Mellitus

Who they were

Mellitus, a Roman of noble birth and probably an abbot, led the second group of missionaries Pope Gregory the Great sent to join St. Augustine at Canterbury in 601. Augustine made him bishop, and with the support of King Sabert of the East Saxons he set up his see in London and built the church of St. Paul. When Sabert's pagan sons came to power they drove him out for refusing them the Eucharist unless they were baptised, and he withdrew for a time to Gaul.

Recalled to Kent, he became the third Archbishop of Canterbury in 619 and held the see for five years despite constant ill-health. Bede tells that when fire threatened Canterbury he had himself carried to the spot, and at his prayer a wind rose and turned the flames from the city. He died on 24 April 624, his feast day.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

An early missionary to England, first Bishop of London and third Archbishop of Canterbury.

Connected on this site

• Gregory I Saint
  “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.” — Wikipedia