Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Petronius

by William Hunt

PETRONIUS (d. 654), fifth abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, is said to have been a Roman, and to have been hallowed abbot of St. Augustine's by Archbishop Honorius [q. v.] in 640, two years after the date assigned to the death of his predecessor Gratiosus. This delay is explained by the supposition that Honorius was absent on some journey. The date assigned to the death of Petronius is 654. There was no record or tradition of his place of burial in the fifteenth century, nor is there any early authority known for his existence. An epitaph describes him as a good man, a teacher of his monks, and a lover of purity.

[Elmham's Hist. S. August. Cant. pp. 175, 183, ed. Hardwick (Rolls Ser.); Thorn's Chron. S. August. Cant. col. 1769, ed. Twysden; Somner's Antiq. of Cant. pt. ii. p. 164, ed. Batteley; Dugdale's Monasticon, i. 120; Dict. Chr. Biogr. art. ‘Petronius’ (5) by Bishop Stubbs.]

W. H.