The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precursor office was the prior of the cathedral-monastery.[1]
The current Dean, David Monteith was installed on 17 December 2022,[2] and is the 40th Dean since the Reformation, though the position of Dean and Prior as the religious head of the community is almost identical so the line is unbroken back to the time of the foundation of the community by Saint Augustine in AD 597. The previous Dean, the Very Rev. Robert Willis, was appointed in 2001 and retired on 16 May 2022, a day before his 75th birthday.[3]
List of deans
edit820–1080
edit
Version on show in the Cathedral (west end)edit |
Victoria County History, 1926edit
|
Priors of Canterbury
editAbout a century after becoming a monastic foundation late in the 10th century, the Cathedral started to be headed by a prior rather than a dean. It would next have a dean after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Post-Reformation Deans
editReferences
edit- ^ A full list of the priors and Deans and Canterbury is given in A History of Canterbury Cathedral, ed. P. Collinson, N. Ramsay, M. Sparks. (OUP 1995, revised edition 2002), page 565.
- ^ Chapter Members: Canterbury Cathedral, 17 December 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
- ^ "The Dean of Canterbury to retire". Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
- ^ Houses of Benedictine monks: The cathedral priory of the Holy Trinity or Christ Church, Canterbury, A History of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1926), pp. 113–121. accessed: 08 September 2009.
- ^ "New Dean of Canterbury Announced". Canterbury Cathedral. 10 October 2022. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
