Saint Mellitus
Évêque de
Cantorbéry (✝ 624)
ou Mellit.
Moine de Rome que le pape saint Grégoire
le Grand envoya en Angleterre. Il fut sans doute le premier
évêque de Londres et fonda le monastère de Westminster. Dans cette époque
encore troublée par la lutte entre le christianisme naissant chez les
Anglo-saxons et le paganisme, saint Mellit dut se réfugier durant quelque temps
en France. Il revint en Angleterre et fut alors évêque de Cantorbery.
À Cantorbéry en Angleterre, l’an 624, saint Mellit, évêque. Abbé à Rome, il
fut envoyé en Angleterre par le pape saint Grégoire le Grand avec d’autres
moines pour renforcer l’action de saint Augustin, qui l’ordonna évêque des
Saxons de l’est avec son siège à Londres, et après bien des tribulations, il
accéda au siège de Cantorbéry.
Martyrologe
romain
Saint Mellit (ou Mellitus ou
Mélec)
Abbé à Rome puis évêque de Cantorbéry
Mellit était
abbé à Rome. En 601, le pape Grégoire le Grand l'envoya, avec d'autres moines,
renforcer la mission auprès des Angles du premier archevêque de Cantorbéry,
Augustin.
Une
erreur de navigation le fit arriver chez les Saxons. Augustin l'ordonna évêque
des Saxons de l'Est avec son siège à Londres.
En 616,
Mellitus fut chassé de Londres par les fils païens de Sæberth et se réfugia en
Gaule. Le successeur d'Augustin, Laurent, le rappela en Angleterre. En 619,
Mellit lui succéda comme troisième archevêque de Cantorbéry.
En 623,
il sauva miraculeusement la ville et l'église de Cantorbéry d'un feu naissant :
conduit au sein des flammes, il fit changer le vent de direction. Saint Bède le
Vénérable, dans son Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais, loue l'esprit
sensé de Mellit.
Mellit
mourut à Cantorbéry en 624. Son culte en Bretagne, apporté sous le vocable de
Mélec par des Bretons revenus d'Angleterre en 937, serait à l'origine de la
ville de Plumelec (qui signifie « paroisse
de Mélec »).
evangelizo.org ©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
À notre fils bien-aimé l’abbé Mellitus, dans le pays des
Francs, Grégoire serviteur des serviteurs de Dieu.
Après le départ de la petite troupe rassemblée par nos
soins, qui voyage avec toi, nous avons été plongés dans une vive inquiétude, en
l’absence de nouvelles sur le succès de votre voyage. Une fois donc que Dieu
tout-puissant vous aura menés auprès de notre très révéré frère l’évêque
Augustin, dites-lui ce que, après avoir longuement médité au sujet des Angles,
j’ai décidé : qu’il ne faut en aucun cas détruire les temples des idoles (fana
idolorum) chez le peuple en question, mais seulement les idoles qui s’y
trouvent ; que l’on bénisse de l’eau et que les temples en question en
soient aspergés ; enfin qu’on bâtisse des autels et qu’on y dépose des
reliques.
En effet, si les temples dont nous parlons ont été bien
construits, il faut impérativement qu’on les transforme (commutari)
pour qu’ils passent du culte des démons à l’observance du vrai Dieu, afin que
lorsque la population verra que ses temples justement ne sont pas détruits,
elle quitte son erreur et reconnaissant enfin et adorant le vrai Dieu, elle
accoure avec plus de confiance en ces temples auxquels elle est habituée.
De même, comme ces populations ont coutume de sacrifier de
nombreux bœufs aux démons, il faut transformer (inmutari) aussi cet
usage en solennité chrétienne : le jour où une église est dédiée à un
saint ou bien pour l’anniversaire des martyrs, dont les reliques y sont
déposées, qu’ils se fassent des huttes de branchages autour de ces anciens
temples transformés en églises et qu’ils y célèbrent la fête par des banquets
religieux. Que ce ne soit plus au Diable qu’ils immolent des animaux, mais que
dorénavant ce soit à la gloire de Dieu qu’ils tuent les animaux qu’ils mangent
et qu’ils rendent grâce de leur satiété à Celui qui donne tout, de sorte que
par ces quelques joies extérieures qui leur sont conservées, ils puissent
consentir plus facilement aux joies intérieures.
Il ne fait aucun doute en effet qu’il est impossible de
faire brusquement table rase dans des esprits obtus, car aussi celui qui veut
escalader un sommet, ne s’élève pas par bonds mais progressivement pas à pas.
Ainsi, s’il est vrai que notre Seigneur se révéla au peuple d’Israël en Égypte,
il leur permit toutefois de conserver pour son propre culte l’usage des
sacrifices rendus jusque là au Diable, puisqu’Il ordonna qu’on immolât des
animaux dans les sacrifices qu’on Lui rendait, afin qu’en changeant leurs
cœurs, ils perdissent certains aspects du sacrifice mais qu’ils en gardassent
d’autres (Lev 7,2-7). De la sorte même si c’étaient les mêmes animaux qu’ils
avaient l’habitude de sacrifier, maintenant qu’ils les sacrifiaient au vrai
Dieu et non plus à des idoles, ce n’étaient plus les mêmes sacrifices. Voilà ce
qu’il faut, très cher, que tu dises à notre frère Augustin, afin qu’il juge par
lui-même, lui qui est présentement en place là-bas, quelle est la meilleure
façon de tout organiser. Que Dieu te garde, mon fils bien-aimé.
