Hierarch Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury

St. Theodore of Tarsus was born around 602 in Tarsus in Cilicia, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul. After the Arab conquest of Tarsus in 637, he moved to Constantinople, receiving a broad education in theology, rhetoric, philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and Roman law, then settling in a monastery in Rome. In 668, when the English Church had been left without bishops after an outbreak of plague, Pope Vitalian consecrated the 66-year-old Theodore as Archbishop of Canterbury and sent him to Britain. Despite his age, he proved remarkably energetic: he traveled the country, filled vacant sees, and organized church administration on the model of the universal Church. In 672 he convened the Synod of Hertford, the first general council of the English Church; in 679 the Synod of Hatfield condemned Monothelitism. He founded a school at Canterbury teaching Greek language and literature. He reposed in 690, leaving behind a unified English Church.