Holy Hierarch Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury

Rochester Cathedral

Today is the feast-day of Saint Justus, the first Bishop of Rochester and the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of Roman missionaries, along with Saints Laurence and Mellitus, sent in the second group by the saintly Pope Gregory Dialogos to Britain in 601 to support the mission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury to the folk of Kent. As with many of the early saints of England, what we know about Saint Justus comes largely from the heroic historiographical work undertaken by Saint Bede.

Bede is somewhat elliptic about Justus’s virtues, though he notes that he was one of the ‘most outstanding’ clergy among the second missionary group sent by Pope Gregory. He notes that within three years Augustine had made Justus the Bishop of Rochester – a small but symbolically-important see that was seated within a walled town on Watling Street. Saint Justus was probably a sæcular priest, not a monk, before he was ordained a bishop. He may have received the tonsure concurrently with the bestowal of his bishopric, as several later Cantuarian monks claimed him as a member of their order.

Saint Justus affixed his name to a letter, written jointly with Saints Laurence and Mellitus and preserved by Saint Bede, addressed to the Celtic Christians of Scotland and Ireland. The letter chides them for having broken brotherly hospitality to the missionaries among the English and not having conformed to the standard Roman Liturgical uses and practices. Being rather brusque and peremptory in tone, the letter did not have the desired effect on its Celtic readers.

After the death of Æþelberht King and the persecution of the Church under his heathen successors, Saint Mellitus conferred with Saints Justus and Laurence about leaving the mission and returning to Gaul. Justus accompanied Mellitus in his flight; only Laurence stayed behind, and at that only temporarily. It was only after Saint Peter appeared to Laurence in a vision, and upbraided him harshly for abandoning his charge, that the last was able to convince Éadbald King of the truth of the Christian faith and prevail upon his brethren to return to England.

Indeed, Saint Justus returned to Rochester and, as Bede recounts, was received back by the folk of Rochester gladly. This is direct contradistinction to Saint Mellitus, who was rejected by the people of London. Justus had a reputation in Rochester for even-handedness, devotion, diligence and care as an ecclesiastical governor. He served there for eight years. At that point he succeeded Saint Mellitus as Archbishop of Canterbury, who had by the time of his repose served five years in that office.

Saint Justus consecrated one Romanus as bishop of Rochester in his place, and received the omophor from Pope Boniface V of Rome, along with a warm and heartfelt letter of high commendation from the Pontiff – which has been preserved in full in the History of the English Church and People. He also consecrated Saint Paulinus as a missionary bishop among the Northumbrians, and sent him along with Æþelburg to the court of her bridegroom Éadwine.

Saint Justus reposed in the Lord and was ‘taken up into the heavenly kingdom’ on the tenth of November, 634. He was thereafter succeeded in office by Saint Honorius, who was consecrated in extremis by Saint Paulinus (who had come south on the perilous road through heathen Mercia into Lincoln for the purpose). Holy father Justus, righteous and gentle archbishop, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!