Donnée le quinze des calendes de juillet, en la dix-neuvième
année du règne de notre souverain le très pieux Auguste Maurice Tibère, la dix-huitième
année après son consulat, en la quatrième indiction.
Bède le Vénérable, Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple
anglais, livre I, ch. 30. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1999. vol.1, pp. 65-67.
April 24
St. Mellitus, Archbishop
of Canterbury, Confessor
HE was a
Roman abbot, whom St. Gregory sent over hither in 601, at the head of a second
colony of missioners to assist St. Austin, by whom he was ordained the first
bishop of London, or of the East-Saxons; baptized Sebert the King, with a great
part of his nation: and by his liberality, in 604, laid the foundation of the
cathedral church of St. Paul’s, and, in 609, of the monastery of St. Peter, at
Thorney, which was rebuilt by King Edgar, and again most sumptuously by St.
Edward the Confessor, and is now called Westminster. This Christian and learned
prince, dying about 616, left his dominions to his three sons, Sexred, Seward,
and Sigebert, whom he had not been so happy as to recover from their idolatry,
though they had kept their heathenism private during their father’s life. After
his death they declared themselves Pagans, and gave their subjects the liberty
of returning to their former idolatrous worship. Yet when they saw our holy
bishop at the altar, and giving the blessed eucharist to the people, they would
not be satisfied unless he would give them some of that fine white bread, as
they called it, he was used to give their father. He told them their request
should be granted, on condition they would be baptized as their father was; but
this they would not hear of, alleging they had no need of baptism, but still
insisted on receiving the consecrated bread; and on the bishop’s refusal to
gratify them in their unreasonable request, they banished him their dominions.
These three princes, after a reign of six years, going on an expedition against
the West-Saxons, were all three slain in battle. But though the chief promoters
of Paganism were taken off, their people, being inured again to idolatry, did
not return to the faith before the year 628, according to the Saxon annals. St.
Mellitus passed over to France, but soon returned, and upon the death of St.
Laurence, in 619, was translated to the see of Canterbury, being the third
archbishop of that see. Whilst sick of the gout, he, by his prayers, stopped a
furious conflagration which had already laid no small part of that city in
ashes, and which no hands had been able to get under. He died April the 24th,
624. See Bede, Le Neve’s Fasti, Goscelin, and Capgrave.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume IV: April. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
St. Mellitus
Bishop of London and third Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 24 April, 624. He was the leader of the
second band of missionaries whom St. Gregory sent from Rome to join St. Augustine at Canterbury in 601. Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, vii) describes him as of
noble birth, and as he is styled abbot by the pope (Epp. Gregorii, xi, 54, 59), it is thought he
may have been Abbot of the Monastery of St. Andrew on the Coelian
Hill, to which both St. Gregory and St. Augustine belonged. Several commendatory epistles of the
pope recommending Mellitus and his companions to
various Gallic bishops have been preserved (Epp., xi, 54-62). With
the band he sent also "all things needed for divine worship and the Church's service, viz. sacred vessels and altar cloths, vestments for priests and clerics, and also relics of the holy apostles and martyrs, with many books" (Bede, "Hist. Eccl.",
I, 29).
The consecration of Mellitus as bishop by Augustine took place soon after his arrival
in England, and his first missionary efforts were among
the East Saxons. Their king was Sabert, nephew to Ethelbert, King of Kent, and
by his support, Mellitus was able to establish his see in London, the East Saxon capital, and build there the church of St. Paul. On the death of Sabert his sons,
who had refused Christianity, gave permission to their people to
worship idols once more. Moreover, on seeing Mellitus celebrating Mass one day, the young princes demanded that he
should give them also the white bread which he had been wont to give their
father. When the saint answered them that this was impossible until
they had received Christian baptism, he was banished from the kingdom.
Mellitus went to Kent, where similar difficulties had ensued upon the death of
Ethelbert, and thence retired to Gaul about the year 616.
After an absence of about a
year, Mellitus was recalled to Kent by Laurentius, Augustine's successor in the See of Canterbury. Matters had improved in that kingdom owing to
the conversion of the new king Eadbald, but Mellitus was never able to regain
possession of his own See of London. In 619, Laurentius died, and Mellitus was
chosen archbishop in his stead. He appears never to
have received the pallium, though he retained the see for five years-a fact which may account for
his not consecrating any bishops. During this time, he suffered constantly from
ill-health. He consecrated a church to the Blessed Mother of God in the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury, and legend attributes to him the foundation
of the Abbey of St. Peter at Westminster, but this is almost certainly incorrect. Among
the many miracles recorded of him is the quelling of a great
fire at Canterbury which threatened to destroy the
entire city. The saint, although too ill to move, had himself carried to the
spot where the fire was raging and, in answer to his prayer, a strong wind arose which bore the flames
southwards away from the city. Mellitus was buried in the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards St. Augustine's, Canterbury. Some relics of the saint were preserved in London in 1298. The most reliable account of his life
is that given by Bede in "Hist. Eccl.", I, 29, 30; II,
3-7. Elmham in his "Historia Monasterii S. Augustini Cantuar.",
edited by Hardwick, gives many additional details, but the authenticity of
these is more than questionable. His feast is observed on April 24.
Sources
BEDE, Hist. Eccl., I, xxix,
xxx; II, iii-vii, in P.L., XCV; Acta SS.,
April, III, 280; BARONIUS, Ann. Eccl.
