{"id":35413,"date":"2026-05-16T18:48:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35413"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:48:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:48:59","slug":"st-edmund-celebrations-bring-music-processions-and-medieval-life-to-abingdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35413","title":{"rendered":"St Edmund Celebrations Bring Music, Processions and Medieval Life to Abingdon"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nAbingdon marked the 850th anniversary celebrations of St Edmund of Abingdon with a packed programme of activities across the Market Place, churches, and St Ethelwold\u2019s House. The day began with prayers at Christ Church before a procession set off through the town.<\/p>\n

The procession first stopped at Our Lady and St Edmund Church, where participants were welcomed by Father Jamie. There they sang St Edmund\u2019s Hymn and shared a prayer dedicated to the town\u2019s famous saint.
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\nThe procession then continued to St Nicolas Church.
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\nOutside, they were greeted by a group of friendly Vikings who had set up on the Market Place for the day.
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\nThe early medieval re-enactors spent the day demonstrating crafts, sharing aspects of medieval life, and showing visitors examples of weapons and equipment.
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\nThere were talks throughout the day, including one on the life and legacy of St Edmund by Will Donaldson, former chaplain of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
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\nGuided walks also took place. This one was the Lost Abbey Walk, led by Dr Philip Kenrick.
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\nMusic could be heard throughout the town during the day on the Market Place, with performances by different groups, alongside a piano concert at St Michael\u2019s Church given by Marcus Gabriel Ecsegby.
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\nThere was also a talk on medieval cakes, while cakes were on sale in the Market Place. In the museum undercroft there was a wonderful spread of food \u2014 including St Edmund\u2019s Anniversary Ale brewed by Loose Cannon Brewery of Abingdon.
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\nThe Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers also performed and appeared to be enjoying the food and St Edmund\u2019s ale.
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\nAt St Helen\u2019s Church there was gentler music through the day, art activities, and an exhibition of photographs by Martin Warnickier. There was a newly painted icon of St Edmund on display. That can also be seen tomorrow afternoon at St Helen’s from 12:00 – 4:00 pm.<\/p>\n

Well done to Sally Mears and others for organising this day. There is still a ceilidh at St Michael’s Church this evening at 7 pm, and a Choral Evensong for St Edmund at St Helen’s Church at 5:30 pm on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abingdon marked the 850th anniversary celebrations of St Edmund of Abingdon with a packed programme of activities across the Market Place, churches, and St Ethelwold\u2019s House. The day began with prayers at Christ Church before a procession set off through the town. The procession first stopped at Our Lady and St Edmund Church, where participants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}