Adeodatus (Deusdedit), whose Saxon name was Frithona, came from Wessex.
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July 15
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Adeodatus (Deusdedit), whose Saxon name was Frithona, came from Wessex. Nothing is known of his early life. In 655 he became the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury and the first Anglo-Saxon to hold the office, consecrated by Ithamar of Rochester.
Little is known of his nine years. The only act known with certainty is his consecration of Damian as Bishop of Rochester. He died on 14 July 664, the same day as King Erconbert of Kent, and was buried at Canterbury.
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
Keep their day. Remember them on July 15 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.
A native of Wessex [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of southern England], England, whose Saxon name was Frithona, and of whose early life nothing is known; d. 14 July, 664. He was the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury (655-664), and was the first Anglo-Saxon to hold the primacy. He was consecrated at Canterbury in 655, by Ithamar, the first Saxon Bishop of Rochester, in succession to Honorius, thus commencing the long line of English archbishops, which was broken but once, and that by his immediate successor, Theodore. Little is known of the primacy of Deusdedit. Most of the other bishops during his time were of either Celtic or French origin. Of the seven or eight consecrated during the nine years of his primacy only one received consecration from him, viz. Damian, Bishop of Rochester, consecrated in 656, and this is the sole official act of his that is known with absolute certainly. He is said to have hallowed Wulfhere's church Medehampstede (Peterborough) in Mercia [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English Midlands], the charter of which, dated 657, contains his signature, but from the fact that it also contains the names of Ithamar and Tuda a difficulty arises. Haddan and Stubbs, who print the charter (Councils of Great Britain and Ireland), consider the foundation of this monastery to have been not earlier than 664. The archbishop's name is given by Simeon of Durham as the consecrator of the seventy nuns of St. Eormenburga's convent in Thanet, but the statement lacks confirmation. St. Deusdedit died on the same day as Erconbert, King of Kent, and was buried in St. Peter's porch at Canterbury.
GOZELIN, "Life of Deusdedit," printed in the BOLLANDISTS under 15 July; HOOK, "Lives of the Abps. Of Canterbury" (London, 1860-75); HOLE in "Dict.Christ. Biog. (London, 1877); STANTON, "Menology of England and Wales" (London, 1887); ARCHER in "Dict. Nt. Biog." (London, 1888).
Feast: July 15
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Adeodatus of…'s story, and a nudge to keep going.
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.
From “Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Deusdedit,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1914), via Wikisource. Public domain. Matched by name and feast date; text unedited except for our bracketed notes in grey.
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.