(Rome, 1599), ad an. 624; CAPGRAVE, Nova
legenda Angliae (London, 1516), 228; HADDON AND STUBBS, Councils and Eccl. Documents relating to
Great Britain, III (Oxford, 1871), 62-71; HARDY, Descriptive catalogue of MSS. relating to the history of Great Britain
and Ireland, I (Rolls Series, London, 1862), i, 219-220; MABILLON, Acta Sanctorum Bened. (Paris, 1669), II,
90-94; STANTON, Menology of England and
Wales (London, 1887), 178; CHALLONER, Britannia
Sancta, I (London, 1745), 255-258.
Huddleston, Gilbert. "St. Mellitus." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 23 Apr. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10168b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Kenneth M. Caldwell. Dedicated to the memory of Most Rev. John R. Keating, Bishop of
Arlington.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of
New York.
Mellitus of Canterbury,
OSB B (RM)
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 to England in 601
in the wake of Saint Augustine. 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. 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 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, 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 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 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, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
Saint Mellitus is portrayed
in art as Saint Peter brings him a salmon to present to the king (Roeder).
Saint Mellitus of
Canterbury
Also known as
- Mellitus of London
Profile
Abbot
of Saint Andrew’s Abbey
on the Coelian Hill in Rome,
Italy.
Sent by Pope
Saint
Gregory
the Great as a missionary
to England
in 601.
Worked for three years in Kent. Bishop
of London,
England
in 604.
Exiled
to France
for refusing to give Communion
to apostates.
Recalled to serve as Archbishop
of Canterbury,
England
in 619.
- against
gout (he suffered from it, and pilgrims
to Canterbury
who had it were directed to his tomb)
Mellitus, the saint who retook London from barbarians
In an extract
from his new book on landmark Londoners, Boris Johnson tells the tale of the
Roman abbot who built the first church at St Paul’s
“Mellitus?” said the guide with
an air of surprise. I felt as if I had gone into Waitrose and asked for
something quaint —like a hogs-head of mead.
After all, it’s tricky finding a
Londoner who has heard of Mellitus. But Vivien Kermath is one of the accredited
red-sashed guides of St Paul’s Cathedral. She knows her stuff.
“Of course,” she said. “Mellitus.
AD 604. He built the first of several churches that have been on this site. Come
this way, we have an icon.” “An icon?” I boggled.
We walked through the great
church of Christopher Wren, past memorials of Nelson and Wellington. We passed
where Lady Diana Spencer consecrated her ill-fated union to the Prince of
Wales, and the list of former deans, including John Donne and his illustrious
predecessor, Alexander Nowell, who discovered how to bottle beer – “probably
his greatest contribution to humanity”, said Vivien.
At the far end of the church we
came to the American memorial chapel, and there – perched above an illuminated
book recording the names of the 28,000 Americans who gave their lives in the
Second World War — is Mellitus.
To be accurate, it is a rather
recent icon-style portrait of how Mellitus might have looked.
I stared at his long thin nose
and deep-set brown eyes, and tried to think myself back into the mindset of
this valiant Christian saint, this Roman abbot who had been sent here on his
dangerous mission more than 1,400 years ago. Behind Mellitus was London,
tightly walled and neatly roofed, with the dome of St Paul’s bulging to heaven.
Showing off, I deciphered the Greek quotation on Mellitus’ open Bible. “And he
who sat upon the throne said, behold, I make everything new.”
To make everything new. That was
the mission of this Roman bishop to London. Fat chance.
Having paid my respects, I stood
on the steps of St Paul’s imagining the terrible scene that must have greeted
him. Roman London had waxed and waned since Hadrian had left in AD 122, but by
AD 410, terrifying Saxon raids had suppressed the city. Londoners issued a
desperate appeal for help to the emperor, Honorius. Sorry, he said, no can do.
London was forsaken, no longer
deemed part of the empire. Nothing now stood in the way of the most powerful
Germanic tribes, and over they came – and the Romano-Londoners were put to the
sword or driven to the Celtic fringes of the country.
When Mellitus arrived at the
place where I now stood, he saw a post-apocalyptic landscape for a proud Roman.
In my mind’s eye I erased the buses and the tourists and the Costa coffees, and
could see London as it appeared in 604. The baths and the amphitheatre were
wrecked, and swine were kept in the atria of the old villas. The governor’s
palace had tumbled to the ground, and huge tracts of the city — where once tens
of thousands of ambitious Roman Londoners had lived and dreamed — were covered
in black earth.
Such people as remained were
called names like Cathwulf and Ceawlin and, let’s face it, were essentially
German. They had taken off the togas that Agricola had taught them to wear, and
they wore trousers. Yes, the barbarians wore the trousers in London now.
Yet it was worse than that;
almost three centuries after Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, they now
believed in the pagan German pantheon.
When Mellitus arrived, he found
almost no evidence of the Christian presence. But he had a plan. He gazed about
himself there on the top of Ludgate hill, and his eye settled on a dilapidated
Roman temple. That would do, he thought.
His mission had been conceived in
AD 591, when Pope Gregory had been mooching about a slave market in Rome. He
spotted some male slaves with fair skin and golden hair. Where do that lot come
from, he asked.
They are English, the auctioneer
replied – or “Angli sunt.” Gregory clapped his hands and made a joke: “Haud
Angli, sed Angeli!” (“Not Angles, but angels!”)
And tell me, he asked, are they
Christian? Unfortunately not. Right, said Pope Gregory. We’ll see about that.
