Deusdedit was the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death. Little is known about his episcopate, but he was considered to be a saint after his demise.
About Deusdedit of Canterbury in brief
Deusdedit was the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death. Little is known about his episcopate, but he was considered to be a saint after his demise. A saint’s life was written after his relics were moved from their original burial place in 1091. There is some controversy over the exact date of Deusdedit’s death, owing to discrepancies in the medieval written work that records his life. He was long overshadowed by Agilbert, bishop to the West Saxons, and his authority as archbishop probably did not extend past his own diocese and that of Rochester. He did, however, found a nunnery in the Isle of Thanet and helped with the foundation of Medeshamstede Abbey, later Peterborough Abbey, in 657. The Synod of Whitby, which debated whether the Northumbrian church should follow the Roman or the Celtic method of dating Easter, was held in 664.
The name Deusded it means “God has given” in Latin, and had been the name of a recent pope in office from 615 to 618; 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 he 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. During his nine years as arch Archbishop, all the new bishops in England were consecrated by Celtic or foreign bishops, with one exception: Deus Dedit consecrated Damianus, Ithamar’s successor as Bishop of Rochester, on 26 March or perhaps 12 March 655.
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