St Augustine of Canterbury

An Italian Benedictine monk who became the “Apostle of the English,” Saint Augustine of Canterbury is honored by the Catholic Church on his feast day today, May 27. Under the direction of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Augustine founded the famous See of Canterbury and preached the Catholic faith to the country's Anglo-Saxon pagans during the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Most likely born in Rome to a noble family, he entered monastic life as a young man. The community he joined had been recently founded by a Benedictine monk named Gregory, who would go on to become Pope and eventually be known as St. Gregory the Great. The friendship between Gregory and Augustine had great historical consequences, as it was the Pope who would eventually send his fellow monk to evangelize England. Around 595, five years into his 14-year pontificate, Pope Gregory set to work on a plan for the conversion of the English people. The country was dominated by Anglo-Saxon invaders who did not accept Christianity, and so for this task the Pope chose a group of around forty monks – including Augustine, who became their leader. The group left for England in June 596, but some of the missionaries, including Augustine went back to receive more support. Back in England in 597 they gained an audience with King Ethelbert of Kent, a pagan ruler whose Frankish wife Queen Bertha was a Christian. Ethelbert would later convert, and eventually even be canonized as a Saint. He received the missionaries with hospitality, and permit them to evangelize without any restriction. They made their home in Canterbury, after dramatically entering the city in procession with the Cross and an image of Christ. The Canterbury community lived according to the Rule of St. Benedict, as they had in Italy, but they also preached in the surrounding area, including to Gaul, where he was consecrated as a bishop for the English Church. By Christmas of 597, over ten thousand people were actively seeking baptism from the missionaries. Both Gregory the Great, and Augustine died during the same year, 604. Augustine had given the faith a firm foothold among the Anglo-Saxons. Canterbury would continue on for centuries as the ranking see of English Catholicism, until its fall into schism during the 16th century when Protestantism broke away from the Catholic Church.