30
September 653 A.D. 5th
of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury Dies—Honorius
Keating, Joseph. "St. Honorius."
The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07452a.htm. Accessed 8 May 2014.
St. Honorius
Archbishop of Canterbury, fifth in succession
from St. Augustine, elected 627; consecrated at Lincoln by St. Paulinus of York, 628; d. 30 Sept., 653
(the last date alone is certain the others are those usually accepted);
commemorated, by decree of the Sacred
Congregation of Rites (1883) in the Supplement to the Breviary for England on 30 Sept. Little is known about the history of this saint before
his elevation, and not much more of his long episcopate. From Bede we gather that he was a Roman monk, a disciple of St. Gregory, and probably a Benedictine. he either accompanied
St. Augustine in 596 or was one of the second band of missionaries sent in 601.
As a member of that apostolic company, he must have led that life of fervent piety, which, we are told, had so much effect
in converting the inhabitants of Kent. When Honorius's predecessor, Justus,
died, Paulinus, fresh from the conversion of Northumbria, was the only English bishop left to consecrate him. From two letter
of Pope Honorius I, preserved in Bede, it appears that Honorius and his
consecrator, in applying to Rome from their pallia, asked that, in order
to avoid the delays and uncertainties then involved in a journey to Italy, whenever the occupant of one of the metropolitan sees should die, the
survivor should have power to consecrate the successor, a
request which the pope granted. The chief act
of Honorius's episcopate was the mission of St. Felix, whom he consecrated and sent to convert
the East Angles, an expedition which was crowned with complete success. He administered
his own diocese with great zeal and energy. The pope's letter to him shows that his life was
spent in the vigorous exercise of the duties of his office and in the faithful
observance of the rule of his master, St. Gregory. On the overthrow of
the flourishing Kingdom and Church of Northumbria by Cadwalla of Wales and Penda of Mercia in 633, he received
Paulinus and appointed him to the vacant See of Rochester. On the death of
Paulinus in 644, Honorius consecrated Ithamar, a native of
Kent, as his successor. And some years later, he consecrated a deacon of Mercia, Thomas, to succeed Felix in
East Anglia, and in or about 652 Beretgils or Boniface, a native of Kent, to
succeed Thomas. Next year the archbishop himself died and was
buried with his predecessors in the church of Saints Peter and Paul, founded by
Saint Augustine.
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