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Justus

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Justus
Detail of a statue of Justus located in the interior of Rochester Cathedral.
Installedunknown
Term endedon 10 November between 627 to 631
PredecessorMellitus
SuccessorHonorius
Orders
Consecration624
Personal details
Diedon 10 November between 627 to 631
BuriedSt Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury[1]
Sainthood
Feast day10 November
Attributesarchbishop carrying a Primatial cross[2]
PatronageVolterra, Italy
For other uses, see Justus (disambiguation).

Justus (d. 10 November between 627 to 631), was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury, in England. A missionary sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons, he became the first Bishop of Rochester in 604. He was forced to flee to Gaul in 616 after the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, but was reinstated in his diocese the next year. In 624 he became Archbishop of Canterbury, and during his term of office oversaw the despatch of missionaries to Northumbria.

Life

Justus was a native Italian and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England by Pope Gregory I. Justus probably arrived in England with the second group of missionaries, sent at the request of Augustine of Canterbury in 601,[3][4] although some sources describe him as one of the original missionaries who arrived with Augustine in 597.[5]

Augustine consecrated Justus as a bishop in 604, over a province including the Kentish city of Rochester,[6] Because he was probably not a monk, unlike most of his fellow missionaries,[7] Justus' cathedral clergy was likely to have been composed of secular clergy rather than monks.[8] A charter purporting to be from King Æthelberht of Kent, granting Justus land in Rochester, is of dubious authenticity.[3]

While bishop, he and Mellitus, another of the missionaries and Bishop of London, co-signed a letter written by Archbishop Laurence of Canterbury to the Irish bishops, urging the Celtic Church to adopt the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter.[9] In 614 Justus attended the Council of Paris held by Chlothar II.[10] A pagan backlash against Christianity took root following the death of Æthelberht in 616, forcing Justus to flee to Gaul, along with Mellitus. By 617 though, Justus had been reinstalled to his bishopric.[3] Mellitus also returned to England, but the prevailing pagan mood did not allow him to return to London; after Laurence's death, Mellitus became Archbishop of Canterbury.[11]

Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury in 624,[12] and received his pallium, the symbol of his authority as an archbishop, from Pope Boniface V. He then consecrated Romanus as his successor at Rochester.[3] Boniface also gave Justus a letter congratulating him on King "Aduluald"'s conversion (probably King Eadbald of Kent). The letter is included in Bede's Ecclesiastical History.[13] The historian D. P. Kirby argues that the reference to Eadbald makes it likely that it was Justus who converted the king, not Justus' predecessor at Canterbury, Laurence.[14] Other historians, including Barbara Yorke and Henry Mayr-Harting, conclude that Bede's account is correct, and Eadbald was converted by Laurence.[15] Yorke argues that there were two kings of Kent during Eadbald's reign, Eadbald and an Æthelwald, with Æthelwald being the "Aduluald" referred to by Boniface.[16]

Justus consecrated Paulinus as the first Bishop of York before Paulinus accompanied Æthelburg of Kent to Northumbria for her marriage to King Edwin of Northumbria.[3] Justus died on 10 November, between 627 and 631,[12] and became regarded as a saint; he was given a feast day of 10 November.[17] In the 1090s his remains were translated, or ritually moved, to a shrine beside the high altar of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury. At about the same time a Life was written about him by Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, as well as a poem by Reginald of Canterbury.[1] Other material from Thomas of Elmham, Gervase of Canterbury, and William of Malmesbury, later medieval chroniclers, adds little to Bede's account of Justus' life.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Hayward "Justus" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
  2. ^ St. Justus of Canterbury Patron Saints Index Accessed on 3 November 2007
  3. ^ a b c d e f Hunt "Justus [St Justus] (d. 627x31)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  4. ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 109
  5. ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 65
  6. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 221
  7. ^ Smith "Early Community of St. Andrew at Rochester" English Historical Review page 291
  8. ^ Smith "Early Community of St. Andrew at Rochester" English Historical Review p. 292
  9. ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 112
  10. ^ Wood "Mission of Augustine of Canterbury" Speculum
  11. ^ Lapidge "Mellitus" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
  12. ^ a b Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 213
  13. ^ Kirby Earliest English Kings pp. 31–32
  14. ^ Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 33
  15. ^ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity pp. 75-76
  16. ^ Yorke Kings and Kingdoms p. 32
  17. ^ Delaney Dictionary of Saints p. 354-355

References

  • Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5.
  • Delaney, John P. (1980). Dictionary of Saints (Second ed.). Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-13594-7.
  • Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Hayward, Paul Anthony (2001). "Justus". The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 267–268. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  • Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-78671-738-5.
  • Hunt, William (2004). "Justus (St Justus) (d. 627x31)" (fee required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. revised by N. P. Brooks (October 2005 revised ed.). Oxford University Press. accessed 7 November 2007
  • Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24211-8.
  • Lapidge, Michael (2001). "Mellitus". The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 305–306. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00769-9.
  • Smith, R. A. L. (1945). "The Early Community of St. Andrew at Rochester, 604-c. 1080". The English Historical Review. 60 (238): 289–299. doi:10.1093/ehr/LX.CCXXXVIII.289.
  • Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
  • Wood, Ian (1994). "The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English" (fee required). Speculum. 69 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2864782. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Yorke, Barbara (1997). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16639-X.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
(diocese created)
 Bishop of Rochester
604–624 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury
624–c.627 		Succeeded by

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