Saint Mellitus was the first bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity.
12 Facts About Mellitus
1.
2.
Mellitus arrived in 601 AD with a group of clergy sent to augment the mission, and was consecrated as Bishop of London in 604.
3.
Mellitus was the recipient of a famous letter from Pope Gregory I known as the Epistola ad Mellitum, preserved in a later work by the medieval chronicler Bede, which suggested the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons be undertaken gradually, integrating pagan rituals and customs.
4.
In 610, Mellitus returned to Italy to attend a council of bishops, and returned to England bearing papal letters to some of the missionaries.
5.
The medieval chronicler Bede described Mellitus as being of noble birth.
6.
In letters, Pope Gregory I called him an abbot, but it is unclear whether Mellitus had previously been abbot of a Roman monastery, or this was a rank bestowed on him to ease his journey to England by making him the leader of the expedition.
7.
The first time Mellitus is mentioned in history is in the letters of Gregory, and nothing else of his background is known.
8.
Mellitus was recalled to Britain by Laurence, the second Archbishop of Canterbury, after his conversion of Eadbald.
9.
Mellitus did not return to London, because the East Saxons remained pagan.
10.
Mellitus succeeded Laurence as the third Archbishop of Canterbury after the latter's death in 619.
11.
Mellitus was carried into the flames, upon which the wind changed direction, thus saving the building.
12.
Whether Mellitus received a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, from the pope is unknown.