Deusdedit (died ) was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death, probably from plague. Deusdedit's successor as archbishop was one of his priests at Canterbury. There is some controversy over the exact date of Deusdedit's death, owing to discrepancies in the medieval written work recording his life. Little is known about his episcopate, but he was considered a saint after his death. A saint's life was written after his relics were moved from their original burial place in 1091.
Life
A post-Norman Conquest tradition, originating with Goscelin, He was consecrated by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, on 26 March or perhaps 12 March 655. One reason for the long period between the Christianization of the Kentish kingdom from Anglo-Saxon paganism in about 600 and the appointment of the first native archbishop may have been the need for the schools established by the Gregorian missionaries to educate the natives to a sufficiently high standard for them to take ecclesiastical office. Deusdedit probably owed his appointment to the see of Canterbury to a collaboration between Eorcenberht of Kent and Cenwalh of Wessex. and had been the name of a recent pope, it was the practice of many of the early medieval Saxon bishops to take an adopted name, often from recent papal names. During Deusdedit's nine years as archbishop, all the new bishops in England were consecrated by Celtic or foreign bishops, with one exception: He was long overshadowed by Agilbert, bishop to the West Saxons, and his authority as archbishop probably did not extend past his own diocese and that of Rochester, which had traditionally been dependent on Canterbury. Deusdedit does not appear to have been present, perhaps because of an outbreak of plague in England at the time.
Death
Deusdedit died at some time around the Synod of Whitby, although the exact date is disputed. A solar eclipse occurred on 1 May 664, which would appear to make the date of Deusdedit's death 14 July 664. But that conflicts with Bede's own information earlier in the Historia, where he claims that Deusdedit's predecessor, Honorius, "died on the thirtieth of September 653, and after a vacancy of eighteen months Deusdedit, a West Saxon, was elected to the archiepiscopal see and so became the sixth Archbishop. He was consecrated by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester, on the twenty-sixth of March [655], and ruled the see until his death nine years, four months, and two days later." If this information is accurate, then Deusdedit must have died on 28 July 664. The main argument was put forward by Grosjean, who claimed that Bede had the consecration date wrong, as 26 March was Maundy Thursday in 655, not a date that would normally have been chosen for a consecration. Grosjean argues that the best method for resolving the conflicts is to just take 14 July 664 as the date of death, and figure backward with the length of reign given by Bede, which gives a consecration date of 12 March 655.
Most historians state that Deusdedit died of the plague that was prevalent in England at the time. Because Bede records the death of Deusdedit shortly after he mentions the outbreak of the plague, the historian J. R. Maddicott asserts that both Deusdedit and Eorcenberht were struck suddenly with the disease and died quickly.
Legacy
Except for the bare facts of his life, little is known about Deusdedit. Deusdedit was regarded as a saint after his death, with a feast day of 14 July, although the Bosworth Psalter, a late 10th or early 11th-century psalter produced at , gives a date of 15 July. Deusdedit was buried in the church of St Augustine's in Canterbury, but was translated to the new abbey church in 1091. A hagiography, or saint's biography, on Deusdedit was written by Goscelin after the translation of his relics, but the work was based mainly on Bede's account; Because of the late date of the Sancto, Bede's Historia is the main source for what little is known about Deusdedit.