Artigo do dia · 27 de May
Saint Augustine of Canterbury
At Canterbury in England, the deposition of Saint Augustine, bishop, who, while serving as prior of a monastery in Rome, was sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great with his companions to proclaim the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons. Welcomed by King Ethelbert and baptizing him along with thousands of his subjects, he established the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, and for this reason is called the Apostle of the English.
Roman Martyrology
About the saint
Saint Augustine of Canterbury is one of the most striking examples of apostolic zeal the Church has ever produced — not the zeal of those who set out easily, but the zeal of those who keep going after fear has already come knocking. He was a monk and prior in Rome, pulled from the quiet of the cloister to cross Europe toward a pagan people in an unknown land. His companions nearly turned back along the way; he pressed on because the Pope asked him to press on. Let us get to know the story of this saint who, by simple obedience, founded an entire Church.
Life
The exact dates of Augustine’s early years remain uncertain. The essentials — his mission from 595 onward, the conversion of Ethelbert, and the founding of the see of Canterbury — are well documented by the historical sources.
The sources have preserved little about Augustine’s early years. We know he was born in Rome, probably in the first third of the sixth century, and that he entered Benedictine monastic life, eventually becoming prior of a monastery in the Eternal City. It was there, in the routine of the divine office and regular obedience, that Pope Saint Gregory the Great found the man to whom he would entrust one of the most daring missions of the Middle Ages.
In 595, Gregory turned his eyes toward Britain. The island had been Christian in Roman times, but the Anglo-Saxon invasions, after the legions withdrew in 410, had wiped out the ecclesiastical structures in the east and south. Christian communities still survived in the lands of the Britons, cut off from Rome and following customs of their own. The Pope’s chosen target was the Kingdom of Kent, whose king, Ethelbert, was married to Bertha, a Christian princess and daughter of the Frankish king Charibert I. This openness within the royal family — Bertha practiced her faith freely and kept a bishop, Liudhard, in her household — was the opening through which the Gospel could enter.
The journey nearly ended before it began. Somewhere along the road, the missionaries hesitated at what lay ahead and considered turning back. From Rome, Gregory wrote insisting that they continue. In 597, the group landed on the island of Thanet and made their way to Canterbury, the capital of the kingdom. Ethelbert received them, listened to their preaching, and was converted. Augustine was consecrated bishop, and on Christmas of that same year thousands of Anglo-Saxons were baptized at once.
With the king converted, the work turned to consolidation. Ethelbert granted lands outside the walls for the founding of a monastery. In 601, Gregory sent new missionaries with letters and gifts to support the young churches. In 604, the episcopal sees of London and Rochester were established, and a school was opened in Canterbury to form native priests and missionaries. Attempts to bring the old Celtic British bishops under Augustine’s authority, however, came to nothing: the British Church, isolated from Rome for centuries, held to its own customs.
Before he died, Augustine saw to the succession and had Saint Laurence of Canterbury consecrated to take his place. He died most likely on May 26, 604, in Canterbury. The people began to venerate him as a saint almost at once, and history enshrined him as the Apostle of the English — the man who, out of obedience to his Pope, planted the Church anew on the island that had lost it.
Why we celebrate today
Although Saint Augustine of Canterbury most likely died on May 26, 604 — his dies natalis, the day of his birth into heaven — the Roman Calendar celebrates his optional memorial on May 27, keeping the remembrance of the Apostle of the English close to the day of his passing.
For our life
The holiness of Augustine of Canterbury was not born of a heroic impulse — it was born of obedience. He did not want to go; he wanted to turn back along the way. He kept going because the Pope asked him to keep going. And it was that simple obedience, against fear, that opened an entire people to Christ. How many times do we refuse the small things the Church, our confessor, our vocation, or our state in life asks of us, because they look too big or too uncomfortable?
Augustine’s path teaches us that holiness is not in doing extraordinary things — it is in not pulling back when God, through the voice of others, asks us to keep moving forward. Today, name one single thing you know you should do and have been putting off out of fear: a long overdue confession, a hard conversation, an apology, a commitment you have been avoiding. Do it today. The rest, God takes care of.
Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Mt 28:19 (Douay-Rheims)
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