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Mellitus was the first Bishop of London, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He arrived in 601 AD, and was consecrated as Bishop of London in 604. Pope Gregory I sent Mellitus a letter now known as the Epistola ad Mellitum, which suggested the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons be undertaken gradually and integrate pagan rituals and customs. Following the deaths of his patrons, King Sæberht of Essex and King Æthelberht of Kent, Mellitus was exiled from London and forced to take refuge in Gaul. Æthelberht's successor converted to Christianity the following year, and Mellitus returned to England. Unable to return to the pagan inhabitants of London, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 619. During his tenure, he was alleged to have miraculously saved the cathedral, and much of the town of Canterbury, from a fire. After his death in 624, Mellitus was revered as a saint. (more...)

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  • On this day...

    April 24: Easter (Christianity, 2011); Republic Day in The Gambia (1970)

    Statue of Thutmose III

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    Concretions

    Concretions on Bowling Ball Beach in Mendocino County, California. A concretion is a volume of sedimentary rock in which a mineral cement fills the spaces between the sediment grains, usually forming an ovoid or spherical shape. This normally occurs early in the burial history of the sediment, before the rest of the sediment is hardened into rock.

    Photo: Mila Zinkova

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