Saint Earconwald or Erkenwald[a] (died 693) was a Saxon prince[1] and Bishop of London between 675 and 693.[2] He is the eponymous subject of one of the most important poems in the foundations of English literature[3] (thought to be by the Sir Gawain and the Green KnightPearl Poet). He was called Lundoniae maximum sanctus, 'the most holy figure of London',[4][5] and Lux Londonie, "the light of London".[6]
"we may still name him as the patron saint of London, [his]... cult survived for over eight hundred years, before entering the temporary darkness of the last four centuries".[4]
Earconwald teaching monks in a historiated initial from the Chertsey Breviary (c.1300)
Earconwald himself served as Abbot of Chertsey.[19] A charter states that in the late 7th century, he and Frithwald gave land in Streatham and Tooting Graveney to Chertsey Abbey; this grant was confirmed in the time of Athelstan in 933.[20]
A legend says that he often preached to the woodmen in the wild forests that lay to the north of London.[21]
A window in Wells Cathedral. Mostly original glass; the heads depict Pope Stephen, St Blaise, St Earconwald, and Pope Marcellus.
Bishop
In 675, Earconwald became Bishop of London, succeeding Bishop Wine.[22] He was the choice of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury.[19] It is also said that his selection as Bishop of London was at the insistence of King Sebbi.[23] An ancient epitaph says that Earconwald served as bishop of London for eleven years.[23]
He was granted the manor (landholding) of Fulham about the year 691 for himself and his successors as Bishop of London. The manor house was Fulham Palace. Nine centuries later, it was the summer residence of the Bishops of London.[24]
Orthodox Image of St Erkenwald: Erkenwald is considered a saint of the undivided church
While bishop, he contributed to King Ine of Wessex's law code, and is mentioned specifically in the code as a contributor.[25] King Ine named Earconwald as an advisor on his laws[26] and called Earconwald "my bishop" in the preface to his laws.[23] This collaboration highlights the profound influence of the Church on Anglo-Saxon legal frameworks. The laws were drafted at a time when there was no central police authority and the legal system was heavily based on wergeld—a system of restitution and compensation where penalties were determined by an individual's social status. The Church sought to mitigate the private feuds and violence that often arose from this system, in part by providing a right to sanctuary or asylum. Earconwald's direct involvement in shaping these laws demonstrates the Church's active role in establishing a more structured legal order and reducing private warfare.[27]
Current historical scholarship credits Earconwald with a major role in the evolution of Anglo-Saxon charters, and it is possible that he drafted the charter of Caedwalla to Farnham.[17]
The now lost Bishops Gate: a Roman gate in the walls of Roman London, repaired by St Earconwald and then named after him
When St Fursey (a Celtic cleric who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia) died in 650 he was buried in a church built specially by Earconwald in Péronne which has claimed Fursey as patron ever since.[28]
Archbishop Matthew Parker, who had the most important records on Earconwald at the end of the Counter-Reformation when they may otherwise have been lost
Earconwald is said to have spent a good deal on the early building of St Paul's, and in later times he almost occupied the place of a traditionary founder; the veneration paid to him was second only to that which was rendered to St Paul.[30]
Death and legacy
Earconwald died in 693[22] while on a visit to Barking Abbey. His remains were buried at a pilgrimage shrine in Old St Paul's Cathedral. The Vita of St Erkenwald recounts that as he died, an extraordinary fragrance filled his cell, as though the whole building had been drenched in the sweetest perfume.[31]
For a period immediately after the Norman Conquest, St Earconwald was marginalised in religious practice.[14] The Normans replaced most of the English ecclesiastical office holders, either immediately, or upon their death with the appointment of a Norman cleric as successor.[32]
The most important collection of early materials concerning Earconwald is the Miracula Sancti Erkenwaldi, preserved as a 12th-century manuscript in the Matthew Parker collection (Parker 161) at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.[33] The miracle in the poem is not in these materials, suggesting that the story post-dates this manuscript.
