• September 19th - St. Theodore

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Mon Sep 18 10:03:38 2017
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    September 19th - St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury

    Theodore, 7th Archb. of Canterbury, was born at Tarsus in Cilicia
    about 602; died at Canterbury 19 Sept., 690. He was a monk of the
    Greek Church, but not yet in Holy Orders, living at Rome in 667, when
    Pope Vitalian chose him for the See of Canterbury in place of Wighard,
    who had died before consecration. After receiving orders, Theodore was consecrated by the Pope himself, on 26 March, 668, and set out for
    England, but did not reach Canterbury until May, 669.

    The new primate found the English Church still suffering from the
    jealousies and bitterness engendered by the long Paschal controversy,
    only lately settled, and sadly lacking in order and organization. The
    dioceses, coterminous with the divisions of the various kingdoms, were
    of unwieldy size, and many of then were vacant. Theodore, says Bede,
    at once "visited all the island, wherever the tribes of the Angles
    inhabited", and was everywhere received with respect and welcome. He
    made appointments to the vacant bishoprics, regularized the position
    of St. Chad, who may not have been duly consecrated, corrected all
    that was faulty, instituted the teaching of music and of sacred and
    secular learning, throughout the country, and had the distinction of
    being, as Bede specifically mentions, "the first archbishop whom all
    the English obeyed".

    But there is another aspect, not so attractive...

    ...."Elsewhere, however, matters were not so benignly worked out.
    Theodore of Tarsus, on his arrival in 669, found it necessary to use
    forceful measures to quell the remnants of the Celtic heresy. Despite
    the direct and immediate effects of Whitby on the central Celtic house
    at Lindisfarne, it may be remembered that the Picts and Scots,
    including at this point the Columban motherhouse at Iona, remained
    unwilling to accept Roman orthodoxy. Theodore's 'Penitential' clearly
    announced his views on the issues. He recognized neither episcopal
    consecration nor baptism as performed by the Celtic Church. Eddius
    tells us that he insisted on reconsecrating Chad, "through every
    episcopal grade," and demanded the rebaptism of converts of the Celtic
    Church. He also ordered a year's penance for anyone receiving
    communion from Celtic priests.

    ...."The hostility along the Welsh and Cornish borders was apparently
    mutual. Aldhelm of Malmsbury wrote that the Welsh bishops considered
    the clergy of Rome to be excommunicated until they should individually
    perform 40 days penance, and refused to pray with them or join them at
    meals. The leftovers of food touched by Roman priests were ordered
    thrown to swine so that Celtic Christians would not suffer spiritual
    contagion. Their vessels were to be purified with fire or sand, and
    they were to receive neither salutation nor the kiss of peace."
    --Carol Neuman's "The Northumbrian Renaissance", Associated University
    Presses, N.J., 1987, ISBN: 0-941664-11-2.

    In 673 he convoked at Hertford the first synod of the whole province,
    an assembly of great importance as the forerunner and prototype of
    future English witenagemotes and parliaments.

    Going later to the court of the King of Northumbria, which country was
    entirely under the jurisdiction of St. Wilfrid, he divided it into
    four dioceses against the will of Wilfrid, who appealed to Pope
    Agatho. The pope's decision did not acquit Theodore of arbitrary and
    irregular action, although his plan for the subdivision of the
    Northumbrian diocese was carried out. For St. Cuthbert in 685, and in
    the following year he was fully reconciled to Wilfrid, who was
    restored to his See of York. Thus, before his death, which occurred
    five years later, Theodore saw the diocesan system of the English
    Church fully organized under his primatial and metropolitical
    authority. Stubbs emphasizes the immensely important work done by
    Theodore not only in developing a single united ecclesiastical body
    out of the heterogeneous Churches of the several English kingdoms, but
    in thus realizing a national unity which was not to be attained in
    secular matters for nearly three centuries.

    Apart from the epoch-making character of his 21 years' episcopate,
    Theodore was a man of commanding personality: inclined to be
    autocratic, but possessed of great ideas, remarkable powers of
    administration, and intellectual gifts of a high order, carefully
    cultivated.

    Practically his only literary remains are the collected decisions in disciplinary matters, well known as "The Penitential of Theodore". The
    body of canon law drawn up under his supervision, and his structure of
    dioceses and parishes, survived the turmoil of the 16th and 17th
    centuries and are substantially intact today. It was first published
    complete by Wasserschleben in 1851, and several editions of it have
    been printed during the past sixty years.

    He founded a school at Canterbury that trained Christians from both
    the Celtic and the Roman traditions, and did much to unite the two
    groups. The school was headed by Adrian, an abbot born in Africa but
    later resident in Italy, who had been the Pope's first choice for
    Archbishop, but who had refused and recommended Theodore instead.
    Adrian was learned in the Scriptures, a good administrator, and fluent
    in Latin and Greek. The school taught Bible, theology and sacred
    studies, Latin and Greek (Bede says that some of the students knew
    these languages as well as they knew English), poetry, astronomy, and
    calendar calculation (of some importance for political reasons, as
    stated above, in the paschal controversy). Theodore was buried in St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury, a long poetical epitaph, of which
    Bede has preserved only 8 verses, being inscribed upon his tomb.


    Saint Quote:
    Where sin was hatched, let tears now wash the nest.
    --St. Robert Southwell

    Bible Quote:
    And they brought to him young children, that he might touch them. And
    the disciples rebuked them that brought them. 14. Whom when Jesus saw,
    he was much displeased, and saith to them: Suffer the little children
    to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of
    God. 15. Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of
    God as a little child, shall not enter into it. (Mark 10:13-15)


    <><><><>
    One Man

    1. One man struck a match to see if the gasoline tank in his car was empty.
    It wasn't.

    2. One man patted a strange dog on the head to see if it was affectionate.
    It wasn't.

    3. One man sped up to see if he could beat the train to the crossing.
    He didn't.

    4. One man touched an electric wire to see if it was dead.
    It wasn't.

    5. One man thought he could get to heaven without Christ.
    He couldn't.

    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)