Deusdedit (died ) was a medieval
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, the first native-born holder of the
see of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
. By birth an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death, probably from
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
. Deusdedit's successor as archbishop was one of his priests at Canterbury. There is some controversy over the exact date of Deusdedit's death, owing to discrepancies in the medieval written work that records his life. Little is known about his episcopate, but he was considered to be a
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
after his demise. A
saint's life was written after his
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s were moved from their original burial place in 1091.
Life
A post-
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
tradition, originating with
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Englan ...
,
[ gives Deusdedit's original name as ''Frithona'', possibly a corruption of Frithuwine.][Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' pp. 67–69] He was consecrated by Ithamar
In the Torah, Ithamar () was the fourth (and the youngest) son of Aaron the High Priest."Ithamar", '' Encyclopaedia Biblica'' Following the construction of the Tabernacle, he was responsible for recording an inventory to ensure that the constructed ...
, Bishop of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.
The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...
, on 26 March[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 213] or perhaps 12 March 655.[ He was the sixth archbishop after the arrival of the Gregorian missionaries,][ and the first to be a native of the island of Great Britain rather than an Italian, having been born a West Saxon.][Hindley ''Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons'' p. 45] One reason for the long period between the Christianization
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
of the Kentish kingdom from Anglo-Saxon paganism
Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centurie ...
in about 600 and the appointment of the first native archbishop may have been the need for the schools established by the Gregorian mission
The Gregorian missionJones "Gregorian Mission" ''Speculum'' p. 335 or Augustinian missionMcGowan "Introduction to the Corpus" ''Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature'' p. 17 was a Christian mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 to conver ...
aries to educate the natives to a sufficiently high standard for them to take ecclesiastical office.[Lapidge "Deusdedit" ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 140] Deusdedit probably owed his appointment to the see of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
to a collaboration between Eorcenberht of Kent
Eorcenberht of Kent (also Ærconberht, Earconberht, or Earconbert) (died 14 July 664) was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent from 640 until his death, succeeding his father Eadbald.
The Kentish Royal Legend (also known as the Mildrith legen ...
and Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 642 to c. 645 and from c. 648 until his death, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', in c. 672.
Penda and Anna
Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils baptis ...
.[ The name Deusdedit means "God has given" in Latin,][Müller ''God the Teacher of Mankind'' p. 201] and had been the name of a recent pope,[ Deusdedit, in office from 615 to 618;][Sharpe "Naming of Bishop Ithamar" ''English Historical Review'' p. 890] it was the practice of many of the early medieval Saxon bishops to take an adopted name, often from recent papal names.[ It is unclear when Deusdedit adopted his new name, although the historian Richard Sharpe considers it likely to have been when he was consecrated as an archbishop, rather than when he entered ]religious life
Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life (religious and se ...
.[
The see of Canterbury seems at this time to have been passing through a period of comparative obscurity.][Thacker "Deusdedit" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''] During Deusdedit's nine years as archbishop, all the new bishops in England were consecrated by Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
or foreign bishops, with one exception:[ Deusdedit consecrated Damianus, Ithamar's successor as Bishop of Rochester.][ Deusdedit did, however, found a ]nunnery
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...
in the Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet () is a peninsula forming the easternmost part of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island.
Archaeological remains testify to its settlement in anc ...
and helped with the foundation of Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its ...
Abbey, later Peterborough Abbey
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...
, in 657.[Hindley ''Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons'' p. 96] He was long overshadowed by Agilbert
Agilbert ( 650–680) was the second bishop of the West Saxon kingdom and later Bishop of Paris. He is venerated as a saint within the Catholic Church, with his feast day falling on 11 October.
The date and place of Agilbert's birth are unknown ...
, bishop to the West Saxons,[Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 122] and his authority as archbishop probably did not extend past his own diocese and that of Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, which had traditionally been dependent on Canterbury.[
The ]Synod of Whitby
In the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite ins ...
, which debated whether the Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
n church should follow the Roman or the Celtic method of dating Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
, was held in 664.[Hindley ''Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons'' pp. 79–81] Deusdedit does not appear to have been present, perhaps because of an outbreak of the plague prevalent in England at the time.[Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 129]
Death
Deusdedit died at some time around the Synod of Whitby, although the exact date is disputed.[ ]Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, in the ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict be ...
'', states that "On the fourteenth of July in the above mentioned year, when an eclipse was quickly followed by plague and during which Bishop Colman
Colmán or Colman is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Medieval Irish people
* Colmán Bec (died ''c''. 585), Irish dynast
* Colmán mac Cobthaig (died ''c''. 622), Irish king
* Colmán mac Lénéni (died ''c'' ...
was refuted by the unanimous decision of the Catholics and returned to his own country, Deusdedit the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury died."[Bede ''History of the English Church'' p. 203] A solar eclipse occurred on 1 May 664, which would appear to make the date of Deusdedit's death 14 July 664. But that conflicts with Bede's own information earlier in the ''Historia'',[Abels "Council of Whitby" ''Journal of British Studies'' pp. 20–22] where he claims that Deusdedit's predecessor, Honorius, "died on the 30th of September 653, and after a vacancy of 18 months, Deusdedit, a West Saxon was elected to the archiepiscopal see and became the 6th Archbishop. He was consecrated by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, on the 26th of May, and ruled the see until his death nine years, four months, and two days later."[Bede ''History of the English Church'' p. 176] If this information is accurate, then Deusdedit must have died on 28 July 664.[ Various methods of reconciling these discrepancies have been proposed. ]Frank Stenton
Sir Frank Merry Stenton, FBA (17 May 1880 – 15 September 1967) was an English historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society (1937–1945).
