St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop († 604; Feast – May 28)
Adapted from Various Sources.
Four hundred years had scarcely elapsed since the glorious death of St. Eleutherius, when a second Apostle of Britain
ascended from this world, and on this same day, to the abode of eternal bliss. We cannot but be struck by the fact that the names
of our two apostles appear in the Martyrology together: it shows that God has His own special reasons in fixing the day for the death
of each one among us. We have more than once noticed these providential coincidences, which form one of the chief characteristics of
the liturgical cycle.
The work begun by St. Eleutherius had been almost entirely destroyed by the invasion of the Saxons and Angles; so that a
new mission, a new preaching of the Gospel, had become a necessity. It was Rome that again supplied the want. St. Gregory the Great
was the originator of the great design. Had it been permitted him, he would have taken upon himself the fatigues of this apostolate
to Britain. He was deeply impressed with the idea that he was to be the spiritual Father of these poor islanders, some of whom he had
seen exposed in the market-place of Rome, that they might be sold as slaves. Not being allowed to undertake the work himself, he looked
around him for men whom he might send as apostles to the island. He found them in the Benedictine monastery where he himself had spent
several years of his life. There started from Rome forty monks, with St. Augustine at their head, and they entered England under the
standard of the Cross.
Thus the new race that then peopled the island received the Faith, as the Britons had previously done, from the hands of
a Pope; and monks were their teachers in the science of salvation. The word of Augustine and his companions fructified in this
privileged soil. It was some time of course before he could provide the whole nation with instruction; but neither Rome nor the
Benedictines abandoned the work thus begun. The few remnants that were still left of the ancient British Christianity joined the
new converts; and England merited to be called, for long ages, the Island of Saints.
The history of St. Augustine's apostolate in England is of thrilling interest. The landing of the Roman missionaries,
and their marching through the country, to the chant of the Litany; the willing and almost kind welcome given them by King Ethelbert;
the influence exercised by his Queen Bertha, who was a Frenchwoman and a Catholic, in the establishment of the Faith among the Saxons;
the baptism of ten thousand neophytes on Christmas day in the bed of a river; the foundation of the metropolitan See of Canterbury,
one of the most illustrious churches of Christendom on account of the holiness and noble deeds of its Archbishops – all these admirable
episodes of England's conversion are eloquent proofs of God's predilection of this dear land. St. Augustine's peaceful and gentle
character, together with his love of contemplation amidst his arduous missionary labors, gives an additional charm to this magnificent
page of the Church's history. But who can help feeling sad at the thought that a country as favored as this has been with such graces
should have apostatized from the Faith; have repaid with hatred that Rome which made her Christian; and have persecuted with cruelty
the Benedictine Order to which she owed so much of her glory?
We subjoin the following Breviary lessons on the life of our Saint:
St. Augustine, a monk of the Lateran monastery in Rome, was sent by Pope St. Gregory the Great, with nearly forty monks
as companions, to England in the year 597, that he might convert those pagans to Christ. King Ethelbert was the ruler of Canterbury
at that time, and when he heard of Augustine's arrival, he invited him and his companions to his royal city of Canterbury; and he
allowed them to stay there and preach Christ freely. Wherefore the holy man built an oratory near Canterbury, where he himself
resided for some time and, together with his companions, strove for an apostolic manner of life.
The example of his life and the preaching of heavenly doctrines, confirmed by many miracles, so reconciled the islanders that many of
them were led to the Christian Faith, and finally the King himself with a great number of his people were cleansed at the sacred font
of Baptism, to the great joy of Bertha, the king's wife, who was a Christian. On one Christmas day, the Saint baptized more than
ten thousand in a river at York; and it is related that those among them who were suffering any malady, received bodily health,
as well as their spiritual regeneration. By the order of Pope Saint Gregory, he was consecrated Bishop and he established his See at
Canterbury, in the church of Our Savior, which he had built, and he kept there some of the monks to be his fellow-laborers. He also
built in the suburbs the Monastery of Saint Peter, which was afterwards named after him. The same Pope Saint Gregory granted him the
use of the Pallium (made him Archbishop), with authority to establish a hierarchy in the land of the Angles; and for this he
sent new laborers – namely, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus and Rufinianus.
Having thus put in order the affairs of the Church in England, St. Augustine held a council with the bishops and doctors
of the ancient Britons, who had long been at variance with the Roman Church in the keeping of Easter and other rites. But, when
neither the authority of the Apostolic See nor even miracles were able to move them to desist or cease from their dissension,
with a prophetic spirit he warned them of the punishments awaiting them. At length, after so many labors for Christ and so many
miracles, having placed Mellitus over the church in London, Justus over Rochester, and Laurence over Canterbury, he took his departure
for Heaven on the seventh of the Kalends of June (May 26), and was buried in the Monastery of St. Peter, which became the burial
place of the Archbishops of Canterbury and of several kings. The cult of St. Augustine was fervently observed by the people of England;
and Pope Leo XIII extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church (transferring his Feast to May 28).
O Jesus, our Risen Lord! Thou art the life of nations, as Thou art the life of our souls. Thou biddest them know and love
and serve Thee, for they have been given to Thee for Thine inheritance; and at Thine own appointed time, each of them is made
Thy possession (Ps. 2: 8). England was one of the earliest to be called; and when on Thy Cross, Thou didst look with mercy on
this far island of the West. In the second Age of Thy Church, Thou didst send to her the heralds of Thy Gospel; and again in the sixth,
St. Augustine, Thine apostle, commissioned by St. Gregory, Thy Vicar, came to teach the way of truth to the new pagan race that had made
itself the owner of this highly favored land.
How glorious, dear Jesus, was Thy reign in this land! Thou gavest her bishops, doctors, kings, monks, and virgins,
whose virtues and works made the whole world speak of her as the Isle of Saints;
and it is to St. Augustine, Thy disciple
and herald, that Thou wouldst have us attribute the chief part of the honor of so grand a conquest. Long indeed was Thy reign
over this people, whose faith was lauded throughout the whole world; but, alas! an evil hour came, and England rebelled against
Thee; shewould not have Thee to reign over her (Luke 19: 14). By her influence, she led other nations astray. She hated Thee
in Thy Vicar; she repudiated the greater part of the truths Thou hast revealed to men; she put out the light of Faith, and substituted
in its place the principles of private judgment, which made her the slave of countless false doctrines. In the mad rage of her heresy,
she trampled beneath her feet and burned the relics of the Saints who were her grandest glory; she annihilated the Monastic Order to
which she owed her knowledge of the Christian Faith; she was drunk with the blood of the Martyrs; she encouraged apostasy, and punished
adhesion to the ancient Faith as the greatest of crimes.
Thy mission, then, O holy Apostle Augustine, is not yet over. May thy intercession obtain for the children of the land
of thy loving labors the graces which enlighten the mind and convert the heart. May it remove their prejudices, and give them to see
that the Spouse of Jesus is but One, as He himself calls Her (Cant. 6: 8); that the Faith of St. Gregory and St. Augustine
is still the Faith of the true Catholic Church; and that centuries of possession could never give heresy any claim to a country which
was led astray by seduction and violence.
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