Augustine of Canterbury
The monk whom Gregory the Great sent from Rome in 596 to preach to the English. He was received by King Aethelberht of Kent, became the first bishop at Canterbury and died there within a few years of Gregory.
Gregory calls Augustine “a monk of my monastery” and says that he was made a bishop, with Gregory’s leave, on his way to the English (Gregory the Great, Letters 8.30); Bede says that he was consecrated at Arles (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 1.27). Bede tells how the party tried to turn back, how Gregory made Augustine their abbot and sent them on, and how they landed in Kent with Frankish interpreters, nearly forty in number (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 1.23, 1.25).
Once established he sent Gregory a list of practical questions about bishops, liturgy, marriage and ritual purity, and Bede copies the pope’s answers (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 1.27). He restored a church at Canterbury that was said to have been built by Roman Christians, dedicated it to the Saviour and made it his seat, and began a monastery of Saints Peter and Paul outside the walls (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 1.33). In 604 he consecrated bishops for London and Rochester (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 2.3). Bede does not give the year of his death; his epitaph dates it to 26 May in the reign of King Aethelberht of Kent (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 2.3).
In the timeline
- AD 590 to AD 604, firm dateGregory the Great and the Mission to the English
Gregory I, a monk made pope against his will, governs the Roman church from 590 to 604, writes the Pastoral Rule, refuses the title of universal bishop and sends the monk Augustine to convert the English of Kent.