Born in 1005, Edward was the son of King Ethelred “the Unready.” He spent nearly thirty years as a political exile in Normandy, his mother’s homeland. He succeeded as king in 1042 and was subsequently famed for his life of prayer, chaste marriage and love of the poor. He built St Peter’s Abbey in Westminster, where he and most of England’s monarchs are buried. He died in 1066. – CTS New Daily Roman Missal 2012, p 3058
