| CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: HONORIUS, SAINT |
| Joseph Keating
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| Archbishop of Canterbury, fifth in
succession from St. Augustine, elected 627; consecrated at Lincoln by St.
Paulinus of York; 628l d. 30 Sept., 653 (the last date alone is certain the
others are those usually accepted); commemorated, by decree of the Sacred
Congregation of Rites (1883) in the Supplement to the Breviary for England on 30
Sept. Little is known about the history of the this saint before his elevation,
and not much more of his long episcopate. From Bede we gather that he was a
Roman monk, a disciple of St. Gregory, and probably a Benedictine. he either
accompanied St. Augustine in 596 or was one of the second band of missionaries
sent in 601. As a member of that apostolic company, he must have led that life
of fervent piety, which, we are told, had so much effect in converting the
inhabitants of Kent. When Honorius's predecessor, Justus, died, Paulinus, fresh
from the conversion of Northumbria, was the only English bishop left to
consecrate him. From two letter of Pope Honorius I, preserved in Bede, it
appears that Honorius and his consecrator, in applying to Rome from their pallia,
asked that, in order to avoid the delays and uncertainties then involved in a
journey to Italy, whenever the occupant of one of the metropolitan sees should
die, the survivor should have power to consecrate the successor, a request which
the pope granted. The chief act of Honorius' episcopate was the mission of St.
Felix, whom he consecrated and sent to convert the East Angles, an expedition
which was crowned with complete success. He administered his own diocese with
great zeal and energy. The pope's letter to him shows that his life was spent in
the vigorous exercise of the duties of his office and in the faithful observance
of the rule of his master, St. Gregory. On the overthrow of the flourishing
Kingdom and Church of Northumbria by Cadwalla of Wales and Penda of Mercia in
633, he received Paulinus and appointed him to the vacant See of Rochester. On
the death of Paulinus in 644, Honorius consecrated Ithamar, a native of Kent, as
his successor. And some years later, he consecrated a deacon of Mercia, Thomas,
to succeed Felix in East Anglia, and in or about 652 Beretgils or Boniface, a
native of Kent, to succeed Thomas. Next year the archbishop himself died and was
buried with his predecessors in the church of Saints Peter and Paul, founded by
Saint Augustine.
Transcribed by Breier Scheetz |
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