The Collect
Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Theodore of Tarsus From Rome to the see of Canterbury, and didst give him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in thy Church, we pray, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Readings: (2 Timothy 2:1-5,10; Matthew 24:42-47)
S. Theodore of Tarsus was the seventh archbishop of Canterbury and the first archbishop to rule the whole English Church.
Appointed by Pope S. Vitalian, he organized the English Church, many sees of which were vacant on his arrival and others of which needed to be divided. In 672 he called at Hertford the first general synod of the English Church to end certain Celtic practices and to divide dioceses. The division issue was postponed, but the synod imposed the date of the Roman Easter, established obedience for clerics and monks, forbade bishops to interfere in other dioceses, and reaffirmed the church teaching on marriage and divorce.
S. Theodore’s greatest achievement was to adapt the Roman ideal of a centralized church to English conditions. His establishment of a centralized church under the archbishopric of Canterbury in close alliance with secular rulers was maintained by his successors.
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