Gregory sent Mellitus with a
letter on how to convert the heathen Brits. Whatever you do, said Gregory,
don’t rush it. And don’t tear down their temples. Just build new huts on the
side.
Somewhere on the site of what is
now our cathedral, Mellitus persuaded the king (whose wife, as luck would have
it, had Christian leanings) to allow him to construct a church. In the ruins of
what had been a temple of Diana, he built a simple wooden nave and dedicated it
to St Paul. Christianity was back in the soil of London – albeit only
precariously. Following the death of two of his most important Saxon patrons,
Mellitus was driven out of London, never to return.
In time, though, Mellitus’ legacy
was to prove astonishing. That frail wooden Church of St Paul’s was to become
the symbol of national defiance during the Blitz; and to this day, the glimpses
of St Paul’s are so sacred to Londoners that they are protected by elaborate
viewing corridors. No building may impede the sight of the dome from Richmond
Hill, Primrose Hill and other high spots around the city.
And yet when Mellitus was kicked
out, paganism remained so strong that it was not until 654 that Cedd succeeded
as second bishop. In recapturing the city – and the country – for Christianity,
Bishop Mellitus was a figure of decisive historical importance.
Imagine if he had never founded
St Paul’s, or replanted the tender bloom of faith in the blackened soil of
post-Roman London. Imagine if the British elite had continued – to this day –
to swear by brooks and glades and rocks, and not by Jesus Christ.
* “Johnson’s Life of London: The
People Who Made the City that Made the World”, by Boris Johnson, is published
by Harper Press on Nov 3 at £20. To order for £18 plus £1.25 p&p, call
Telegraph Books on 0844 871 1516 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk
The Story of St Mellitus
24 April is the anniversary of the death
in 624 of Mellitus, first Bishop of London in the Anglo-Saxon period and third
Archbishop of Canterbury. Mellitus arrived in England in 601, as part of the
second wave of missionaries sent by Pope Gregory to support Augustine in his
attempt to convert the Anglo-Saxons. With him came Justus (about whom I wrote here) and Paulinus (whose adventures in
Northumbria you can read about here). Mellitus seems to have been the most
senior of the party, since he is the addressee of the famous papal letter in
which Gregory told the missionaries not to destroy the Anglo-Saxons' pagan
temples, customs and sacrifices, but to replace them.
Thanks to Bede, we have a detailed account of Mellitus' activities once he
arrived in Kent, and of the many trials and tribulations of the new church.
Bede is always relevant, but between the missionaries' attempts to reach out to
Scotland, trouble between church and state, and an argument about who can
receive Communion, his story of Christianity's earliest years in England has a
particularly 'ripped from the headlines' feeling this week...
We begin in Book II of the Historia Ecclesiastica (quotations are taken
from A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo
Sherley-Price (Penguin, 1974), ch.3-7):
In the year of
our Lord 604, Augustine, Archbishop of Britain, consecrated two bishops,
Mellitus and Justus. Mellitus was appointed to preach in the province of the
East Saxons, which is separated from Kent by the river Thames, and bounded on
the east by the sea. Its capital is the city of London, which stands on the
banks of the Thames, and is a trading centre for many nations who visit it by
land and sea. At this time Sabert, Ethelbert's nephew through his sister Ricula, ruled
the province under the suzerainty of Ethelbert, who, as already stated,
governed all the English peoples as far north as the Humber. When this province
too had received the faith through the preaching of Mellitus, King Ethelbert
built a church dedicated to the holy Apostle Paul in the city of London, which
he appointed as the episcopal see of Mellitus and his successors.
Augustine also consecrated Justus as bishop of a Kentish city which the English
call Hrofescaestir after an early chieftain named Hrof. This lies nearly
twenty-four miles west of Canterbury, and a church in honour of St. Andrew the
Apostle was built here by King Ethelbert, who made many gifts to the bishops of
both these churches as well as to Canterbury; he later added lands and property
for the maintenance of the bishop's household.
So far, so good for the new church, with Augustine established in Canterbury,
Mellitus in London and Justus in Rochester. The church founded for Mellitus has
since been rebuilt many times over, of course, but it still bears the name by
which its first bishop knew it: St Paul's.
Augustine died in 604 and was buried at what is now St Augustine's Abbey in
Canterbury:
He was succeeded by Laurence, a member of the original Augustinian mission, who
not only sought to consolidate the new faith's position in England but also
tried to extend it to Scotland, writing to the bishops of the British church to
urge them to 'maintain the unity of the universal church' by following Roman
practice. ('The present state of affairs shows how little he succeeded', says
Bede.) But the new church in England was not secure, and was dangerously
dependent on the personal support of King Ethelbert - which became a problem
when Ethelbert died in 616:
The death of
Ethelbert and the accession of his son Eadbald proved to be a severe setback to
the growth of the young church; for not only did [Eadbald] refuse to accept the
faith of Christ, but he was also guilty of such fornication as the Apostle Paul
mentions as being unheard of even among the heathen, in that he took his
father's wife as his own. His immorality was an incentive to those who, either
out of fear or favour to the king his father, had submitted to the discipline
of faith and chastity, to revert to their former uncleanness. However, this
apostate king did not escape the scourge of God's punishment, for he was
subject to frequent fits of insanity and possessed by an evil spirit.
