Mellitus (d. 624), first bishop of London, third archbishop of Canterbury. A Roman abbot of noble birth, he was sent to England by Gregory the Great at the head of a group of missionaries in 601 to reinforce Augustine of Canterbury. After he had left, Gregory sent him a famous letter which modified his previous ruling to Augustine. He now told Mellitus to tell Augustine not to destroy the temples of the Saxons but only their idols: on the contrary, the temples should be converted into churches and their feasts taken over and directed to Christian purposes such as dedications. This directive was important in the whole history of missionary activity.
In 604 Augustine consecrated Mellitus bishop of the East Saxons, with his see at London, where Ethelbert (king of Kent and overlord of Southern England) had built the first church of St. Paul. As bishop of London, Mellitus went to Rome to consult with Pope Boniface IV about the Church in England; while there, he took part in a synod of Italian bishops concerning the life of monks and (presumably) their peaceful relations with bishops. He brought the decrees back to England, together with papal letters to archbishop Laurence and King Ethelbert. When Saeberht, the Christian king of the East Saxons, died, his three pagan sons succeeded him and soon expelled Mellitus. The occasion for this was said to be Mellitus' refusal to give holy communion (‘the white bread’) to the unbaptized princes. But with this reverse in Essex corresponding to a greater setback in Kent, the bishops decided to retire to Gaul for the time. Mellitus and Justus departed but were soon recalled by Laurence, archbishop of Canterbury. Lacking the support of a strong Christian ruler like the recently dead Ethelbert, Mellitus was unable to return to London and the East Saxons. In 619 he succeeded Laurence as archbishop of Canterbury and ruled actively and well in spite of suffering from gout. Bede attributed the change of wind which saved the Canterbury church of the Four Crowned Martyrs from being destroyed by fire to Mellitus' being carried into the path of the flames to pray.
Mellitus died on 24 April, thenceforth kept as his feast in numerous English calendars before and after the Norman Conquest. With Laurence and Justus, Mellitus is mentioned in the commemoration of the dead in the Stowe Missal. He was buried near Augustine in the abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul, Canterbury.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Apr. III (1675), 280–3
- Bede, H.E., i. 29–ii. 7; H. Mayr‐Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo‐Saxon England (1972)
