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
George the Confessor council and was subsequently exiled by Emperor Constantine V. He later returned from exile and attended the restoration of the veneration of icons at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. George criticised the restoration of iconoclasm at the onset of the reign of Emperor Leo V, and once more refused to remove icons from churches within his diocese. The emperor banished George, who died in exile in 814. For his dedication to the Orthodox Church, George was named a Confessor of the Faith. George the Confessor Saint George the Confessor (Greek: "Ἅγιος Γεώργιος ὁ Ὁμολογητής"), also known as Saint