The text is thought to be the work of the Pearl Poet[36] whose identity is debated and uncertain. If it is true that it is within the set of this author's work, that would mean that text shares its author with:
Manuscript text in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
An illustration in the oldest copy of the same poem
The text and an illustration from the only surviving manuscript of that work: St Erkenwald may have provided inspiration for the same writer as for this text
The poem is significant in the way it deals with the spiritual welfare of people who could not hear the Christian message, and critics have compared it to the Beowulf poem in this regard.[37] The poem has survived in only one manuscript, British Library MS Harley 2250.[38]
The document was discovered in 1757 by Thomas Percy; the manuscript had been in the possession of Sir Humphrey Pitt of Balcony House, Shifnal, and Priorslee, Shropshire.[39]
Other important ancient literary materials narrowly avoided being burnt as kindling by household staff in the circumstances in which Percy was discovering this important cultural survival.[40]
The poem has been linked thematically and in plot terms with the Legend of Trajan and the Miracle of St Gregory; that legend itself being referred to in the Divine Comedy by Dante (Purgatorio (x. 73-75) and Paradiso (xx 106-117)).[33]
Within pictorial art, the Berne tapestry (copied from paintings by Roger van der Wayden of the Brussels Town Hall in the mid-1400s, which were lost in the conflicts of the 1600s) and apparently repeated in the Cologne Town Hall in the High Medieval period, provides a visual expression of the themes.[33]
The intention of this art was to remind judges to dispense impartial justice.
Feast day and translation day
Statue of Erkenwald at St Albans Cathedral
His feast day is 30 April, with successive translations (see below) being celebrated on 1 February, 13 May and 14 November (date of translation to the site of the last shrine in St Paul's Cathedral).[9][41][42] He is a patron saint of London.[43]
Prior to the Reformation, the anniversaries of his death as well as his translation were observed at St Paul's as feasts of the first class, by an ordinance of Bishop Braybroke in 1386.[23]
The following Antiphon and Collect for the Feast of St Erkenwald is recorded:
"De Sancto Erkenwaldo Episcopo. Antipho: O decus insigne, nostrum pastorumque benigne, O lux Londonie, pater Erkenwalde beate, Quem super astra Deum gaudes spectare per eum, Aspice letantes tua gaudia nos celebrantes, Et tecum vite fac participes sine fine. V. Ora pro nobis beate Erkenwalde. R. Ut digni efficiamur. "Oratio. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, apud quem est continua semper Sanctorum festivitas Tuorum, presta, quesumus, ut qui memoriam beati Erkenwaldi pontificis agimus, ab hostium nostrorum eruamur nequitia: et ad eternorum nos provehi concedas premiorum beneficia. Per. Pater noster. Ave Ma"
(Concerning Saint Erkenwald the Bishop.
Antiphon: O distinguished God, our kind shepherd, O light of London, blessed father Erkenwald, Whom above the stars you rejoice to behold God through him, Look upon us celebrating your joys, and live with you without end.
V. Pray for us blessed Erkenwald.
R. That we may become worthy.
Prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, with whom is the continual festival of Thy Saints, grant, we beseech, that we who commemorate the blessed high priest Erkenwald, may be delivered from the wickedness of our enemies: and grant us to advance to the eternal blessings of the first. Through [Jesus Christ]. Our Father. Ave Maria)[6]
Relics and shrine
The old St Paul's Cathedral's "greatest glory was the Shrine of St Erkenwald".[44]
The shrine rivalled that of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey,[45] Londoners were justly proud to have in their midst the entire body of their third bishop, Erkenwald; and the chapter of the cathedral church of St. Paul looked upon it as their greatest treasure.[46]
Shrine of St Erkenwald, relics removed 1550, lost as a monument in the Great Fire of London; engraving by Wenceslas Hollar (d. 1677)
It is said that on the death of St Erkenwald, there was a struggle between the canons of St Paul's and the monks of Chertsey as to who should bury him, during which the people of London brought his body to St Paul's. The people of London, bringing the body to the city, are supposed to have said:
"We are like strong and vigorous men who will... undermine and overturn cities heavily fortified with men and weapons before we give up the servant of God, our protector... we ourselves intend that such a glorious city and congregation shall be strengthened and honoured by such a patron."[4]
