Augustine of Canterbury

Augustine was prior of the monastery of St Andrew in Rome when Pope St Gregory the Great, moved by his desire to convert the Anglo-Saxons, sent him at the head of a band of about forty monks to Britain in 596. Despite the missionaries' fears, they landed in Kent in 597 and were received by King Æthelberht, whose Frankish queen Bertha was already a Christian. The king granted them a dwelling in Canterbury and freedom to preach, and was himself baptized, followed by thousands of his people. Augustine was consecrated bishop, established his see at Canterbury with the church that became its cathedral, and founded the monastery later named for him. Guided by Gregory's pastoral counsel in a famous correspondence, he laid the enduring foundations of English Christianity and reposed around 605, honored as the Apostle of the English.