April 30th - Feast of St. Erkenwald

Another purely English feast day was held in honor of St. Erkenwald.  An East Anglican of the royal family, St. Erkenwald established a monastery at Chertsey and a nunnery at Barking in Essex.  He set his sister St. Ethelburga as abbess over the nunnery.  St. Erkenwald was abbott at Chertsey until 675 when he became the Bishop of London a position he held for eleven years.  He died on April 30th, 693 hence the designation of his feast day.  He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral and his tomb was a site of pilgrimage.

As an educated man in a relatively uneducated world St. Erkenwald helped write and refine King Ine of Wessex's law code.  He worked on several charters for a number of towns. He is also credited with converting the King of the East Saxons to Christianity.  

The coming of Christianity to England brought up a theological anxiety over the fate of the pagans pre-dating Christianity.  A poem entitled St. Erkenwald written during the 14th century addresses this concern.  The basic plot is that during a renovation to a portion of the cathedral a tomb is found with an illegible inscription.  St. Erkenwald retires to his cell to pray through the night for guidance in interpreting the inscription and discovering the occupant of the tomb.  The next day the tomb is opened and the Holy Spirit breathes life into the corpse.  He is found to be a pre-Christian British judge.  He explains to St. Erkenwald that he has been in limbo from the time he died.  After a long discussion, St. Erkenwald sheds a single tear which baptized the corpse, released him from limbo and sent his soul to heaven.