Laurence of Canterbury

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Saint Laurence of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
Enthroned {{{began}}}
Ended 2 February 619
Predecessor Augustine of Canterbury
Successor Mellitus
Consecration 604
Birth name Laurentius
Born unknown
Died 2 February 619
Buried Saint Augustine Abbey church
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Sainthood
Venerated in Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion
Commemorated 3 February
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Saint Laurence of Canterbury (or Laurentius) (died February 2, 619) was the second Archbishop of Canterbury.

[edit] Life

He arrived at Thanet with St. Augustine in 597 as part of the missionary effort dispatched from Rome to Kent in 595,[1][2][3] although other sources state that he first came in 601, not in 597.[4][5] In either case, he was a monk of St. Andrew's Monastery in Rome.[6] Bede says he was sent back to Pope Gregory I to report on the successes in Kent in converting King Ethelbert.[7] He succeeded Augustine in the see of Canterbury around 604 and ruled until Laurence's death on February 2, 619.[2][8] Augustine had consecrated Laurence before Augustine died in order to secure the succession, fearing that if there was not someone to step into the office immediately, it would hurt the progress of Christianity in Britain.[9][10][5] However, Laurence never received a pallium from Rome, so he may have been considered as uncanonical at Rome.[11]

It was Laurence in 613 who consecrated the church that Augustine had build in Canterbury that was dedicated to saints Peter and Paul,[2] but later was re-consecrated to St. Augustine of Canterbury.[12] Laurence also wrote to the Christians in the lands held by the Scots and by the Britons, in order to urge them to hold Easter on the day that the Roman church celebrated it, instead of their traditional date, part of the Easter controversy. Bede has preserved the letter in his history.[9] Laurence in 609 stated that Bishop Dagan, a Celtic bishop, would not eat with Laurence or share a roof with the archbishop, due to the differences between the two Churches. Another time, Laurence wrote that the "small number of Celts, living at the world's ends, cannot claim to know better than all the Churches of Christendom."[13]

During Laurence's time in office, Ethelbert died in 616 and his son Eadbald returned to the old faiths and many prominent missionaries fled to Gaul. But Laurence managed to reconvert him.[10] The tale is that Laurence had been prepared to give up when he was visited by St. Peter in a vision, who chastised him and whipped him. The marks of the whipping remained and the display of them to Eadbald effected his conversion.[1][14] Any efforts to extend the church beyond Kent encountered difficulties due to the attitude of King Rædwald of East Anglia, who had become the leading king in the south after the death of Ethelbert.[15] Rædwald was converted before the death of Ethelbert, perhaps at the urging of Ethelbert, but his kingdom did not convert and he himself seems to have been converted only enough to allow a Christian altar in his pagan temple.[11]

On his death he was buried in St. Peter's Abbey church, later renamed Saint Augustine's. In 1091 his remains were moved to the new church of St. Augustine's.[2] He was succeeded as Archbishop by Mellitus, the Bishop of London. Laurence was later considered a saint, and his festival is on February 3.[1] Laurence's time as archbishop is mainly remembered for his failure to secure a settlement with the Celtic church and in his reconversion of Eadbald after Ethelbert's death.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Walsh, Michael A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West London: Burns & Oates 2007 ISBN 0-8601-2438-X p. 357
  2. ^ a b c d Brooks, N. P. "Laurence (d. 619)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 online edn, Oct 2005 accessed November 7, 2007
  3. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 106
  4. ^ Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5 p. 36
  5. ^ a b Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press, p. 9-13. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  6. ^ Delaney, John J. Dictionary of Saints Second Edition Doubleday: New York 2003 ISBN 0-385-13594-7 p. 369
  7. ^ Bede A History of the English Church and People translated by Leo Sherley-Price London:Penguin Books 1988 ISBN 0-14-044042-9 p. 71
  8. ^ Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 213. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  9. ^ a b Bede A History of the English Church and People translated by Leo Sherley-Price London:Penguin Books 1988 ISBN 0-14-044042-9 p. 105-107
  10. ^ a b Hindley, Geoffrey A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The beginnings of the English nation New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers 2006 ISBN 978-0-78671738-5 p. 43
  11. ^ a b c Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 112-113
  12. ^ Bede A History of the English Church and People translated by Leo Sherley-Price London:Penguin Books 1988 ISBN 0-14-044042-9 p. 91-92
  13. ^ Décarreaux, Jean Monks and Civilization: From the Barbarian Invasions to the Reign of Charlemagne translated by Charlotte Haldane London: George Allen 1964 p. 261
  14. ^ Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press, p. 64-66. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  15. ^ Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England Third Edition Oxford:Oxford University Press 1971 ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5 p. 127

[edit] External links

Roman Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Augustine of Canterbury		 Archbishop of Canterbury
604–619		 Succeeded by
Mellitus
Persondata
NAME Laurence of Canterbury
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lawrence; Laurentius
SHORT DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Canterbury; Saint
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 619
PLACE OF DEATH
v • d • e
List of Archbishops of Canterbury
pre-Reformation

Augustine · Laurentius · Mellitus · Justus · Honorius · Deusdedit · Wighard · Theodore · Bertwald · Tatwin · Nothelm · Cuthbert · Bregwin · Jaenbert · Æthelhard · Wulfred · Feologild · Ceolnoth · Ethelred · Plegmund · Athelm · Wulfhelm · Oda · Aelfsige · Birthelm · Dunstan · Æthelgar · Sigeric · Ælfric · Alphege · Lyfing · Aethelnoth · Edsige · Robert of Jumièges · Stigand · Lanfranc · Anselm · Ralph d'Escures · William de Corbeil · Theobald · Thomas Becket · Richard · Baldwin · Reginald fitz Jocelin · Hubert Walter · John de Gray · Stephen Langton · Walter d'Eynsham · Richard le Grant · Ralph Neville · John of Sittingbourne · John Blund · Edmund Rich · Boniface · William Chillenden · Robert Kilwardby · Robert Burnell · John Peckham · Robert Winchelsey · Thomas Cobham · Walter Reynolds · Simon Mepeham · John de Stratford · John de Ufford · Thomas Bradwardine · Simon Islip · William Edington · Simon Langham · William Whittlesey · Simon Sudbury · William Courtenay · Thomas Arundel · Roger Walden · Thomas Arundel · Henry Chichele · John Stafford · John Kemp · Thomas Bourchier · John Morton · Thomas Langton · Henry Deane · William Warham · Thomas Cranmer · Reginald Pole
post-Reformation (Anglican)