Died at Canterbury, England, on April 24, 624. Saint Mellitus was a
Roman abbot, probably of Saint Andrew's Monastery on the Coelian Hill.
He is one of the second band of monks sent by
Pope Saint Gregory the Great (f.d. September 3)
to England in 601 in the wake of
Saint Augustine (f.d. May 27).
Gregory sent him a famous letter that modified
the pope's earlier ruling to Augustine. Through Mellitus, Gregory told
Augustine not to destroy the pagan temples of the Saxons but only their
idols. The temples, he said, should be converted into churches and
their feasts taken over and directed to Christian purposes, such as
dedications. This directive was important for the whole direction of
missionary activity.
In 604, after three years of mission work in Kent, Mellitus was
consecrated the first bishop of the East Saxons, with his see in London.
As bishop, Mellitus travelled to Rome to consult with
Pope Saint Boniface IV (f.d. May 8).
While in Rome Mellitus participated in a
synod of Italian bishops concerning the life of monks and their
relationship to bishops. The decrees of the synod he carried back to
England, together with letters from the pope to
Archbishop Saint Laurence of Canterbury (f.d. February 2)
and King Ethelbert of Kent, who
had built the first church of St. Paul in London.
Mellitus converted the king of the East Saxons, Sabert (Sigebert or
Saeberht). Unfortunately, his royal sons did not follow suit. When
Sabert died about 616, his three pagan sons (Sexred, Seward, and
Sigebert) succeeded him and drove Mellitus out; for they had asked him
to give them the
white bread
(the Eucharist), and he had refused
because they were not baptized (or had apostatized according to some).
Mellitus withdrew to Gaul for a year with
Saint Justus of Rochester (f.d. November 10),
who had experienced a similar setback in Kent.
Laurence recalled them both. Soon after Mellitus's return in 619 he was
made archbishop of Canterbury, in 619, to succeed Saint Laurence.
Bede (f.d. May 26)
says of him that he suffered from gout but that in spirit
he was healthy and active, ever reaching out to the things of God:
Noble by birth, he was yet nobler in mind.
Bede attributes the change
of wind that saved the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs in Canterbury
from incineration to Mellitus's being carried into the path of the
flames to pray. It was Saint Mellitus who built Saint Mary's church at
Canterbury, of which a fragment remains outside the east end of the
foundations of the abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul (now Saint
Augustine's).
The feast of Saint Mellitus was observed on numerous English calendars
before and after the Norman conquest. He is also
mentioned in the commemoration of the dead in the Lorrha-Stowe Missal,
together with Laurence and Justus.
His relics can be found near those of Augustine in the abbey church of
Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury
(
Attwater,
Benedictines,
Encyclopaedia,
Farmer,
Husenbeth).
Saint Mellitus is portrayed in art as Saint Peter brings him a salmon to
present to the king
(
Roeder).