During the chase, a severe storm broke out, and the group was blocked from crossing the River Roding when the waters surged. However, a devout man among the Londoners called for everyone to stop and pray, asking God to decide who should bury the saint. The storm then instantly passed, candles around the body spontaneously relit, and the river's waters parted, allowing them to continue to London.[47]
Lady Chapel of St. Margaret's Church Barking . Window for St Erkenwald
On the journey to London with the body, the River Lea is said to have parted to make way for the dead saint.[21]
This local mania for miracles and relics is considered the first evidence that Saxon Londoners were becoming properly enthusiastic about Christianity.[48]
In the great fire in 1087 itt is said that the shrine was untouched[49].the relics were put in a silver shrine.[4] This shrine was put in a new, vast crypt, specially built to hold the "valuable remains of St. Erkenwald" in the wider new building which was built to replace the lost St Paul's by Bishop Maurice.[21] The bishop’s body had been buried in the crypt, and the vault above the tomb was decorated with paintings.[50]
The body was transferred to a shrine in the cathedral in 1140.[51] On November 14, 1148, the body was translated to a position near the high altar, close to the shrine of St. Mellitus, with the shrines of the two saints likely standing side by side on the altar beam.[52]
In 1314, Bishop Gilbert de Segrave laid the first stone of a new shrine to which the relics of Erkenwald were translated twelve years later.[53] This was a fixed structure on which the feretory was placed, and it was the commencement of the shrine that would stand until the Reformation.[54]
The relics were sealed in a leaden casket fashioned in the form of "a gabled house or church".[4] An inventory from 1245 describes the feretory as being of wood, covered with silver plates, and enriched with 130 precious stones.[55]
By the time his relics were placed behind the high altar of St Paul's they were supposed to have been with the couch in which he was carried in his declining years, fragments of which were associated with miracles.[4] In the time of Bede, it was recorded that miracles were effected by this couch.[56]
It is recorded that the servants of the church could only move the relics of St Erkenwald "clandestinely at night" because to do otherwise would have created hysteria among the crowds.[4]
The Curfew Tower of Barking Abbey. This was one of the three gateways to Barking Abbey, founded in 666 by Erkenwald, later Bishop of London.
The shrine was constantly enriched by canons and by the merchants of London, well into the 15th century, and miracles were reported at the site of the shrine into the 16th century.[56] The citizens of London took special pride in the magnificent shrine, and had a special devotion to St Erkenwald.[23] The reported increase in miracles made the shrine one of the most popular resorts for pilgrims. The end of the fourteenth century saw riches pouring into the coffers of the humble Saxon bishop. Offerings included twelve nobles from King John of France and a sapphire from Richard de Preston, a grocer, which was intended for the cure of eye infirmities and whose virtues were publicly proclaimed.[57]
Amongst the Ashmole manuscripts in the Bodleian Library is the following entry in Ashmole's own hand that concerns work on the shrine in 1448:
"Pondus Cancelli ferrei ante Altare Sancti Erkenwaldi facti Ao Dni. 1448 per manus Stephani Clampard, fabri, sumptibus Decani et Capituli elevati ibidem vi. die Junii anno predicto, 3438 lb. precii cujuslibet lb. cum ferra 4d. Summa 641. 2s.[Suspect this is 64 l. 2.s, ie £64/2/0, but the sums still don't work.]
Expens. in ferro 3438 lb. precio cujuslibet vs. Summa 8 li. 16 s. 8 d.
Item in vasos ferri ixc precio ut supra. Summa xlv s.
Item in Stannum ad dealban. Summa viij. li.
(The weight of the iron chancel in front of the Altar of St. Erkenwald made AD 1448 by the hands of Stephen Clampard, carpenter, at the expense of the Dean and Chapter raised there on 6 June of the aforesaid year, 3438 lb. the price of each lb. with iron 4d. Total 641. 2s.
"successful lawyers of London…on nomination as serjeants of law, would walk in procession to St Paul’s in order to venerate the physical presence of the saint."[59]
Catherine of Aragon made an offering at St Erkenwald's shrine as an act of diplomacy ahead of her first marriage into the House of Tudor.
