Augustine

Augustine, or AUSTIN, ST, first Archbishop of Canterbury, was prior of the Benedictine monastery of St Andrew at Rome, when, in 596, he was sent, with forty other monks, by Pope Gregory I., to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, and establish the authority of the Roman see in Britain. Landing in Thanet, the missionaries were kindly received by Ethelbert, king of Kent, whose wife Bertha, daughter of the Frankish king, was a Christian, and retained a bishop in her suite as chaplain. A residence was assigned to them at Canterbury, where they devoted themselves to monastic exercises and preaching. The conversion and baptism of the king contributed greatly to the success of their efforts among his subjects, and it is recorded that in one day Augustine baptised 10,000 persons in the river Swale. Nominal as much of this conversion must have been, there is abundant testimony to the fact that a marked improvement in the life and manners of the Anglo-Saxons followed the evangelistic labours of Augustine and his companions. In 597 he went to Arles, and there was consecrated Bishop of the English. On his return, he despatched a presbyter and monk to Rome, to inform the pope of his success, and obtain instruction on certain questions. Gregory's counsels with regard to the propagation of the faith are admirable examples of that pious ingenuity which has often characterised the missionary policy of the Church of Rome. Thus, instead of destroying the heathen temples, Augustine was recommended to convert them into Christian churches, by washing the walls with holy water, erecting altars, and substituting holy relics and symbols for the images of the heathen gods. Augustine's subsequent efforts to extend his authority over the native British church, with whose bishops he held a conference in 603 at Aust on the Severn, were not so successful as his missionary labours. He died 26th May 604, and eight years afterwards his body was translated to his abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, whose site is now occupied by St Augustine's Missionary College, Canterbury (1848).