Honorius

views updated May 11 2018

Honorius (d. 653). Archbishop of Canterbury. Honorius was the fifth and last of the archbishops to be appointed from the missionaries dispatched to convert the Anglo-Saxons by Pope Gregory the Great. Little is known of Honorius' activities, but Bede reproduced a letter sent to him by Pope Honorius after his appointment and recorded support he provided for the evangelization of the East Angles. Following his death in 653 there was an interregnum of eighteen months before the appointment of the West Saxon Deusdedit. Honorius was buried at Canterbury and subsequently revered as a saint.

Barbara Yorke