Ithamar (sometimes YthamarFarmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 266) was the first bishop in England to be Saxon-born rather than consecrated by the Irish or from among Augustine's Roman missionaries. He was also the first Saxon

bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester, Kent, Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Rochester Cathedral, Cathedral Chur ...

Life

Ithamar was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury,

Honorius Honorius (; 9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho ...

, and was said by

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

to be "of the Kentish nation, but not inferior to his piscopalpredecessors for learning and conduct of life". Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', 3.14 Upon consecration as bishop, Ithamar took his new name from

Ithamar In the Bible, Ithamar () was the fourth (and the youngest) son of Aaron the High Priest."Ithamar", '' Encyclopaedia Biblica'' Following the construction of the Tabernacle, he was responsible for recording an inventory to ensure that the construc ...

, a son of

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

, from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. Although a number of new Anglo-Saxon bishops had taken new names upon either entering religious life or upon consecration as bishops, these names were usually taken from church history.Sharpe "Naming of Bishop Ithamar" ''English Historical Review'', pp. 890–891 The practice of taking a new name from the Old Testament was extremely rare in the Roman tradition, but did occur more often in the

Celtic Church Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiab ...

.Sharpe "Naming of Bishop Ithamar" ''English Historical Review'', pp. 892–894 As bishop, Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

on 26 March 655.Bethell "Miracles of St. Ithamar" ''Analecta Bollandiana'' pp. 421–423

Death and legacy

Ithamar died between 655 and 664,Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 221 probably close to 656, at Rochester.Walsh ''A New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 287 After Ithamar's death he was considered a saint and given a shrine at

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is in Rochester, Kent, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Rochester and seat (''cathedra'') of the Bishop of Rocheste ...

. His feast day is 10 June. There is no written ''Life'' detailing his biography, but a short work giving his miracles was composed in the 12th century. At that time, his remains were translated to a new larger shrine in

. The work on his miracles survives in one manuscript, MS Corpus Christi College Cambridge 161.

Citations

References

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External links

* – listing of most contemporary and close to contemporary mentions of Ithamar in the

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...

s. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ithamar Bishops of Rochester 7th-century English bishops Burials at Rochester Cathedral