Edmund Rich
c. 1174 AD — November 16, 1240 AD · Feast day: November 16
Born in Abingdon to a merchant family, Edmund Rich became one of Oxford's first master lecturers before being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury — a position he initially refused. He championed the Magna Carta and ecclesiastical independence, clashed with King Henry III and papal legates alike, and died in France in 1240 after falling ill near Pontigny, where the monks he loved buried him.