The death of the Christian King Sabert of the East Saxons aggravated the
upheaval; for when he departed for the heavenly kingdom he left three sons, all
pagans, to inherit his earthly kingdom. These were quick to profess idolatry,
which they had pretended to abandon during the lifetime of their father, and encouraged
the people to return to the old gods. It is told that when they saw Bishop
Mellitus offering solemn Mass in church, they said with barbarous presumption:
"Why do you not offer us the white bread which you used to give to our
father Saba (for so they used to call him), while you continue to give it to
the people in church?" The bishop answered, "If you will be washed in
the waters of salvation as your father was, you may share in the consecrated
bread, as he did; but so long as you reject the water of life, you are quite
unfit to receive the Bread of Life." They retorted, "We refuse to
enter that font and see no need for it; but we want to be strengthened with
this bread." The bishop then carefully and repeatedly explained that this
was forbidden, and that no one was admitted to receive the most holy communion
without the most holy cleansing of baptism. At last they grew very angry, and
said, "If you will not oblige us by granting such an easy request, you
shall no longer remain in our kingdom." And they drove him into exile, and
ordered all his followers to leave their borders.
This is interesting, and not only because it provides what may be the first
recorded instance of an Anglo-Saxon nickname ('Saba' for 'Sæberht')! For all
that Bede calls the sons' demand 'barbarous presumption', it's not surprising
that they would struggle to understand Mellitus' refusal to give them the
'white bread' he gave their father, with its apparently magical 'strengthening'
power.
After his
expulsion, Mellitus came to Kent to consult with his fellow-bishops Laurence
and Justus on the best course of action; and they decided it would be better
for all of them to return to their own country and serve God in freedom, rather
than to remain impotently among heathens who had rejected the faith. Mellitus
and Justus left first and settled in Gaul to await the outcome of events. But
the kings who had driven out the herald of truth did not remain long unpunished
for their worship of demons, for they and their army fell in battle against the
West Saxons. Nevertheless, the fate of the instigators did not cause their
people to abandon their evil practices, or to return to the simple faith and
love to be found in Christ alone.
This was a tipping-point for the new church, and could have been the end of
Augustine's mission - but for a miraculous dream:
On the very
night before Laurence too was to follow Mellitus and Justus from Britain, he
ordered his bed to be placed in the church of the blessed Apostles, Peter and
Paul, of which we have spoken several times. Here after long and fervent
prayers for the sadly afflicted church he lay down and fell asleep. At dead of
night, blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, appeared to him, and set about
him for a long time with a heavy scourge, demanding with apostolic sternness
why he was abandoning the flock entrusted to his care, and to which of the
shepherds he would commit Christ's sheep left among the wolves when he fled.
"Have you forgotten my example?" asked Peter. "For the sake of
the little ones whom Christ entrusted to me as proof of his love, I suffered
chains, blows, imprisonment, and pain. Finally I endured death, the death of
crucifixion, at the hands of unbelievers and enemies of Christ, so that at last
I might be crowned with him." Deeply moved by the words and scourging of
blessed Peter, Christ's servant Laurence sought audience with the king
[Eadbald] early next morning, and removing his garment, showed him the marks of
the lash. The king was astounded, and enquired who had dared to scourge so
eminent a man; and when he learned that it was for his own salvation that the
archbishop had suffered so severely at the hands of Christ's own Apostle, he
was greatly alarmed. He renounced idolatry, gave up his unlawful wife, accepted
the Christian faith, and was baptised, henceforward promoting the welfare of
the church with every means at his disposal.
The king also sent to Gaul and recalled Mellitus and Justus, giving them free
permission to return and set their churches in order; so, the year after they
left, they returned. Justus came back to his own city of Rochester, but the
people of London preferred their own idolatrous priests, and refused to accept
Mellitus as bishop. And since the king's authority in the realm was not so
effective as that of his father, he was powerless to restore the bishop to his
see against the refusal and resistance of the pagans.
Bede makes it clear that the new church
could do nothing without the support of the king, and that where the king's
authority stopped, there was nothing the bishops could do. Laurence died in 619
and was buried near Augustine, and Mellitus, unable to return to London,
succeeded him as Archbishop of Canterbury. Bede tells us:
Although
Mellitus became crippled with the gout, his sound and ardent mind overcame his
troublesome infirmity, ever reaching above earthly things to those that are
heavenly in love and devotion. Noble by birth, he was even nobler in
mind.
I record one among many instances of his virtue. One day the city of Canterbury
was set on fire through carelessness, and the spreading flames threatened to
destroy it. Water failed to extinguish the fire, and already a
considerable area of the city was destroyed. As the raging flames were
sweeping rapidly towards his residence, the bishop, trusting in the help of God
where man's help had failed, ordered himself to be carried into the path of its
leaping and darting advance. In the place where the flames were pressing most
fiercely stood the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs. Hither the bishop was
borne by his attendants, and here by his prayers this infirm man averted the
danger which all the efforts of strong men had been powerless to check. For the
southerly wind, which had been spreading the flames throughout the city,
suddenly veered to the north, thus saving the places that lay in their path;
then it dropped altogether, so that the fires burned out and died. Thus
Mellitus, the man of God, afire with love for him, because it had been his
practice by constant prayers and teaching to fend off storms of spiritual evil
from himself and his people, was deservedly empowered to save them from
material winds and flames.
The site of this lost 'church of the
Four Crowned Martyrs' in Canterbury isn't known, but if it was near the
Archbishop's Palace it was probably close to the site of the present-day St
Alphege's Church:
Bede concludes:
Having ruled the church five years,
Mellitus likewise departed to the heavenly kingdom in the reign of King
Eadbald, and was laid to rest with his predecessors in the same monastery
church of the holy Apostle Peter on the twenty-fourth day of April, in the year
of our Lord 624.
