TEODORO, archbishop of CANTERBURY. — Philosopher, theologian, canonist, born at Tarsus in Cilicia around 602, died at Canterbury on 19 September 690.
He began his education at Tarsus and completed it at Athens (Pope Zaccaria called him: Graeco-latinus ante philosophus et Athénus eruditus). He came to Italy, perhaps in the entourage of Constans II (in 667 he was in Rome); he was a monk in a Basilian monastery but had not received sacred orders, at a time when the Church of England was in crisis because of the conflict between supporters of Roman usages and the Scots. When
Wigard, designated metropolitan of England, died, he was chosen by Pope Vitaliano to succeed him, after the refusal of Abbot Adriano, and on 26 March 668 was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. Immense was his work of reorganization and discipline in the English Church. At the Council of Hertford (637) he succeeded in having many provisions drawn from the Collectio Canonum of Dionysius the Little accepted, and at the Council of Hertford (680) he had the decisions of the Roman Synod against Monothelitism implemented. On his arrival in Anglia, he had found only four dioceses; at his death there were more than 12, established by him through arduous labor and through his prestige with the various kings, among whom he often worked to promote peace. More than for this, his importance lies in his having been «the first archbishop whom the entire English Church obeyed» (Bede); by achieving unity among the bishops (he acted as though the diocese of York were directly subject to him, although canonically it was at the head of its own province), he brought English customs and canonical laws into conformity with Roman ones. Moreover, T. favored Adriano, a teacher at the school of Canterbury, so that, according to Bede, many students at that time «were as proficient in the Greek and Latin languages as in their own»; and under him Adriano reorganized monastic life. Testimonies to his work are the Poenitenialis, the Capitula, and the Judicia: although their direct authorship cannot be proved, the oldest tradition traces their source back to him. The most recent critical and annotated edition is that of P. W. Einsterwalder, Die Canones Theodori Cantuariensis und Überlieferungsformen, Weimar 1929.
Augusto Moreschini-Giuseppe Gill