ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 19th of September
WELCOME!
SAINT THEODORE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, CONFESSOR
After the death of St Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury, Oswi, king of Northumberland, and Egbert, king of Kent, sent a virtuous and learned priest, named Wighard, to Rome, that he might be consecrated bishop, and duly confirmed to that important see by the pope himself.
Wighard and most of those who attended him died in Italy of the plague; and Vitalian, who then sat in St Peter’s chair, pitched upon Adrian, abbot of Niridian, near Naples, to be raised to that dignity.
This abbot was by birth an African, understood Greek and Latin perfectly well, and was thoroughly versed in theology, and in the monastic and ecclesiastical discipline. But so great were his fears of the dignity to which he was called, that the pope was compelled by his entreaties and tears to yield to his excuses.
He insisted, however, that Adrian should find a person equal to that charge, and should himself attend upon and assist him in instructing the inhabitants of this remote island in the perfect discipline of the Church.
How edifying and happy was this contention - not to obtain - but to shun such a dignity there was then at Rome a Grecian monk, named Theodore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, a man of exemplary life, and well skilled in divine and human learning, and in the Greek and Latin languages, who was sixty-six years old. Him Adrian presented to the pope, and procured him to be ordained bishop, promising to bear him company into England.
Pope Vitalian consecrated him bishop, on Sunday the 26th day of March, in 668, and recommended him to St Benedict, who had then come a third time to Rome, but whom the pope obliged to return to England with St Theodore and Adrian, in order to be their guide and interpreter.
They set out on May 27; went by sea to Marseilles; and from thence by land to Arles, where they were entertained by the archbishop John, till Ebroin, mayor of the palace, had sent them permission to continue their journey. St Theodore passed the winter at Paris with the bishop Agilbert, who had formerly been bishop of Winchester, in England. By his conversation the new archbishop informed himself of the circumstances and necessities of the church of which he was going to take upon him the charge: he also learned the English language.
Egbert, king of Kent, hearing his new archbishop was arrived at Paris, sent one of the lords of his court to meet him, who, having obtained leave of Ebroin, waited on him to the port of Quentavic, in Ponthieu, now called St Josse-sur-Mer. Theodore falling sick, was obliged to stay there some time. As soon as he was able to travel, he proceeded on his voyage, with St Benedict, and took possession of his see of Canterbury on Sunday, May 27, 669.
Adrian was detained in France some time by Ebroin, who suspected that he was sent by the emperor to the kings of England on some designs against the French. Ebroin being at last satisfied, he was permitted to follow St Theodore, by whom he was made abbot of St Peter’s at Canterbury.
St Theodore made a general visitation of all the churches of the English nation, taking with him the abbot Adrian. He was everywhere well received, and heard with attention; and, wherever he came, he established sound morality, confirmed the discipline of the Catholic Church in the celebration of Easter, and introduced everywhere the Gregorian or Roman chanting in the divine office, till then known in few of the English churches, except those of Kent.
St Theodore was the first archbishop of Canterbury, after St Augustine, who presided over the whole church of England. He was founder of a most famous school at Canterbury, which produced many great men: for Theodore and Adrian themselves expounded the scriptures, and taught all the sciences, particularly astronomy and ecclesiastical arithmetic for calculating Easter; also how to compose Latin verses. Many under them became as perfect in the Latin and Greek languages as they were in their own tongue. Britain had never been in so flourishing a condition as at this time since the English first set foot in the island.
St Theodore was twenty-two years archbishop, and died in 690, aged fourscore and eight years; his memory is honoured on September 19, which was that of his death. He was buried in the monastery of St Peter, which afterwards took the name of Saint Augustine.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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