St. Augustine of Canterbury

St. Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk of Rome, prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on the Caelian Hill, when Pope St. Gregory the Great chose him in 596 to lead a mission to the Anglo-Saxons of Britain. Little is known of his early life; the story of his mission, by contrast, is well documented, above all by St. Bede the Venerable in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The mission nearly ended before it began. Crossing Gaul, Augustine's party of some forty monks heard such fearful reports of the fierce, pagan English that Augustine turned back to Rome to ask leave to abandon the journey. Gregory refused, gently but firmly, and sent him on with letters of encouragement. In 597 the monks landed in Kent, where King Ethelbert—whose Frankish queen, Bertha, was already a Christian—received them cautiously, then granted them a dwelling in Canterbury and freedom to preach. Ethelbert himself was eventually baptized, and tradition relates that thousands of his people followed him to the font, with one famous account telling of a great baptism of ten thousand on Christmas Day 597. Consecrated bishop, Augustine established his see at Canterbury, becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and founded the abbey of Sts. Peter and Paul—later known as St. Augustine's Abbey—just outside the city walls. Guided by a remarkable exchange of letters with Gregory, he organized the infant English church, establishing sees at London and Rochester. His attempts to reach an accord with the bishops of the older British (Celtic) church ended in failure, a sorrow of his final years, though unity would come generations later. Augustine died at Canterbury on May 26, 604, and was buried in his abbey church, whose evocative ruins pilgrims can still visit today as part of Canterbury's World Heritage Site. Honored as the 'Apostle of the English,' he is a patron of England. His feast is kept on May 27 in the General Roman Calendar, and on May 26 in England.