The saint in the calendar for today, Saturday 19 September, is St Theodore of Tarsus.
The Tarsus connection is that this was his place of birth. Most of his life was spent elsewhere including Rome and England.
It was when he was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690 that he came to Hertford.
In September 673 he had called a synod and chose Hertford as the location for the gathering of Anglo-Saxon bishops. Also present was the King of Northumbria.
The Synod of Hertford was the trigger for reforms and redrawing of diocesan boundaries. But the most lasting decision was agreeing on alignment concerning the date of Easter for England. This completed the work of the Synod of Whitby in 664 and brought a unified Church in England into line with the international Church.
Theodore, known as the ‘organiser of the English Church’, died in office on 19 September 690.