When Catherine of Aragon made her entry into London, two days before her marriage to Prince Arthur, heir to the throne, she visited St Paul's[60] and made an offering there at the shrine of St Erkenwald.[61] The couple were married on St Erkenwald's Day, with the date likely selected to be in alignment with the saint's day.[62]
The St Paul's shrine had the relics removed during the Reformation; the empty shrine survived until the Great Fire of London.[63] In late 1549, at the height of the iconoclasm of the Reformation, Sir Rowland Hill altered the route of his Lord Mayor's day procession and said a de profundis at the tomb of Erkenwald.[64]
Stained glass window of erkenwald
There are differing accounts of what happened to his relics, with suggestions the relics were plundered[65] or incinerated,[66] or that he was reburied in St Paul's Cathedral at the east end of the choir,[23] or that they might have been "hidden to be recovered later".[67]
One commentary on the location of his relics summarises the understanding of this point as follows:
"his relics were either destroyed or hidden in a secure place by the faithful from the bloodthirsty iconoclasts. There is a modern speculation that the relics... may still rest at the east end of the present Cathedral choir next to the east altar. Perhaps one day... will reveal the fate of this holy man’s bodily remains."[68]
One commentator has observed that "destruction of this major shrine, located behind the high altar, severed the last connection between St Paul’s and its Saxon predecessor ... (the precise whereabouts have yet to be discovered)."[69]
The burials of both Earconwald and Sebbi quickly became the focus of saints’ cults and pilgrimages. This local mania for miracles and relics has been described as the first evidence that Londoners were becoming enthusiastic about Christianity and that newly returned religion had found its footing in the area.[citation needed]
Erkenwald's grave was a popular place of pilgrimage[citation needed] up to the Reformation.[70]
Wren moved the orientation of St Pauls when constructing the current Restoration Era building. He looked for the relics of Erkenwald which some traditions said were at the cathedral but did not find them.
After the Great Fire of London, Christopher Wren made archaeological investigations into the ruins to St Paul's Cathedral looking for the Saxon building Erkenwald had had built.[21] No specific archaeological evidence of Erkenwald's relics has ever been discovered during these extensive digs, forcing scholars to rely on documentary and artistic records and oral traditions which have conflicting senses of what happened.[71]
There were other examples of statecraft being associated with St Erkenwald in the Tudor period: in 1522, there was a state visit to London by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, hosted by Henry VIII. The entertainments included a pageant near Cheapside, where Charlemagne greeted the two heads of state and gave them gifts; Erkenwald was incorporated into the performance, with St Dunstan, Thomas Becket, John the Baptist, John of Gaunt all also featured.[73] Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are understood to have married on St Erkenwald's Day.[74]
Memorialisation of St Erkenwald
St Erkenwald window - St Dominic's Church - The Shrine of Our LadyCross in Battersea Park, erected to mark the year 2000. It stands on the site of a manor granted by King Caedwalla to St Erkenwald which is believed to have been the home of St Ethelburga.St Erkenwald's Church, Barking
The cult of St. Erkenwald was temporarily "marginalised" after the Norman Conquest, a period when Norman clerics replaced English ecclesiastical leaders; however, its revival at Old St. Paul's Cathedral was a profound statement of London's civic identity and a counterpoint to the royal focus on Westminster Abbey. The miracles associated with his cult were not just spiritual events but also served a practical, civic function by addressing the "educational and social needs" of the urban environment.[75]
An anonymous author, likely a canon of St Paul's, wrote the Vita sancti Erkenwaldi (VSE) by the early 12th century. The Miracula S. Erkwenwaldi (MSE) was probably composed by Arcoid, a canon of London and nephew of Bishop Gilbert the Universal. The composition of the MSE is dated to either late 1140 or early 1141.[76]
A key testament to Erkenwald's significance comes from William of Malmesbury, a historian from the early 12th century, who wrote:
London’s greatest saint... by no means undeserving of the favour of the canons because of the speed with which he answers[77]
During the mid-12th century, the veneration of Erkenwald was re-established at St Paul's Cathedral. This interest continued, and around 1180, Dean Richard of Ilchester (also known as Richard of Diceto) initiated a visitation of the cathedral's estates. The record of this visitation, known as Diceto's Domesday Register (or Liber B), originally contained a copy of the Vita sancti Erkenwaldi (Life of Saint Erkenwald), according to antiquarian William Dugdale.[78]
Historian E. Gordon Whatley suggested the Vita was included to provide historical context for early charters of St Paul's, which were also in the codex. The presence of the Vita around 1180 suggests a renewed focus on Erkenwald, which may have also been linked to efforts for his canonization, as a biography was a required document for such petitions. Further evidence of this renewed interest is seen in the fact that Master Henry of Northampton owned a maniple embroidered with portraits of both Bishop Richard de Belmeis and Erkenwald.[79]
