14
July 664 A.D. 1st Saxon and 6th
Archbishop of Canterbury Dies—Deusdedit.
Alston, George Cyprian. "St. Deusdedit." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04760b.htm. Accessed 8 May 2014.
St. Deusdedit
A
native of Wessex, England, whose Saxon name was
Frithona, and of whose early life nothing is known; d. 14 July, 664. He was the
sixth Archbishop of Canterbury (655-664), and was the first
Anglo-Saxon to hold the primacy. He was consecrated at Canterbury in 655, by Ithamar, the first Saxon Bishop of Rochester, in succession to Honorius, thus
commencing the long line of English archbishops, which was broken but once, and that by
his immediate successor, Theodore. Little is known of the primacy of Deusdedit.
Most of the other bishops during his time were
of either Celtic or French origin. Of the seven or eight consecrated during the nine years of his primacy
only one received consecration from him, viz. Damian,
Bishop of Rochester, consecrated in 656, and this is the sole official
act of his that is known with absolute certainly. He is said to have hallowed
Wulfhere's church Medehampstede (Peterborough) in Mercia, the charter of which,
dated 657, contains his
signature, but from the fact that it also contains the names of Ithamar and
Tuda a difficulty arises. Haddan and Stubbs, who print the charter (Councils of
Great Britain and Ireland), consider the
foundation of this monastery to have been not
earlier than 664. The archbishop's name is given by Simeon of Durham as the consecrator of
the seventy nuns of St. Eormenburga's convent in Thanet, but the statement lacks
confirmation. St. Deusdedit died on the same day as Erconbert, King of Kent,
and was buried in St. Peter's porch at Canterbury.
Sources
GOZELIN, "Life of Deusdedit," printed
in the BOLLANDISTS under 15 July; HOOK, "Lives of the Abps. Of
Canterbury" (London, 1860-75); HOLE in "Dict.Christ. Biog. (London,
1877); STANTON, "Menology of England and Wales" (London, 1887);
ARCHER in "Dict. Nt. Biog." (London, 1888).
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