Along with Augustine and his other companions, Mellitus came to be venerated as
a saint, at least at St Augustine's Abbey.
SOURCE : http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-story-of-st-mellitus.html
San Mellito di Canterbury Arcivescovo
Martirologio Romano: A Canterbury in Inghilterra, san
Mellíto, vescovo, che, mandato dal papa san Gregorio Magno in Inghilterra come
abate e ordinato poi da sant’Agostino come vescovo dei Sassoni orientali,
giunse, dopo molte avversità, alla illustre sede di Canterbury.
Non si sa quanto tempo impiegarono per raggiungere l’Inghilterra, ma il 17 giugno 601 a Roma, Gregorio era preoccupato di non avere ancora ricevuto loro notizie. Scrivendo all’abate Mellitus (probabilmente ex-abate di sant'Andrea a Roma) in questa data, il papa dava ulteriori istruzioni per Agostino a Canterbury; Gregorio era convinto che i metodi adottati dai missionari dovevano tenere conto del culto pagano profondamente radicato in Inghilterra e adattarsi ad esso e chiedeva, quindi, ad Agostino di «distruggere gli idoli, ma che i templi fossero aspersi d’acqua benedetta, che fossero innalzati altari e che in essi si ponessero reliquie».
Cinque giorni dopo il papa scriveva allo stesso Agostino chiedendogli di consacrare in Inghilterra dodici vescovi: il primo fra questi fa Mellito. Qualche tempo prima del 24 maggio 604, data della morte di Agostino, Mellito divenne primo vescovo dei Sassoni Orientali, la cui capitale era Londra. Più tardi, quando Mellito ne ebbe convertita la popolazione con le sue preghiere, il re Etelberto del Kent costruì la chiesa di san Paolo a Londra, eleggendola sede episcopale di Mellito e dei suoi successori.
Una cosa che colpì particolarmente i missionari gregoriani in Inghilterra fu il rilevare che le chiese britanniche e celtiche si discostavano dagli usi romani sotto molti aspetti. Agostino, Lorenzo, probabilmente Mellito ed i nuovi arrivati avevano potuto osservare da vicino la Chiesa inglese a Bangor, nel Galles settentrionale, nel 602 o 603, durante il grande convegno che qui discusse le differenze tra gli usi celtici e quelli romani. Poco prima della morte di Agostino, l’intransigenza della Chiesa celtica li costrinse a prendere contatti con Colombano in Gallia (non si sa come e quando) e soprattutto con il vescovo Dagano Lugid di Ath-Dagàin (contea di Wicklow, Irlanda).
Dagano, che essi probabilmente incontrarono quando era di passaggio per l’Inghilterra durante il suo viaggio a Roma intrapreso nell'estate del 603 per portare a Gregorio la Regola di san Molua, infatti, li trattò con non comune inciviltà. Ciò risulta da una lettera alla Chiesa celtica che Lorenzo, successore di Agostino, Mellito e Giusto (allora vescovo di Rochester), scrissero nel 605 circa, (tra il 607 e il 610-12, secondo Grosjean), nel tentativo di persuaderla ad accettare gli usi della chiesa universale: «Dominis carissimis episcopis vel abbatibus per universam Scottiam, Laurentius, Mellitus et Iustus episcopi, servi servorum Dei. Quando secondo le sue abitudini, la Sede Apostolica ci inviò nelle regioni occidentali a predicare il Vangelo alle popolazioni pagane, noi giungemmo nell’isola di Britannia. Prima di renderci conto della reale situazione, avevamo alto rispetto per la devozione dei Bretoni e degli Scoti credendo che essi seguissero gli usi della Chiesa universale; ma attraverso un'ulteriore conoscenza dei Bretoni, abbiamo immaginato che gli Scoti fossero migliori. Abbiamo ora appreso, tuttavia, dalla visita nell’isola del vescovo Dagano e dall’abate Colombano in Gallia che gli Scoti non sono diversi dai Brettoni. Quando, infatti, il vescovo Dagano ci ha fatto visita, non solo si è rifiutato di mangiare con noi, ma anche di prendere i suoi pasti nella stessa casa».
Non sappiamo quale fu l’effetto immediato di questa lettera: la controversia non aveva ancora raggiunto tutta la sua asprezza e si sarebbe sviluppata in tutta la sua gravità solo qualche anno dopo la morte di Lorenzo, Mellito e Giusto e, forse, dello stesso Dagano.
All’inizio del 609 Mellito lasciò Londra per Roma per render conto al papa Bonifacio IV dei progressi della Chiesa in Inghilterra. A Roma prese parte al concilio dei vescovi d’Italia qui tenutosi il 27 febbraio 610, dedicato al regolamento della vita e della disciplina monastiche. Tornato in Inghilterra comunicò le decisioni del concilio alla Chiesa inglese "per accettazione e promulgazione" e presentò le lettere di papa Bonifacio a Lorenzo e al re Etelberto del Kent.