An inventory of the cathedral from 1245 lists a manuscript of collects and missals, ending with an office for Erkenwald.[80]
A Middle English Vita of Erkenwald was composed c.1400, which has been linked to an attempt by the bishops of London to revive the cult, suggesting that Erkenwald retained his importance for London’s cathedral clergy throughout the Middle Ages.[81]
St Erkenwald has also been commemorated in the following ways:
in the Chapel of St Erkenwald and St Ethelburga at St Paul's Cathedral
with a cross in Battersea Park erected in the year 2000, which was placed on the site of a manor granted to St Erkenwald by King Ceadwalla, believed to the site of the home of St Æthelburg[83]
The British children's writer Abi Elphinstone chose "Erkenwald" as the name of a mythical kingdom in her 2021 book Sky Song.[94]
In 2025 there was a reading of the ancient poem at Soulton Hall by Harry Frost.[95]
Miracles
A 2000 stone plaque in London honouring St Erkenwald
There are 19 miracles associated with Erkenwald:[14]
a boy, who took refuge from his angry school master at the tomb of St Erkenwald, received a message he had not known until then
a man punished with sudden death for scorning the feast day of the saint
concerning a prisoner who was set free
how, amid the great burning of the city and church the pall on his tomb survived unharmed
concerning the building of a more splendid church in London, and concerning the mobility impaired person, who after journeying to many tombs of famous saints throughout the world, obtained healing from St Erkenwald
concerning the man who prevented his wife from honouring the saint, his punishment, and the restoration of his health in accordance with the saint's instructions
how he demonstrated, with the wonderful largesse of his merciful acts, that he was pleased with the honour being shown to him
concerning the blind girl whose sight was speedily restored
concerning the death of the drunken buffoon who got inside the shrine of St Erkenwald when it was under construction
concerning the doctor, healed of deadly sickness
concerning the blind woman who received her sight
concerning the man who was cured of his fever by the saint, who visited him in person
how one of the saint's painters (from when his body was in the crypt) violated his festival, was punished, the saint himself appertaining to him and declaring the reason for the punishment
concerning the deformed nun who was visited by St Ethelburga and St Erkenwald and made whole and undeformed
concerning the deaf girl whose hearing was restored
Other miracles associated with an invisible wheel and growing a construction beam are recorded.[96]
Pearl and St. Erkenwald: Some Evidence for Authorship C. J. Peterson The Review of English Studies. New Series, Vol. 25, No. 97 (Feb., 1974), pp.49–53
BROWETT, R. (2017). Touching the Holy: The Rise of Contact Relics in Medieval England. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 68(3), 493–509. doi:10.1017/S0022046916001494
E. Gordon Whatley, 'The Saint of London: The Life and Miracles of St. Erkenwald'. 1989, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies.
Mary Boyle, 'Converting Corpses: The Religious Other in the Munich Oswald and St Erkenwald'. Merton College, Oxford University
OLD ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL By WILLIAM BENHAM, D.D., F.S.A.
Hagiography into Art: A Study of "St. Erkenwald", T. McAlindon. Studies in Philology. Vol. 67, No. 4 (Oct., 1970), pp.472–494.
Heathens and Saints: St. Erkenwald in Its Legendary Context, Gordon Whatley. Speculum Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 1986), pp.330–363
"New Werke": St. Erkenwald, St. Albans, and the medieval sense of the past. Monica Otta.
Saint Erkenwald: Bishop and London archaeologist, John Clark. Published 1980
Citations
↑ "St. Erkenwald". St. Erkenwald Lodge 2808. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
1 2 3 Whatley, E. Gordon, ed. (1 January 1989). The Saint of London: The Life and Miracles of St.Erkenwald - Text and Translation: v. 58. Binghamton, NY: State University of New York at Binghamton, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. ISBN978-0-86698-042-5.
Andrew, Malcolm. "The Saint of London: The Life and Miracles of St. Erkenwald." Notes and Queries, vol. 41, no. 4, Dec. 1994, pp.541+.
Farmer, David Hugh (2004). Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Fifthed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-860949-0.
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third reviseded.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN0-415-24211-8.
Thornbury, Walter (1887). Old and New London. Volume 1. London: Cassell.
Walsh, Michael J. (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oats. ISBN978-0-86012-438-2.
Yorke, Barbara (2003). Martin Carver (ed.). The Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts to Christianity. The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe AD 300–1300. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. pp.244–257. ISBN1-84383-125-2.
Yorke, Barbara (2006). The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600–800. London: Pearson/Longman. ISBN0-582-77292-3.
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