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
Justin the Confessor Justin the Confessor Justin the Confessor (died 269 in Rome) was a Christian martyr in the Roman Empire. He is honoured as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Justin the Confessor lived in the city of Rome at the time of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. It is believed that Justin was martyred, either under Emperor Claudius II or under Emperor Valerian, the latter being more likely. Justin was ordained as a priest by Pope Sixtus II. As a presbyter he led the Christian community of Rome, coming to know personally many important early Christians who