About our Patron - St Augustine of Canterbury
St. Augustine was chosen as the patron of the third Catholic mission to be established in post-reformation Manchester, back in 1820. So who was he?
Augustine was born in Italy and became the prior of the monastic community of St. Andrew on the Coelian Hill in Rome, but he is remembered because of his efforts to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.
This was a complex and different project undertaken at the instigation of Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Christianity had probably first come to the British Isles through the Roman occupation, but in the 150 years after the Romans left successive invasions and immigrations from the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes had resulted in believers being restricted to the Western parts of the British Isles. By the sixth century the Christians in Wales were not actively seeking the conversion of the newer arrivals in the East. Some remnants of Christianity may have survived, but believers were small in number and not organised.
On receiving his mission from the Pope, Augustine collected together a group of 30 monks to evangelise the Anglo Saxons. The journey proved eventful and at one point Augustine turned back. However, back on track he was consecrated bishop and with a few clergy from Gaul to act as interpreters the party that sailed in 597 numbered about 40. They landed at Ebbsfleet, Kent and were received courteously by the King of Kent, Ethelbert, however, he insisted on meeting them in the open air in case a spell was cast on him.
Ethelbert’s Queen, Bertha, was a Christian Princess from Gaul though she appears to have shown no inclination to try to convert Ethelbert. Nevertheless, Ethelbert granted Augustine land, a disused Church and gave him permission to preach. Augustine recognised the importance of two projects, the establishment of a home for the community he had brought with him and a Church for public preaching and the celebration of the liturgy.
Gregory continued to take an active interest in the evangalisation and sent Augustine letters, some of which survive, instructing him on principles and procedures to be employed. He was to live in common life with his monks, and was free to adapt various liturgical practices from the Gauls. He was not to destroy pagan temples, only the idols worshipped there. Pagan rites and festivals, if innocent, maybe adapted or adopted for Christian use.
During the 7 years of his apostolate Augustine failed in his attempts to cooperate with the ancient British Church, principally because of their hatred of the Anglo Saxons and their attachment to Celtic practices.
Ethelbert did become a Christian, a decision that must be seen to indicate the support of Ethelbert’s noblemen for the new religion.
In 601 reinforcements from Rome arrived in the form of more personnel, books, relics and sacred vessels. Pope Gregory instructed Augustine to form a Metropolitan See in the South with 12 Suffragan Sees, and another Metropolitan See in the north, again with 12 Suffragan Sees. Working from Roman records, Gregory expected Augustine to choose London for the Southern Metropolitan See, but he chose Canterbury as it wasEthelbert's capital and the capital of the only Christian Kingdom at the time. The Northern metropolitan See was established in York over a hundred years later. To this day Canterbury and York are the two principal Sees of the Church of England.
By the time of his death on 26 May 604 Augustine had some substantial but relatively local achievements. Generally worthy and able men succeeded him and the mission bore fruit in the years following. Augustine was buried at the Church of Ss Peter and Paul near the walls of Canterbury that King Ethelbert was building as the burial place for kings and archbishops. The church was later renamed after Augustine. His remains were later removed to the Cathedral church of Canterbury. His feast day is 27 May.
Sources: Paul Burns, "Butler’s Lives of the Saints: New Concise Edition", Burns and Oats, London, 2003, 239-40
H. Farmer, 'St. Augustine of Canterbury' in "New Catholic Encyclopedia" Vol. 1, 1969, reprinted 1981, 1058
Links:
1917 Catholic Encyclopaedia entry for St. Augustine of Canterbury
St. Augustine's is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford. Registered Charity No. 250037