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
Basil the Confessor Basil the Confessor Basil the Confessor (died 750) was an Eastern Orthodox saint who lived in the 8th century and was tortured by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V. Basil was a monk who has elected Bishop of Parium. In February 754 Emperor Constantine V convened a synod at Hieria to condemn the veneration of icons. Basil refused to sign the orders for their destruction. With his pupil Procopius, Basil was imprisoned. Both languished in prison until the death of the emperor in 741, when they were released. Basil died in 750 and is venerated February 28 (New Style; March 13