Vigils Reading – St Augustine of Canterbury

ST AUGUSTINE

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

From Butler’s Lives of the Saints

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When Pope St Gregory the Great decided that the time had come for the

evangelization of Anglo-Saxon England, he chose as missionaries some thirty or

more monks from his monastery of St Andrew… As their leader he gave them

their own prior, Augustine. The party set out from Rome in the year 596; but no

sooner had they arrived in Provence than they were assailed with warnings

about the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and the dangers of the Channel. Greatly

discouraged, they persuaded Augustine to return to Rome and obtain leave to

abandon the enterprise. St Gregory, however, had received definite assurance

that the English were well disposed towards the Christian faith; he therefore

sent Augustine back to his brethren with words of encouragement which gave

them heart to proceed on their way.

They landed in the Isle of Thanet in the territory of Ethelbert, king of

Kent, who was baptized at Pentecost 597. Almost immediately afterwards St

Augustine paid a visit to France, where he was consecrated bishop of the English

by St Virgilius, metropolitan of Arles. At Christmas of that same year, many of

Ethelbert’s subjects were baptized… Augustine sent two of his monks, Laurence

and Peter, to Rome to give a full report of his mission, to ask for more helpers

and obtain advice on various points. They came back bringing the pallium for

Augustine and accompanied by a fresh band of missionaries, amongst whom

were St Mellitus, St Justus and St Paulinus.

Gregory outlined for Augustine the course he should take to develop a

hierarchy for the whole country, and both to him and to Mellitus gave very

practical instructions on other points. Pagan temples were not to be destroyed,

but were to be purified and consecrated for Christian worship. Local customs

were as far as possible to be retained, days of dedication and feasts of martyrs

being substituted for heathen festivals. In Canterbury itself St Augustine rebuilt

an ancient church which, with an old wooden house, formed the nucleus for his

metropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church. These

buildings stood on the site of the present cathedral begun by Lanfranc in 1070.

Outside the walls of Canterbury he made a monastic foundation, which he

dedicated in honour of St Peter and St Paul. After his death this abbey became

known as St Augustine’s, and was the burial place of the early archbishops.

Cut off from much communication with the outside world, the British

church clung to certain usages at variance with those of the Roman tradition.

St. Augustine invited the leading ecclesiastics to meet him at some place just on

the confines of Wessex, still known in Bede’s day as Augustine’s Oak. There he

urged them to comply with the practices of the rest of Western Christendom,

and more especially to co-operate with him in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons.

Fidelity to their local traditions, however, made them unwilling. A second

conference proved a failure. Because St Augustine failed to rise when they

arrived, the British bishops decided that he was lacking in humility and would

neither listen to him nor acknowledge him as their metropolitan.

The saint’s last years were spent in spreading and consolidating the faith

throughout Ethelbert’s realm, and episcopal sees were established at London

and Rochester. About seven years after his arrival in England, St Augustine

passed to his reward, on May 26, 605.