Theodore of Tarsus
I expect that for most people Theodore of Tarsus is not a familiar figure. Who was
he? And why does he deserve an article? Well, he was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to
690 and in my view was one of the greatest archbishops we have ever had. In fact, if I could
travel back in time, he’s one of the people that I would very much like to meet. He was an
exceptional scholar, canon lawyer and theologian, an accomplished linguist, a brilliant
administrator, and yet, in addition to all of this, he had the humility and courage to accept the
decision of Pope Vitalian that he should become the archbishop of the English church (there
was only one at this time), despite the fact that he himself hailed from Asia Minor, spoke
Greek as his mother-tongue, had spent time studying and living in the great Mediterranean
centres of ecclesiastical learning, and was already sixty-six years old when he had to make
the arduous journey to recently-converted England, at the edge of the known world.
We celebrate his memory on 19th September, the day of his death. He was buried in
the Anglo-Saxon cathedral church of Canterbury, and his Latin verse-epitaph, composed by
Aldhelm, the greatest poet of the day, is partly preserved in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of
the English People. Bede quotes the first four lines, here translated from their original Latin:
Here lies a holy bishop’s mortal frame;
In Grecian tongue is THEODORE his name.
A great high priest was he, the church’s head,
Who in sound doctrine his disciples fed.
Bede then follows these with the last four lines:
September was the month, the nineteenth day,
When from the flesh his spirit took its way.
Climbing in bliss to share new life and love
With angel-citizens of heaven above.
This holy and extraordinarily gifted man was born in Tarsus, the town from which St
Paul came. He studied in Antioch, one of the foremost centres of learning, where the
languages of scholarship were both Greek and Syriac. We next know of him in
Constantinople, another major centre of learning, where he had probably fled to escape Arab
or Persian invaders. There, as a monk, he continued his studies, broadening them from
biblical commentary to include philosophy, medicine, computation, astronomy and astrology.
He then moved to Rome (we don’t know when or why), and continued to write important
works. When, in 667, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, a certain Wigheard, died in Rome
of the plague, Pope Vitalian consulted Hadrian, abbot of a monastery near Naples, about who
should be sent to England in Wigheard’s place. Hadrian suggested Theodore, who was duly
consecrated in Rome on 26th March 668. He then made his way to England, where he arrived
on 27th May 669. Hadrian accompanied him, and together they established a major centre of
learning in Canterbury, at the heart of which was an impressive output by Theodore of
remarkably learned biblical commentaries. Alongside this we must also celebrate his great
legacy to the English church in sorting out its diocesan structure, administration, liturgy and
canon law, so that, from being the church of a country in conversion, where the arrangements
had necessarily been a bit opportunistic, it took on the enduring form of a more mature and
united church serving the whole nation, regardless of the fact that the country was divided
into several different kingdoms. I hope you see now why I think he is one of the greatest
archbishops we have ever had, and why he is worthy to be commemorated.
Joyce Hill