Etelberto, che aveva regnato per cinquantasei anni, morì il 27 febbraio 616 e gli successe il suo debole e dissoluto figlio Eadbaldo. Ulteriori turbamenti alla giovane missione portò la morte nello stesso anno del re dei Sassoni Orientali, Saberto, che Mellito aveva convertito alla fede. Gli succedettero i suoi tre figli pagani, i quali, oltretutto, accampavano delle pretese su Mellito. Un giorno, ad esempio, mentre il vescovo celebrava la Messa, essi chiesero fosse loro dato il «bianco pane» (l’Eucaristia) che erano abituati a veder amministrato al loro padre. Avendo Mellito rifiutato, ordinarono immediatamente a lui ed ai suoi seguaci di abbandonare i confini del loro regno. Mellito allora raggiunse Giusto e Lorenzo nel Kent e fu deciso che «sarebbe stato meglio per tutti ritornare nei propri paesi e servire Dio nella libertà piuttosto che restare in mezzo a pagani che avevano respinto la fede. Mellito e Giusto abbandonarono il paese insieme e si stabilirono in Gallia per attendere gli eventi.
L’arcivescovo Lorenzo rimase ancora per qualche tempo, ma si apprestava ad andarsene nel 616 quando apparendogli in sogno, san Pietro lo accusò di codardia e lo flagellò. In seguito, a questo avvenimento Eadbaldo del Kent si convertì avendogli Lorenzo mostrato i segni della sferza; quindi, nel 619, furono richiamati Mellito e Giusto. Quest'ultimo poté nuovamente occupare la sede di Rochester (Kent), mentre Mellito dovette rilevare che malgrado la morte dei tre figli di Saberto nel 616 o 617, i Sassoni Orientali di Londra non desideravano riaverlo come vescovo; essi, infatti, durante la sua permanenza in Gallia erano completamente ritornati alle pratiche pagane. Fu anche vano un appello al re Eadbaldo del Kent poiché il debole sovrano non aveva nulla di ciò che i Sassoni avevano amato in suo padre Etelberto.
Il problema fu in parte risolto personalmente da Mellito quando, alla morte di Lorenzo, il 2 febbraio 619, divenne terzo arcivescovo di Canterbury. Ma egli non era più giovane e fu ben presto colpito dalla gotta. Qualche tempo dopo, nello stesso anno, scoppiò un incendio a Canterbury e l’anziano arcivescovo si fece portare nella chiesa dei santi Quattro Coronati dove le fiamme erano più violente; le sue preghiere fecero sì che un improvviso cambiamento del vento allontanasse l’incendio.
Cinque anni più tardi, il 24 aprile 624, Mellito moriva e fu sepolto con Agostino e Lorenzo nella chiesa del monastero dedicata ai santi Pietro e Paolo, dove egli stesso aveva consacrato alla Madre di Dio una cappella dono del re Eadbaldo. La sua festa è celebrata il 24 aprile nelle diocesi d Westminster, Southwark e Brentwood. È infine interessante notare che nella lista dei vescovi commemorati nello Stowe Missal (circa 800), prima del Nobis quoque peccatoribus, si trovano i nomi di Lorenzo, Mellito, Giusto e Dagano.
Autore: Léonard Boyle
Nella primavera del 601,
in risposta ad un appello di Agostino, il capo della missione inviata da papa
Gregorio Magno in Inghilterra, Mellito fu mandato in quella nazione unitamente
a Giusto, Paolino e Rufiniano. Egli era alla testa dei nuovi missionari e portò
con sé il pallio per Agostino e tutto ciò che era necessario al servizio della
Chiesa, compresi i libri.
Non si sa quanto tempo impiegarono per raggiungere l’Inghilterra, ma il 17 giugno 601 a Roma, Gregorio era preoccupato di non avere ancora ricevuto loro notizie. Scrivendo all’abate Mellitus (probabilmente ex-abate di sant'Andrea a Roma) in questa data, il papa dava ulteriori istruzioni per Agostino a Canterbury; Gregorio era convinto che i metodi adottati dai missionari dovevano tenere conto del culto pagano profondamente radicato in Inghilterra e adattarsi ad esso e chiedeva, quindi, ad Agostino di «distruggere gli idoli, ma che i templi fossero aspersi d’acqua benedetta, che fossero innalzati altari e che in essi si ponessero reliquie».
Cinque giorni dopo il papa scriveva allo stesso Agostino chiedendogli di consacrare in Inghilterra dodici vescovi: il primo fra questi fa Mellito. Qualche tempo prima del 24 maggio 604, data della morte di Agostino, Mellito divenne primo vescovo dei Sassoni Orientali, la cui capitale era Londra. Più tardi, quando Mellito ne ebbe convertita la popolazione con le sue preghiere, il re Etelberto del Kent costruì la chiesa di san Paolo a Londra, eleggendola sede episcopale di Mellito e dei suoi successori.
Una cosa che colpì particolarmente i missionari gregoriani in Inghilterra fu il rilevare che le chiese britanniche e celtiche si discostavano dagli usi romani sotto molti aspetti. Agostino, Lorenzo, probabilmente Mellito ed i nuovi arrivati avevano potuto osservare da vicino la Chiesa inglese a Bangor, nel Galles settentrionale, nel 602 o 603, durante il grande convegno che qui discusse le differenze tra gli usi celtici e quelli romani. Poco prima della morte di Agostino, l’intransigenza della Chiesa celtica li costrinse a prendere contatti con Colombano in Gallia (non si sa come e quando) e soprattutto con il vescovo Dagano Lugid di Ath-Dagàin (contea di Wicklow, Irlanda).
