Editing Mellitus (section)

==Archbishop and death==
Mellitus succeeded Laurence as the third Archbishop of Canterbury after the latter's death in 619.<ref name=Handbook213>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 213</ref> During his tenure as archbishop, Mellitus supposedly performed a miracle in 623 by diverting a fire that had started in [[Canterbury]] and threatened the church. He was carried into the flames, upon which the wind changed direction, thus saving the building.<ref name=Brooks30>Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' p. 30</ref> Bede praised Mellitus's sane mind, but other than the miracle, little happened during his time as archbishop.<ref name=Hindley43>Hindley ''Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons'' p. 43</ref> Bede also mentioned that Mellitus suffered from [[gout]].<ref name=Blair86/> Boniface wrote to Mellitus encouraging him in the mission, perhaps prompted by the marriage of [[Æthelburh of Kent]] to King [[Edwin of Northumbria]]. Whether Mellitus received a [[pallium]], the symbol of an archbishop's authority, from the pope is unknown.<ref name=DNB/>
[[File:Staugustinescanterburygravemellitus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.23|Stone marking the site of Mellitus's grave in [[St Augustine's Abbey]], [[Canterbury]]]]
Mellitus died on 24 April 624,<ref name=Handbook213/> and was buried at [[St Augustine's Abbey]] in Canterbury that same day.<ref name=DNB/> He became revered as a saint after his death, and was allotted the feast day of&nbsp;24 April.<ref name=Walsh420>Walsh ''New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 420</ref> In the ninth century, Mellitus's feast day was mentioned in the [[Stowe Missal]], along with Laurence and Justus.<ref name=ODS366>Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 366</ref> He was still venerated at St Augustine's in 1120, along with a number of other local saints.<ref name=Father>Hayward "Absent Father" ''Journal of Medieval History'' p. 217 footnote 72</ref> There was also a shrine to him at [[Old St Paul's Cathedral]] in London.<ref name=Shrines36>Nilson ''Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England'' p. 36</ref> Shortly after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]], [[Goscelin]] wrote a life of Mellitus, the first of several to appear around that time, but none contain any information not included in Bede's earlier works. These later medieval lives do, however, reveal that during Goscelin's lifetime persons suffering from gout were urged to pray at Mellitus's tomb.<ref name=DNB/> Goscelin records that Mellitus's shrine flanked that of Augustine, along with Laurence, in the eastern central chapel of the [[Presbytery (architecture)|presbytery]].<ref name=Gem8>Gem "Significance of the 11th-century Rebuilding" ''Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury'' p. 8</ref>