Today is the Feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, the Italian Benedictine monk who took the Catholic faith to England in the late 6th century. Happy feast day!
“Let us pray to Saint Augustine on this feast day for his intercession as we continue to work for the re-evangelization of the English-speaking world,” suggests Craig Pohl, Director of New Evangelization for the Diocese of Lansing, May 27.
Saint Augustine was born in Rome. When Pope Gregory I heard that the pagans of Britain were disposed to accept the Catholic Faith, he sent the prior of the Abbey of Saint Andrew in Rome, Augustine, and forty of his Benedictine brethren to England.
Despite the great difficulties involved in the task assigned to him, Augustine and his monks obeyed. The success of their preaching was immediate. King Ethelbert of Kent was baptized on Pentecost Sunday, 596, and the greater part of the nobles and people soon followed his example.
Saint Augustine died as the first Archbishop of Canterbury in England in 604 AD. Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us!
* Additional material courtesy of https://www.catholicculture.org/