Edmund of Abingdon (c. 1175–1240), archbishop of Canterbury (1233–40), died on 16 November 1240 at Soisy-en-Brie, about fifty miles southeast of Paris. After his body was embalmed, it was carried in procession to the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy to be buried, as he had requested. His last journey took six days, and Edmund's body performed its first miracles among the crowds of Burgundian peasants who sought cures as the body progressed to Pontigny. The enthusiasm of the crowds is surprising since this English archbishop could not have been well known in Burgundy. Whatever the origins of his popular and local veneration in France, this article is concerned with the reception of Edmund's cult in England and the meaning of his sanctity in the English political and religious context.

Edmund's fame as a powerful healer continued to grow after his burial. While we might expect English devotion to Edmund to have been inhibited by his burial in France, in fact, the English were no less enthusiastic than the French for Edmund in the years leading up to his canonization on 16 December 1246. Although there were multiple cures in England before Edmund's canonization, the eye-witness testimony collected as part of the canonization proceedings has been lost. Simon Langton, archdeacon of Canterbury and a papal commissioner for Edmund's process, indicated in a letter of 6 June 1246 that a number of ‘major miracles’ had occurred in England.