The son of Henry Stenton of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was edu ...
argues that Bede began his years on 1 September; thus the date of Honorius' death should be considered 30 September 652 in modern reckoning. Further, Stenton argued that medieval copyists had introduced an error into the manuscripts of the ''Historia'', and that Bede meant that the length of Deusdedit's reign was 9 years and 7 months, rather than 9 years and 4 months as stated in the manuscripts. From this, he concludes that Deusdedit's death occurred in the year September 663 to September 664. This would make the year of death correct according to the eclipse, but still leave a discrepancy on the specific day of death, for which Stenton asserted the length calculations given by Bede were more correct than the actual death date given. Thus Stenton concluded that Deusdedit died on 28 October 663.[
Other historians, including Richard Abels, P. Grosjean, and Alan Thacker, state that Deusdedit died on 14 July 664.][Wood "Bede's Northumbrian Dates" ''English Historical Review'' p. 289] The main argument was put forward by Grosjean, who claimed that Bede had the consecration date wrong, as 26 May was Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...
in 655, not a date that would normally have been chosen for a consecration. Grosjean argues that the best method for resolving the conflicts is to just take 14 July 664 as the date of death, and figure backwards with the length of reign given by Bede, which gives a consecration date of 12 March 655.[ Thacker and Abels agree generally, although Thacker does not give a specific consecration date beyond March.][ Abels adds to Grosjean's arguments Bede's association of Deusdedit's death with that of King Eorcenberht, which Bede gives as occurring on the same day. Bede states that the plague of 664 began soon after the eclipse on 1 May. Nothing in Bede contradicts the date of 14 July 664 for Eorcenberht; therefore, Abels considers that date to be the best fit for the available data.][ The historian D. P. Kirby agrees that Deusdedit died in 664, although he does not give a precise date within that year.][Kirby "Bede and Northumbrian Chronology" ''English Historical Review'' p. 519]
Most historians state that Deusdedit died of the plague that was prevalent in England at the time.[Maddicott "Plague" ''Past and Present'' p. 15] Because Bede records the death of Deusdedit shortly after he mentions the outbreak of the plague, the historian J. R. Maddicott asserts that both Deusdedit and Eorcenberht were struck suddenly with the disease and died quickly.[ Bede is not specific on the type of plague, but Maddicott argues that because of the time of its eruption and the way it arrived in England it was probably ]bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...
. Although Bede does not describe either Eorcenberht or Deusdedit's symptoms he does discuss another victim of the 664 disease, who suffered from a tumour on his thigh, resembling the characteristic groin swellings of bubonic plague.[Maddicott "Plague" ''Past and Present'' pp. 20–22]
Legacy
Except for the bare facts of his life, little is known about Deusdedit.[ Deusdedit's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury, ]Wighard
Wighard (or Wigheard; died between 664 and 667) was a medieval Archbishop-elect of Canterbury. What little is known about him comes from 8th-century writer Bede, but inconsistencies between various works have led to confusion about the exact ...
, had been one of his clergy.[Abels "Council of Whitby" ''Journal of British Studies'' p. 14] Deusdedit was regarded as a saint after his death, with a feast day of 14 July,[Delaney ''Dictionary of Saints'' p. 177] although the Bosworth Psalter, a late 10th or early 11th-century psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...
produced at , gives a date of 15 July.[ His feast day is designated as a major feast day, and is included along with those of a number of other early Canterbury archbishops in the Bosworth Psalter.][Kornhammer "Origin of the Bosworth Psalter" ''Anglo-Saxon England 2'' p. 175] Deusdedit was buried in the church of St Augustine's in Canterbury, but was translated
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
to the new abbey church in 1091. A hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
, or saint's biography, on Deusdedit was written by Goscelin after the translation of his relics, but the work was based mainly on Bede's account;[ the manuscript of the ''De Sancto Deusdedit Archiepiscopo'' survives as part of ]British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
manuscript (ms) Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
Vespasian B.xx.[Staff "Full Description: Cotton Vespasian B.xx" ''Manuscripts Catalogue''] Because of the late date of the ''Sancto'', Bede's ''Historia'' is the main source for what little is known about Deusdedit.[ Other than the hagiography, there is scant evidence of a cult surrounding him.][ His shrine survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s.][Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 144]
Note
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deusdedit of Canterbury
660s deaths
7th-century archbishops
7th-century Christian saints
Archbishops of Canterbury
Kentish saints
West Saxon saints
Year of birth unknown
Year of death uncertain