ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY (MAY 26TH)
St. Augustine of Canterbury, Organizer of the British Church Edited by Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) May 26th is the feast of St Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury, who is believed to have died on this day in 604AD. Not to be confused with church father Augustine of Hippo, he was a Benedictine monk, charged by Pope Gregory I in 595AD to head a mission to Anglo-Saxon England. St. Augustine chose Kent as his point of arrival, because King Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha. The king allowed Augustine and his party to preach and gave them land at Canterbury to found a monastery. Augustine was consecrated bishop, and converted the king and many of the king's subjects, including thousands during a mass baptism on Christmas Day in 597AD. Our present bishop, Bp. Joseph Boyd, is 101st in an unbroken lineage beginning with St. Augustine. At the same time that St. Augustine established his Roman mission in southern England, missionaries o...
