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 To Him be health, honor and virtue // who always shining on the heavenly throne </poem> Iste confessor Domini sacratus <poem> 1 Iste confessor Domini sacratus, // Festa plebs cuius celebrat per orbem, 2 Qui pius, prudens, humilis, pudicus, // Sobrius, castus fuit, et quietus, 3 Ad sacrum cuius tumulum frequenter, // Membra languentum modo sanitati, 4 Unde nunc noster chorus in honorem // Ipsius, hymnum canit hunc libenter, 5 Sit salus illi, decus, atque virtus, // Qui supra cæli residens cacumen, </poem> This holy confessor of the Lord <poem> 1 This holy confessor of the Lord // the feast