Augustine of Canterbury, bishop (+605)

Biography

He can rightfully be placed alongside the great apostles of Christ, next to Saint Patrick of Ireland, Saint Boniface of Germany and other evangelizers. The Venerable Bede tells that while walking one day through the Roman forum, Saint Gregory the Great, saw a group of young slaves with white skin and blonde hair. They were from the island of Brittany and had not yet heard of Christ. Saint Gregory was abbot of the monastery of Saint Andrew, on Mount Caelius. He collected the slaves and conceived the idea of ​​going on a mission to the island of Brittany. He could not go, because shortly after he was elected Pope. But there was a holy and wise prior in his monastery, Augustine, and to him he entrusted the mission that he personally could no longer carry out. That monastery was, therefore, the cradle of English evangelization and civilization. Augustine left there with 39 companions in the year 596. They had to suffer many mockeries and abuses from the natives. They landed in the kingdom of Kent. King Ethelbert, although a pagan, was generous and liberal. After some hesitation he received them. He thanked them for the promises they offered him, and gave them freedom to preach their faith. The 40 monks entered Canterbury, capital of Kent, in a procession. Augustine, in front, next to him a monk with the cross, and another with a banner with the image of Christ. The Benedictines spread throughout the kingdom with great fruit. Gregory the Great expresses in his letters the great joy that filled him with the apostolic fruits of Augustine and his monks. He sent him more monks, and commissioned him to erect bishoprics. Prior to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, there were already nuclei of Christian Bretons, but very small and without influence, closed in on themselves due to enmity with the Anglo-Saxons. Agustín asked these Bretons from Wales for collaboration, but so far he could not get it. Only much later would the union be achieved. Augustine's apostolate only lasted seven years. But when he died he left behind the great enterprise of evangelization of the island. The great apostle died in the year 605, two months after Saint Gregory the Great.