St. Austin

St. Austin is better known as Augustine of Canterbury. The year of his birth is not known. He became a monk at the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, which had been founded by the future Gregory the Great. In 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine and forty other monks to England because it was believed the English would welcome the missionaries. King Ethelbert of Kent, who was married to the Christian princess Bertha, welcomed the missionaries under an oak tree because he was afraid they were magicians who would perform incantations on him. This fear was soon dispelled and the king gave them permission to spread the Gospel; Ethelbert was baptized in 597. Augustine initially made thousand of converts, but he came into conflict with bishops in other parts of England whose rites were different from Rome. When these prelates did not recognize his authority, he went to Kent and founded sees in London and Rochester. Augustine was the first archbishop of Canterbury and is called the Apostle of the English. He died May 26, 604.