecutors. Meekness does not imply weakness, but rather power and strength exercised under the control of and directed by the gifts of the Spirit so that the truth may be proclaimed. Just as Jesus teaches: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’ (Mt 5:5), this promise is made to those who walk in footsteps inspired by St Edmund, and receive the gift of gentleness as a fruit of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation.
A man of deep prayer, the saint taught that: 'five words well said are better than five thousand said without devotion’.[3] In his early years, he wrote his treatise Speculum Ecclesiae, based on the scriptures and the mystical theology of Hugh of St Victor, as a guide for monks to grow in contemplative prayer. Much of the work focuses on the detail and attention which the monk must give to grow in receptivity to God’s grace by spiritual preparation, discipline and asceticism. This was part of his strict lifestyle. This work becomes an important text in the development of English mysticism and in the 14th century leads to spiritual guides not only for monks but also devout lay people.
The development of the spiritual life is at the heart of an education in this College. In words taken from Edmund’s pupil, Richard of Chichester, later his diocesan Chancellor, we must grow to know him more clearly, more importantly love him more dearly, and then follow him more nearly. Pope Francis writes in his recent letter on evangelisation: ‘The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart. If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us. But if this is to come about, we need to recover a contemplative spirit which can help us to realize ever anew that we have been entrusted with a treasure which makes us more human and helps us to lead a new life. There is nothing more precious which we can give to others.’ (EG 264)
By growth in virtue, the person who is gentle develops the capacity to see the world with the gaze of Jesus and the eyes of mercy. As we prepare to enter through the Door of Mercy into this special year, we are invited to be merciful because we have been shown mercy by God. St Edmund was compared by his biographer with St Martin, because he was tireless in works of mercy and reached out to the poor of Christ, and clothed them in their need.[4] We are invited to live the corporal works of mercy as he did. We are always to be ‘missionary disciples’ (to use a favourite phrase of Pope Francis).
If gentleness is one characteristic of St Edmund, then boldness and strength are others. He spoke the truth with gentleness and was not afraid to promote peace, reform ecclesiastical discipline and defend the rights of the Church against King Henry III. In so doing he entered into the way of the Cross in a union of both devotion and suffering.
Bishop Cahill, in the homily mentioned earlier, elaborated further with reference to Cardinal Manning that, in spite of the earlier history of persecution: ‘Martyrdom is clearly not in the blood of St Edmund. God has so ordained it that martyrdom shall not be a part of the training here, but that the training shall be especially that of gentleness. But in every decade since our first founders came over from France—and we used to count our stay here by decades of years—there have been in this College shining examples of Christian virtues amongst laymen and priests.’ Whilst the tradition is true today, a Catholic Christian who proclaims the truths of the Gospel is likely to lead to some form of martyrdom, whether this is resistance in the workplace, media reaction or through the struggle of trying to bring Christian virtue into professional and family life. The invitation on this Feast is to be merciful disciples of Jesus who speak the truth in love and witness, both to the long tradition of the martyr priests of Douai by holding firm in faith and to the gentle St Edmund in the midst of the fragility of life.
Bishop John Sherrington