Theodore of Tarsus (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Theodore (602 - 19 September 690) was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury. Theodore's life can be divided into the time before his arrival in Britain as Archbishop of Canterbury, and his archiepiscopate. Until recently, scholarship on Theodore had focused on only the latter period since it is attested in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English, and also in Stephen of Ripon's Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, whereas no source directly mentions Theodore's earlier activities. However, Michael Lapidge and Bernard Bischoff have reconstructed his earlier life based on a study of texts produced by his Canterbury school. Theodore was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a Greek-speaking diocese of the Byzantine Empire. Theodore's childhood experienced devastating wars between Byzantium and the Persian Empire, which resulted in the capture of Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem in 613-14. Tarsus was captured by Persian forces when Theodore was 11 or 12. There is evidence that Theodore had experience of Persian culture.