Deusdedit of Canterbury

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Saint Deusdedit of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
Enthroned {{{began}}}
Ended July 14, 664
Predecessor Saint Honorius
Successor Wighard
Consecration 655
Birth name Frithona
Born unknown
England
Died July 14, 664
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Sainthood
Venerated in Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion
Commemorated 14 July
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Saint Deusdedit (d. July 14, 664) was the sixth (and first Saxon) Archbishop of Canterbury.

[edit] Life

A late post-Conquest tradition says he was originally known as Frithona, possibly a corruption of Frithuwine.[1] He was consecrated by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, on 26 March 655 AD.[2] He was the first native born archbishop, as he was a West Saxon.[3][1] He probably owed his appointment to the see of Canterbury to a collaboration between Eorcenberht of Kent and Cenwalh of Wessex.[1] The name Deusdedit means "dedicated to God."[4] or, more literally, "God has given".

The see of Canterbury seems, at this time, to have been passing through a period of comparative obscurity;[5] for during the nine years of the pontificate of Deusdedit, all the new English Bishops, with one exception, were consecrated by Celtic or foreign Bishops. Deusdedit, however, did found a nunnery in the Isle of Thanet and had some share in the foundation of Medeshamstede Abbey, later Peterborough Cathedral, in 657.[6] Deusdedit was long overshadowed by Agilbert, who was bishop to the West Saxons.[7]

The Synod of Whitby which debated whether the Northumbrian Church should follow the Roman or the Celtic Church, was held in 664.[8] Due to his affliction with the plague, Deusdedit does not appear to have been present for the victorious Romanist party and his death took place only a few months later.[9] He was regarded as a saint after his death, and his feast day is July 14.[10] He was buried in the church of St. Augustine's in Canterbury, but was translated to the new abbey church in 1091.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press, p. 67-69. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  2. ^ Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 213. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  3. ^ Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5 p. 45
  4. ^ Ashely, Mike The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queens New York: Carroll & Graff 1998 ISBN 0-7967-0692-9 p. 218-219
  5. ^ a b Thacker, Alan "Deusdedit (d. 664)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online edition accessed November 7, 2007
  6. ^ Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5
  7. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 122
  8. ^ Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5 p. 79-81
  9. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 129
  10. ^ Delaney, John J. Dictionary of Saints Second Edition Doubleday: New York 2003 ISBN 0-385-13594-7 p. 177

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Saint Honorius		 Archbishop of Canterbury
655–664		 Succeeded by
Wighard
Persondata
NAME Deusdedit
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deusdedit of Canterbury
SHORT DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Canterbury
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 664
PLACE OF DEATH
v • d • e
List of Archbishops of Canterbury
pre-Reformation

Augustine · Laurentius · Mellitus · Justus · Honorius · Deusdedit · Wighard · Theodore · Bertwald · Tatwin · Nothelm · Cuthbert · Bregwin · Jaenbert · Æthelhard · Wulfred · Feologild · Ceolnoth · Ethelred · Plegmund · Athelm · Wulfhelm · Oda · Aelfsige · Birthelm · Dunstan · Æthelgar · Sigeric · Ælfric · Alphege · Lyfing · Aethelnoth · Edsige · Robert of Jumièges · Stigand · Lanfranc · Anselm · Ralph d'Escures · William de Corbeil · Theobald · Thomas Becket · Richard · Baldwin · Reginald fitz Jocelin · Hubert Walter · John de Gray · Stephen Langton · Walter d'Eynsham · Richard le Grant · Ralph Neville · John of Sittingbourne · John Blund · Edmund Rich · Boniface · William Chillenden · Robert Kilwardby · Robert Burnell · John Peckham · Robert Winchelsey · Thomas Cobham · Walter Reynolds · Simon Mepeham · John de Stratford · John de Ufford · Thomas Bradwardine · Simon Islip · William Edington · Simon Langham · William Whittlesey · Simon Sudbury · William Courtenay · Thomas Arundel · Roger Walden · Thomas Arundel · Henry Chichele · John Stafford · John Kemp · Thomas Bourchier · John Morton · Thomas Langton · Henry Deane · William Warham · Thomas Cranmer · Reginald Pole
post-Reformation (Anglican)
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