Edward the Confessor and abbacies. However, his appointments were generally respectable. When Odda of Deerhurst died without heirs in 1056, Edward seized lands which Odda had granted to Pershore Abbey and gave them to his Westminster foundation; the historian Ann Williams observes that "the Confessor did not in the 11th century have the saintly reputation which he later enjoyed, largely through the efforts of the Westminster monks themselves". After 1066 there was a subdued cult of Edward as a saint, possibly discouraged by the early Norman abbots of Westminster, which gradually increased in the early 12th century . Osbert of Clare, the prior
Blessed Be the Host of the King of Heaven Blessed Be the Host of the King of Heaven Blessed Be the Host of the Heavenly Tsar (Благословенно воинство Небесного Царя), also known as the Ecclesia militans ("The Church Militant"), is a grand Russian Orthodox icon commemorating the conquest of Kazan by Ivan IV of Russia (1552). Measuring almost four meters in width, "Ecclesia militans" is one of the largest icons ever produced in medieval Russia. It has been attributed to Ivan's confessor Andrew (later known as Athanasius, Metropolitan of Moscow). The icon shows Ivan the Terrible as he follows the Archangel Michael in leading the triumphant Russian troops away