Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey

Bury St Edmunds possessed one of the wealthiest abbeys in England. This three-volume collection of Latin documents relating to the abbey was edited with English side-notes by Thomas Arnold (1823-1900) and published between 1890 and 1896. Volume 1 contains lives of the Saxon king Edmund (martyred by the Vikings), the miracles attributed to him, and Jocelyn de Brakelond's late twelfth-century chronicle of the abbey. In the preface, Arnold examines the manuscript sources that survive from Bury, analyses the legend of St Edmund, and discusses similarities between the cult of Edmund and that of St Cuthbert at Durham. Jocelyn's biography of Abbot Samson (d. 1211) is one of the best-known manuscripts. Abbo of Fleury's Passio Sancti Eadmundi was commissioned by Ramsey Abbey around 985 and describes Edmund's death and sainthood. The accounts of his miracles were written by Herman the archdeacon around 1090 and by Abbot Samson a century later.