AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY Cover

Webmaster's Note: This biography is loosely based on one written by Cornelius Clifford for the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1907. I have used some of Clifford's words directly without attribution to avoid confusion with other quotes. In other incidences Clifford's tangential material has been removed because it seems to wander off point. This editing and some additional text should present you a more concise picture of the Archbishop. Some of more flowery language that marked religious writers at the turn of the last century has been simplified. I have also added additional original text. For Clifford's complete biography go to NewAdvent.org and search under Augustine's name. Much of what we know about Augustine comes from Bede the Venerable's Ecclesiastical History of the English Church. Appropriately, Bede's Feast day is May 25, the day before Augustine. For a complete modern biography of this great Saint, you can order Michael Green's biography from the Albion Bookshop in Canterbury on line. The Link is in the table below.

Websites with Information on Saint Augustine of Canterbury

This Mission and Life of Augustine of Canterbury

Contains Complete Writings and Full History

James Kiefer's Episcopal Biography and appointed Scripture Readings

Amy Steedman's Reflective Biography on his Life and Times

Article on the History of Augustine's Abbey Church

Michael A. Green's Contemporary Biography of Augustine of Canterbury.

First Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English; date of birth unknown; d. 26 May, 604. Nothing is known of his youth except that he was probably a Roman of the better class, and that early in life he become a monk in the famous monastery of St. Andrew erected by St. Gregory (Gregory the Great) on the Cælian Hill. It was amid the religious intimacies of the Benedictine Rule and its disciplined environment that formed the the character of this future missionary.

Some five years after his reluctant elevation to the Roman See (590) Gregory began to look about him for ways to spread Christianity. He naturally turned to the community he had ruled more than a decade, the monastery of Saint Andrews on the Cælian Hill. Out of this community he selected a company of about forty and designated Augustine, at that time Prior of St. Andrew's, to be their representative and spokesman. The first appointment seems to have been of a somewhat indeterminate character probably because of something akin to faulty paperwork. Pope Gregory did declare Augustine as the "true beginner" of the Roman See's authority over the English Christians. Rome maintained that authority until Henry VIII broke that bond in 1533.

Pope Gregory had long desired to carry out his great missionary plan for the English. He put his plan to work in 595 or 596. A rumor had reached Rome that the pagan inhabitants of Britain were ready to embrace Christianity in great numbers, if only preachers could be found to instruct them. Ethelbert (Saint Ethelbert of Kent--Feast Day February 25 or 26, in some calendars) became King of Kent in 559 or 560, and in less than twenty years he succeeded in establishing his rule from the West Saxons eastward to the sea and as far north as the Humber and the Trent.

Over the years Pope Gregory had complained of a "lack" of episcopal zeal among Ethelbert's people. [It should be noted that cult surrounding Ethelbert's canonization waned probably because of his three children his only son and heir, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.] In 596 Gregory dispatched Augustine from Rome, only to be discouraged by the reception he was getting in Gaul. Augustine returned to Rome. His flagging spirits were uplifted by his Papal mentor. Augustine was sent back without delay to join his faint-hearted companions now armed with more precise and more convincing authority.

The missionaries pushed on through Gaul, passing up through the valley of the Rhone to Arles on their way to Vienne and Autun where they spent the winter months. In the spring of the following year they landed somewhere on the Isle of Thanet and waited there for King Ethelbert's orders The king came in person from Canterbury They met in the opened air because Ethelbert feared that Augustine might cast some strange incantation upon him. His fear, however, was dispelled by the kindly personality of Augustine. Legends, as reported by Bede, says that Augustine's message to Ethelbert was, "how the compassionate Jesus had redeemed a world of sin by His own agony and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who would believe" The king's answered, "Your words and promised are very fair...but as they are new to us and of uncertain import, I cannot assent to them and give up what I have long held in common with the whole English nation. But since you have come as strangers from so great a distance, and, as I take it, are anxious to have us also share in what you conceive to be both excellent and true, we will not interfere with you, but receive you, rather, in kindly hospitality and take care to provide what may be necessary for your support. Moreover, we make no objection to your winning as many converts as you can to your creed".

The King more than made good his words. He invited the missionaries to live Kent's royal capital of Canterbury, then a barbarous and half-ruined metropolis, built by the Kentish folk upon the site of the old Roman military town of Durovernum. Here Augustine and his companions quickly established the routine of the Benedictine rule as practiced at the close of the sixth century; and to it they quietly added the apostolic ministry of preaching. The early years of Augustine in Rome, spent at the monastery of Saint Andrew, is where he learned the Benedictine rules. The church, dedicated to St. Martin in the eastern part of the city which had been set apart for the convenience of Bishop Luidhard and Ethelbert's Queen Bertha's followers many years before, was also thrown open to them until the king permitted a more highly organized attempt at evangelization.

The evident sincerity of the missionaries, their single-mindedness, their courage under trial, and, above all, the the character of Augustine himself made a profound impression on the mind of the king. He asked to be instructed and his baptism was appointed to take place at Pentecost.

Ethelbert's conversion naturally gave a great impetus to the enterprise of Augustine and his companions. Augustine, determined to evangelize vigorously, based on provisional instruction he had received from Pope Gregory crossed over to Gaul and was consecrated by the Bishop by Virgilius, the Metropolitan of Arles. Returning almost immediately to Kent, he made preparations for that more active and open form of ministry for which Ethelbert's baptism had prepared a way.

It is characteristic of the spirit which moved Augustine and his companions that no attempt was made to secure converts on a large scale by force. Nevertheless on Christmas Day in 597, more than ten thousand people were baptized by the first "Archbishop of the English".

The ruins of Augustine's English Abbey
from a 1722 Illustration. The Abbey ruins
were demolished in 1866.

Ethelbert allowed more territory to be included in Augustine's diocese. He tried to bring about a meeting with the Celtic bishops of Southern Britain. Nothing came of this attempt to introduce ecclesiastical uniformity. Augustine seems to have been willing enough to yield certain points; but on three important issues he would not compromise.

As withdrew back to Southern Britain, they were dismissed with the only recorded angry threat by Augustine, "If ye will not have peace with the brethren, ye shall have war from your enemies; and if ye will not preach the way of life to the English, ye shall suffer the punishment of death at their hands".

These efforts toward Catholic unity with the Celtic bishops and the constitution of a well-defined hierarchy for the Saxon Church are the last recorded acts of the Saint's life. His death came the same year, 604, He was first buried, in true Roman fashion, outside the walls of Canterbury in a grave dug by the side of a great Roman road. When the monastery church, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, was completed, Augustine's relics were translated to tomb prepared for them in the north porch. The current structure, which sets over the original foundations the first church and abbey, is located outside the eastern walls of the City of Canterbury. The epitaph on Augustine's Tomb reads.

Here lies the most reverend Augustine,
first Archbishop of Canterbury,
who was formerly sent by St Gregory, bishop of Rome;
being supported by God in the working of miracles,
he led King Ethelbert and his nation from the worship of idols to faith in Christ
and ended the days of his office in peace
he died on the twenty-sixth day of May during the reign of the same King

Iconic symbols of Augustine of Canterbury include: cope, pallium, and miter as Bishop of Canterbury, and pastoral staff. He is often seen holding a Gospel Book. The actual Gospel book has been used for the enthronement ceremonies for Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury ever since.