92. SAINT THEODORE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Our holy Father Theodore was of Greek nationality, born in about 602 in St. Paul's native city of Tarsus in Cilicia, and educated in Athens. Later, he was tonsured as a monk. When he was already an old man, Divine Providence led him to Rome, where the archbishop-elect of Canterbury, Wighard, had died from plague. Pope Vitalian was looking around for a suitable man to replace Wighard, and his choice fell upon a holy and learned African abbot named Adrian. But Adrian declined the offer, and suggested Theodore instead. The Pope accepted this suggestion, but on condition that St. Adrian, who knew the West well, accompanied St. Theodore to England. Then Theodore was ordained through all the degrees of the priesthood, and was consecrated archbishop on March 26, 668. Then, together with Adrian and the Northumbrian abbot, Benedict Biscop, he set out for Britain. On the way, in Paris, they met Bishop Agilbert, formerly of Dorchester-on-Thames. Finally, on May 27, 669, Theodore and his companions arrived in Canterbury.
The new archbishop immediately appointed Benedict abbot of St. Peter's monastery in Canterbury until 671, when Adrian was able to take over. In spite of his age and the fact that he was a complete stranger to his semi-barbarian diocese, St. Theodore acted with great vigour and success in the remaining twenty-two years of his earthly life, becoming, as the Venerable Bede wrote, «the first archbishop whom the whole of the English Church obeyed». He convened councils, consecrated bishops, disciplined offenders and travelled the length and breadth of the land on horseback. Together with St. Adrian, he founded the famous school of Canterbury, at which Greek, Latin, theology, literature, science and mathematics were taught, and which became the main fount of learning for English churchmen until the time of the Venerable Bede. It was thus under his leadership that the English Church entered upon the «golden age» of her existence, begetting a multitude of saints of both sexes and every station of life. Monastic life in particular reached a high pinnacle of excellence, and within a few years of St. Theodorés repose hundreds of English monks and nuns were pouring out of their newly-enlightened homeland to bring the light of Christ to their still-benighted kinsmen in Holland and Germany.
One of St. Theodorés main problems was how to relate to the Celtic Christians of the North and West of Britain who refused to accept the Roman-Byzantine Paschalion. The Synod of Whitby, which was convened in 664 just before the coming of St. Theodore, had decided in favour of the Roman-Byzantine Paschalion, and against the Celtic Paschalion; but many of the Celts, believing their tradition to be more authentic, refused to accept this decision and remained in schism from the English Church. St. Theodore applied the canons concerning schismatics to those who rejected the Synod of Whitby. When Celtic bishops sought refuge in the English Church, he completed their consecrations before accepting them as bishops; and all English Christians who received communion in the schismatics» churches were subject to excommunication for one year. It was under his presidency that the Council of Hertford in 672 (the first Council of the All-English Church) decreed in its
first canon: «that we all in common keep the holy day of Pascha on the Sunday after the fourteenth moon of the first month» and always after the Jewish Passover.
By the end of the 670s there were twelve bishops accepting St. Theodorés authority in England. Kings, too, recognized his authority; for in 679, after the Battle of the Trent, he reconciled Kings Egfrid and Aethelred. And towards the end of his life, in 686, he became reconciled with St. Wilfred, archbishop of York, who had appealed to Rome against his decision to divide the diocese of York into four smaller dioceses.
St. Theodore convened local councils at Burford in 679 and Twyford near the River Alne in 684. But the most important was the Synod of Hatfield in 679, at which the heresy of Monothelitism was condemned and, in the Venerable Bedés words, «the bishops of the island of Britain united to proclaim the true and Orthodox faith». The Fathers of this Council confirmed the first Five Ecumenical Councils, affirming «the Trinity Consubstantial and Unity in Trinity, that is One God subsisting in three consubstantial Persons of equal glory and honour». Although the text of this Council as it has come down to us contains the words: «and the Holy Spirit ineffably proceeding from the Father and the Son», the Orthodox scholar Adam Zernikav of Chernigov established in 1682 that the words «ineffably» and «from the Son» had been inserted at a later date.
Of particular importance for later generations was the collection of canons known as Theodorés Penitential, which, though not written by St. Theodore himself, contain decisions made by him. These decree, for example, that while «no man may leave his lawful wife except on account of fornication», there are other causes which may lead to the dissolution of marriage and the possibility of remarriage, including cases of captivity, penal slavery and permanent abandonment. In the next century Archbishop Egbert of York wrote: «It is since the times of St. Theodore that not only the clergy in the monasteries, but also the laity with their wives and families, would resort to their confessors, and would wash themselves of sin through tears, community life, fasts, vigils, prayers and alms during the full twelve days before Christmas, and so purified, would receive the Lord's Communion on His Nativity.»
St. Theodore reposed on September 19, 690, at about the age of eighty-seven. He was buried close to St. Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, in the monastery of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Canterbury. In 1091, some years after England fell away from the Orthodox Church, his relics were uncovered and found to be incorrupt.
St. Theodore is commemorated on September 19.
Holy Father Theodore, pray to God for us!
(Sources: The Venerable Bede, A History of the English Church and People; A.W. Haddan & W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, vol. III, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1871, 1964; Fr. Andrew Phillips, Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition, The English Orthodox Trust, 1995, chapter 64; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford; The Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 370–371; Nicholas Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury, London and New York: Leicester University Press, 1996)