Saint Edward The Martyr

From FB:

“March 18th is the feast day of Saint Edward the Martyr, described by some as England’s “least important king.” The feast day marks the day of his assassination in 978 CE after only three years on the throne. Edward was described as, “…a young man of great devotion and excellent conduct. He was completely Orthodox, good and of holy life. Moreover, he loved God and the Church above all things. He was generous to the poor, a haven to the good, a champion of the Faith of Christ, a vessel full of every virtuous grace.”

While hunting with dogs, his stepmother, Queen Elfrida, offered Edward a glass of mead. While he was drinking it, he was stabbed in the back by one of the queen’s party.
As the murder was attributed to “irreligious” opponents (whereas Edward himself was considered a good Christian) he was glorified as Saint Edward the Martyr in 1001 by both the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican Churches. These religions considered him to be a “passion-bearer,” or one who faces his death in a Christ-like manner. Others saw him as part of the continuing Pagan tradition of the sacrificial king who must die for his people, in the manner of the Sun God who is sacrificed to darkness with the changing of the seasons, only to be reborn and rise again.
In Western myth and literature, such a figure represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. In such rites, the sacred king represented the spirit of vegetation – a divine John Barleycorn, who came into being in the Spring, reigned during the Summer, and ritually died at harvest time, only to be reborn at the Winter solstice to wax and rule again.

This spirit of vegetation was therefore a “dying and reviving god”. Osiris, Dionysus, Attis and many other familiar figures from Greek mythology and classical antiquity were re-interpreted in this mold.

The sacred king, such as the Corn King from the novel “Harvest Home” (1973) or virgin Police Sergeant Neil Howie from “The Wicker Man” film (1973) represent the human embodiment of the dying and reviving vegetation god. This “king” was supposed to have originally been an individual chosen to rule for a time, but whose fate was to suffer as a sacrifice, to be offered back to the earth so that a new king could rule for a time in his stead.”