Edwin: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Edwin was born about 585 into the royal house of Deira in the north of England. Driven out as a young man, he spent years in exile, at last at the court of King Redwald of East Anglia, where his life was never safe. St Bede tells how one night a stranger promised him his kingdom if he would follow the counsel he would one day be given, and laid a hand on his head as a sign. In 616 Edwin won back his throne and became king of Northumbria, still a pagan. He married the Christian princess Ethelburga of Kent, and St Paulinus came north with her. After he was saved from an assassin’s poisoned dagger, and after Paulinus laid his hand on his head as the stranger had done, Edwin took counsel with his elders and turned to Christ. On Easter Day, 12 April 627, he was baptized with his household at York, in a small wooden church of St Peter, and many of his people followed. Bede says that in his reign a mother with her newborn child could walk safely from sea to sea. On 12 October 633 he fell in battle at Hatfield against the pagan Penda and Cadwalla, and the early English calendars honoured him as a martyr. The Church keeps his memory on 12 October (25 October on the Old Calendar). The faithful ask his prayers for rulers, for those seeking the faith, and for peace in the land.

What the faithful pray for

• those in authority and all who govern
• those searching for the true faith
• peace and safety in the land
• those in exile or in danger