St. Theodore of Tarsus: 8th Archbishop of Canterbury

Today the Church remembers the 8^th Archbishop of Canterbury from the 600s, Theodore of Tarsus, who came to England by way of Rome.  He is perhaps best known for his reformation of the Church in England and his establishment of a school at Canterbury. 

Theodore was born around the year 602 in Tarsus in Cilicia, a Greek-speaking diocese of the Byzantine Empire, and died on this day in 690 at the ripe old age of 88.   

Theodore left Tarsus and went to study in Constantinople.  There, Theodore studied astronomy, medicine, Roman civil law, Greek rhetoric and philosophy. After that, he went to Rome and joined a monastery. 

After the Synod of Whitby, Theodore of Tarsus, who was a learned monk but not yet ordained a priest, was named as the Archbishop of Canterbury.  He was 65 years old. This surprising choice turned out to be a very good one. St. Bede said that Theodore was “the first archbishop whom all the English obeyed.”   James Kiefer tells us that “Theodore filled the vacant bishoprics and in 672 presided over the first council of the entire English Church, at Hertford. He established definite territorial boundaries for the various dioceses, and founded new dioceses where needed. He found the Church of England an unorganized missionary body, and left it a fully ordered province of the universal Church. The body of canon law drawn up under his supervision, and his structure of dioceses and parishes, survived the turmoil of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and are substantially intact today.”

One of his greatest legacies was the school at Canterbury which was headed by Adrian, an abbot born in Africa but later resident in Italy, who, ironically, was the first choice to be Archbishop of Canterbury, but who refused it recommending Theodore. The school taught Scripture, theology, Latin, Greek, poetry and astronomy.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty God, who called your servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the See of Canterbury, and gave him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in thy Church, we pray, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

CALENDAR REMIDNERS

The Adult Christian Education Series: Lord, Teach Us To Pray: Six Studies on the Lord’s Prayer from the Kerygma Series. We started the study this Sunday, and it was wonderful! Please join Jillian Bain on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and Tammie Taylor on Mondays.

The Fourth Annual St. Augustine Art Show begins this week. The judging will take place during the week, and the show is open to the public starting this Saturday, 22 September, at 6:00 p.m. with a reception. We have a record 103 entries!

St. Vincent’s Day Celebration at St. Vincent’s House on 29 September 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

Blessing of the Animals for St. Francis Day, Saturday, 13 October 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at the Cross on the lawn in front of Sutton Hall.

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, and especially the family of Anne Ladner who died yesterday and whose funeral will be on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Grace Episcopal.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550