Dagano, che essi probabilmente incontrarono quando era di passaggio per l’Inghilterra durante il suo viaggio a Roma intrapreso nell'estate del 603 per portare a Gregorio la Regola di san Molua, infatti, li trattò con non comune inciviltà. Ciò risulta da una lettera alla Chiesa celtica che Lorenzo, successore di Agostino, Mellito e Giusto (allora vescovo di Rochester), scrissero nel 605 circa, (tra il 607 e il 610-12, secondo Grosjean), nel tentativo di persuaderla ad accettare gli usi della chiesa universale: «Dominis carissimis episcopis vel abbatibus per universam Scottiam, Laurentius, Mellitus et Iustus episcopi, servi servorum Dei. Quando secondo le sue abitudini, la Sede Apostolica ci inviò nelle regioni occidentali a predicare il Vangelo alle popolazioni pagane, noi giungemmo nell’isola di Britannia. Prima di renderci conto della reale situazione, avevamo alto rispetto per la devozione dei Bretoni e degli Scoti credendo che essi seguissero gli usi della Chiesa universale; ma attraverso un'ulteriore conoscenza dei Bretoni, abbiamo immaginato che gli Scoti fossero migliori. Abbiamo ora appreso, tuttavia, dalla visita nell’isola del vescovo Dagano e dall’abate Colombano in Gallia che gli Scoti non sono diversi dai Brettoni. Quando, infatti, il vescovo Dagano ci ha fatto visita, non solo si è rifiutato di mangiare con noi, ma anche di prendere i suoi pasti nella stessa casa».
Non sappiamo quale fu l’effetto immediato di questa lettera: la controversia non aveva ancora raggiunto tutta la sua asprezza e si sarebbe sviluppata in tutta la sua gravità solo qualche anno dopo la morte di Lorenzo, Mellito e Giusto e, forse, dello stesso Dagano.
All’inizio del 609 Mellito lasciò Londra per Roma per render conto al papa Bonifacio IV dei progressi della Chiesa in Inghilterra. A Roma prese parte al concilio dei vescovi d’Italia qui tenutosi il 27 febbraio 610, dedicato al regolamento della vita e della disciplina monastiche. Tornato in Inghilterra comunicò le decisioni del concilio alla Chiesa inglese "per accettazione e promulgazione" e presentò le lettere di papa Bonifacio a Lorenzo e al re Etelberto del Kent.
Etelberto, che aveva regnato per cinquantasei anni, morì il 27 febbraio 616 e gli successe il suo debole e dissoluto figlio Eadbaldo. Ulteriori turbamenti alla giovane missione portò la morte nello stesso anno del re dei Sassoni Orientali, Saberto, che Mellito aveva convertito alla fede. Gli succedettero i suoi tre figli pagani, i quali, oltretutto, accampavano delle pretese su Mellito. Un giorno, ad esempio, mentre il vescovo celebrava la Messa, essi chiesero fosse loro dato il «bianco pane» (l’Eucaristia) che erano abituati a veder amministrato al loro padre. Avendo Mellito rifiutato, ordinarono immediatamente a lui ed ai suoi seguaci di abbandonare i confini del loro regno. Mellito allora raggiunse Giusto e Lorenzo nel Kent e fu deciso che «sarebbe stato meglio per tutti ritornare nei propri paesi e servire Dio nella libertà piuttosto che restare in mezzo a pagani che avevano respinto la fede. Mellito e Giusto abbandonarono il paese insieme e si stabilirono in Gallia per attendere gli eventi.
L’arcivescovo Lorenzo rimase ancora per qualche tempo, ma si apprestava ad andarsene nel 616 quando apparendogli in sogno, san Pietro lo accusò di codardia e lo flagellò. In seguito, a questo avvenimento Eadbaldo del Kent si convertì avendogli Lorenzo mostrato i segni della sferza; quindi, nel 619, furono richiamati Mellito e Giusto. Quest'ultimo poté nuovamente occupare la sede di Rochester (Kent), mentre Mellito dovette rilevare che malgrado la morte dei tre figli di Saberto nel 616 o 617, i Sassoni Orientali di Londra non desideravano riaverlo come vescovo; essi, infatti, durante la sua permanenza in Gallia erano completamente ritornati alle pratiche pagane. Fu anche vano un appello al re Eadbaldo del Kent poiché il debole sovrano non aveva nulla di ciò che i Sassoni avevano amato in suo padre Etelberto.
Il problema fu in parte risolto personalmente da Mellito quando, alla morte di Lorenzo, il 2 febbraio 619, divenne terzo arcivescovo di Canterbury. Ma egli non era più giovane e fu ben presto colpito dalla gotta. Qualche tempo dopo, nello stesso anno, scoppiò un incendio a Canterbury e l’anziano arcivescovo si fece portare nella chiesa dei santi Quattro Coronati dove le fiamme erano più violente; le sue preghiere fecero sì che un improvviso cambiamento del vento allontanasse l’incendio.
Cinque anni più tardi, il 24 aprile 624, Mellito moriva e fu sepolto con Agostino e Lorenzo nella chiesa del monastero dedicata ai santi Pietro e Paolo, dove egli stesso aveva consacrato alla Madre di Dio una cappella dono del re Eadbaldo. La sua festa è celebrata il 24 aprile nelle diocesi d Westminster, Southwark e Brentwood. È infine interessante notare che nella lista dei vescovi commemorati nello Stowe Missal (circa 800), prima del Nobis quoque peccatoribus, si trovano i nomi di Lorenzo, Mellito, Giusto e Dagano.
Autore: Léonard Boyle
