Edward the Confessor King Henry II and Pope Alexander III He was called 'Confessor' as the name for someone who was believed to have lived a saintly life but was not a martyr. In the 1230s King Henry III became attached to the cult of Saint Edward, and he commissioned a new life by Matthew Paris. Henry also constructed a grand new tomb for Edward in a rebuilt Westminster Abbey in 1269. He named his eldest son after him. Until about 1350, Edmund the Martyr, Gregory the Great and Edward the Confessor were regarded as English national saints, but Edward III preferred the
Iste confessor Iste confessor Iste confessor is a Latin hymn used in the Divine Office at Lauds and Vespers on feasts of confessors. It exists in two forms. "Iste confessor Domini sacratus" is the original 8th Century hymn and "Iste confessor Domini colentes" is a 1632 edition, published by Pope Urban VIII with improved Latin style. The hymn is written in Sapphic and Adonic meter. The earliest versions of the hymn can be found in 8th century manuscripts for the feast of St Martin of Tours (d.397) and this is reflected in the third verse which originally referred to the shrine of