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 In the year 596 a
small party of some 40 monks set out from Rome to evangelize the
Anglo-Saxons in England. Leading the group was Augustine, the prior of their
monastery in Rome. Hardly had he and his men reached Gaul (France) when they
heard stories of the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and of the treacherous
waters of the English Channel. Augustine returned to Rome and to the pope
who had sent them—St. Gregory the Great—only to be assured by him that their
fears were groundless.
Augustine again set out and this time the group crossed the English Channel
and landed in the territory of Kent, ruled by King Ethelbert, a pagan
married to a Christian. Ethelbert received them kindly, set up a residence
for them in Canterbury and within the year, on Pentecost Sunday, 597, was
himself baptized. After being consecrated a bishop in France, Augustine
returned to Canterbury, where he founded his see. He constructed a church
and monastery near where the present cathedral, begun in 1070, now stands.
As the faith spread, additional sees were established at London and
Rochester.
Work was sometimes slow and Augustine did not always meet with success.
Attempts to reconcile the Anglo-Saxon Christians with the original Briton
Christians (who had been driven into western England by Anglo-Saxon
invaders) ended in dismal failure. Augustine failed to convince the Britons
to give up certain Celtic customs at variance with Rome and to forget their
bitterness, helping him evangelize their Anglo-Saxon conquerors
Laboring patiently, Augustine wisely heeded the missionary principles—quite
enlightened for the times—suggested by Pope Gregory the Great: purify rather
than destroy pagan temples and customs; let pagan rites and festivals be
taken over into Christian feasts; retain local customs as far as possible.
The limited success Augustine achieved in England before his death in 605, a
short eight years after he arrived in England, would eventually bear fruit
long after in the conversion of England. Truly Augustine of Canterbury can
be called the “Apostle of England.”
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