Greensted: Medieval Church Dedications

Local saints are poorly represented. St Edmund, the king of East Anglia martyred by the
Danes at Hoxne in 870, has only two Essex dedications. Even Greensted juxta Ongar,
where his body is said to have lain overnight on its way to Bury St Edmunds, is dedicated to
another saint. St Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, murdered in 794, also has two. However
it is possible that St Ethelbert of Kent (died 616) was intended, as his cult was promoted by
St Paul’s cathedral. The few saints with closer Essex connections, St Cedd, St Osyth and St
Aylott, had no mediaeval dedications in the county. The reasons for Essex not honouring its
own - or, indeed, how the choice of dedicatory saint was originally made - are
undocumented and likely to remain obscure, though the mother cathedral of St Paul's
probably had a strong influence in the later Middle Ages. Much work remains to be done on
this fascinating and complicated subject.