Honorius of Canterbury

Origins and election

Bede calls Honorius "one of the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, a man very highly instructed in ecclesiastical learning" (History V.19); Orthodox England's notice adds that he was born in Rome. When and how he came to England Bede does not record; he first appears in the History at his election to Canterbury. On the death of Archbishop Justus — Bede gives the day, November 10, but not the year — Honorius was chosen in his stead, and travelled north to Paulinus of York for ordination. The two met at Lincoln, and there, in the stone church that Paulinus had built in that city, Honorius was "consecrated the fifth prelate of the Church of Canterbury from Augustine" (History II.16, II.18) — the succession being Augustine, Laurence, Mellitus, Justus, Honorius.

Pope Honorius I sent him the pall, together with a letter — "Honorius to his most beloved brother Honorius," dated by its dating-clause to the year 634 and quoted entire by Bede (II.18) — establishing, as the pope had already written to King Edwin, that whenever the archbishop of Canterbury or of York should die, the survivor might consecrate a successor in the departed one's place, sparing the English church the long journey to Rome for every archiepiscopal ordination.

Primacy

Bede shows Honorius at the centre of the young English church for some quarter of a century.

When Felix, a Burgundian by birth and ordination, came to him desiring to labour among the heathen English, Honorius sent him to preach to the East Angles, whose king Sigebert supported the mission; Felix fixed his see at Dunwich and reaped, in Bede's phrase, a plentiful harvest (History II.15). The Orthodox England notice says that Honorius "consecrated" Felix; Bede rather says that Felix came to Honorius already born and ordained in Burgundy and was sent by him — the divergence is recorded here and not resolved.

After King Edwin fell in battle in 633, Paulinus took Queen Ethelburgh and her children by sea back to Kent, "and was very honourably received by the Archbishop Honorius and King Eadbald." The see of Rochester then being vacant — its bishop Romanus had drowned on an embassy to Rome — Paulinus, at the request of Honorius and the king, took charge of that church and held it until his death (History II.20; see the entry of Ethelburgh of Lyminge).

When Paulinus died in 644, Honorius consecrated in his place Ithamar, "of the Kentish nation, but not inferior to his predecessors in learning and conduct of life" (History III.14) — the first bishop of English birth. When Felix of the East Angles died after seventeen years in his see, Honorius consecrated his deacon Thomas, of the province of the Gyrwas, and on Thomas's death five years later, Bertgils surnamed Boniface, a man of Kent (History III.20).

Bede also records the manner of the man in one detail: Aidan of Lindisfarne, though he kept the Irish Easter, "was deservedly beloved by all... and was held in veneration, not only by less important persons, but even by the bishops, Honorius of Canterbury, and Felix of the East Angles" (History III.25) — the Roman-trained archbishop honouring the Irish missionary across the very controversy that divided their traditions.

Repose

"Honorius himself also, having run his course, departed this life in the year of our Lord 653, on the 30th of September; and when the see had been vacant a year and six months, Deusdedit of the nation of the West Saxons was chosen the sixth Archbishop of Canterbury," and was consecrated by Ithamar — the English bishop whom Honorius had made ordaining the English successor of the last of the Roman line but one (History III.20).

Bede does not record his burial. The pre-Conquest English list of the saints' resting-places records that Augustine "and very many of his successors" rest in the monastery of the Apostles Peter and Paul outside Canterbury (St Augustine's), where the first archbishops were laid; Honorius is to be understood among that company.