Sainthood
Edith was greatly celebrated for her learning, her beauty and her sanctity. Minor miracles were reported shortly after her death. A week after she died, Edith appeared in glory to her mother and told her that the Devil had tried to accuse her, but that she had broken his head. The early mediaeval writer Goscelin reported that thirteen years later she appeared in visions to Dunstan and others, to inform them that her body was uncorrupted in the grave. He stated that Dunstan opened her tomb in the presence of her mother, and that its "fragrant perfumes gave off the breath of paradise". However, the dating of this event must be doubted, as Dunstan himself died only four years after Edith. It has been suggested that Goscelin may have chosen to enhance Edith's story by associating Dunstan with her translation.
Following her exhumation and subsequent reburial, Edith's thumb was enshrined separately and became an important relic. She was elevated to sainthood on the initiative of her brother Ethelred and her cause was supported by her nephew, Edmund Ironside. Edmund's successor, Cnut the Great, was renowned for his veneration of Edith. Goscelin wrote that while Cnut was crossing the North Sea from England to Denmark, his fleet suffered a terrible storm and fearing for his life, he appealed to Edith. The storm calmed and on his return to England, Cnut visited Wilton to give thanks for his rescue, "with solemn gifts, and published this great miracle with prolific testimony", subsequently ordering a golden shrine to Edith to be erected at the abbey.
Edith became the focus of a major cult in Wilton and an important national saint. Goscelin wrote her Life, under the title Vita Edithe, in about 1080. The community at Wilton, in looking to her as its heavenly patron, remembered her as a royal lady who had been dedicated to its protection. In his Liber Confortatorius, Goscelin wrote that he often thought of Edith and felt her presence.
It is known that three churches were dedicated to Edith, at Baverstock near Wilton, Bishop Wilton in Yorkshire and at Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire. In the 16th century, after some five hundred years, the third of these churches was rededicated to St Mary, but the other two dedications survive. Another eighteen churches in England are dedicated to an unspecified St Edith, and it has been suggested that most of these dedications are intended for Edith of Wilton. According to The Calendar of the Anglican Church, "There are twenty-one churches dedicated in this name in England, eight of which are in Lincolnshire, and three in Warwickshire. It is now impossible to assign them to their respective saints, especially as two were located in the same county; the one whom William of Malmesbury mentions with most honour was S. Editha of Wilton, whose festival he relates was in his time kept in several parts of the kingdom with great solemnity; probably the majority, if not all, these churches are named in her honour".
Wilton Abbey, which was dedicated to St Edith, is typically described in the later Middle Ages as "the convent of the house and church of St Editha of Wilton" or as the "monastery of St Mary and St Editha of Wilton".
Herfeast day is on 16 September, the day following the anniversary of her death. It has also been reported as 15 September, the anniversary itself.
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