November 20
The saints and feasts remembered on November 20, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint Edmund the Martyr
Christian king of East Anglia killed by the Viking Great Army in 869
Edmund was king of East Anglia, in eastern England, in the ninth century. Almost nothing is certain about his early life, but coins struck in his name show that he reigned for some years. In 869 a large Viking army that had already overrun much of England wintered in his kingdom. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says only that Edmund fought them and was killed.
About a century later, the monk Abbo of Fleury wrote a fuller account, which he said came through Archbishop Dunstan from a man who had carried Edmund’s armour. In it the king refuses to rule under a pagan overlord and is tied to a tree, shot with arrows and beheaded. Abbo also tells a legend of a wolf guarding the severed head.
His memory spread fast: within a few decades, coins honouring him were minted in lands by then ruled by the Danes. His shrine grew into the town of Bury St Edmunds, and he is remembered as a king who would not trade his faith for his life.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:10 · BSB
A prayer
Faithful God, you gave Edmund, king of East Anglia, the courage to stay true to you when his kingdom was lost and his life was taken. When we face fear or pressure to give up what we believe, keep us steady and faithful, and turn even our losses into witness to your love. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.