September 19, 2025
Friday after the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Y THEODORE OF TARSUS, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 690
Theodore was born in Asia Minor in 602 in Saint Paul's native city of Tarsus. He was ordained as Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian on March 26th, 668.
A learned monk of the East, Theodore was residing in Rome when the English church, decimated by plague and torn with strife over rival Celtic and Roman customs, was in need of strong leadership.
Theodore provided this for a generation, beginning his episcopate at an age when most people are ready to retire.
When Theodore came to England, he established a school at Canterbury that gained a reputation for excellence in all branches of learning and where many leaders of both the rish and the English churches were trained. His effective visitation of all England brought unity to the two strains of tradition among the Anglo-Saxon Christians. For example, he recognized Chad's worthiness and regularized his episcopal ordination.
Theodore gave definitive boundaries to English dioceses, so that their bishops could give better pastoral attention to their people. He presided over synods that brought about reforms, according to established rules of canon law. He also laid the foundations of the parochial organization that still persists in the English church.
According to Bede, Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English obeyed, and possibly to no other leader does English Christianity owe so much. He died in his eighty-eighth year on September 19th, 690, and was buried, with Augustine and the other early English archbishops, in the monastic Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Canterbury.
#September19: itβs the feast day of St Theadore of Tarsus! In his later years, BishopTeddy of the East unified the disgruntled Romans & Celts of Britain.
Let us ππ½: O God, teach us a unity that does not flatten differences. Help us in leadership to guide with wisdom and grace. Make your Church one.