26 May Saint Augustine of Canterbury (died 604) - (and not of Hippo!)
He was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury
in 597. He is considered to be the ‘Apostle of the English Church’.
He had been Prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregor the Great
chose him in 596 to lead a mission to Britain to Christianize the Anglo-
Saxons and King Ethelberth of Kent. Ethelberth had married a Christian
princess from Gaul (Bertha) Augustine is said to have landed on the island
of Thanet where a stone marks the place.
The King gave the missionaries land to build an Abbey outside Canterbury,
where St Augustine was buried. He is said to have baptised thousands on
Christmas day 597,
He founded bishoprics in London and Rochester, but attempts to persuade
the Celtic bishops to submit to his authority failed.
After his death on 26 May 604 Augustine was soon revered as a Saint.
27 May The Venerable Bede (also referred to as St Bede), lived 672/73
to 26 May 735
Bede was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of St Peter at
Monkwearmouth near Newcastle.
He was of noble birth and entered the
monastery aged 7 to be educated. In 682
he moved to St Paul’s at Jarrow, both
monasteries had superb libraries and Bede
was known as a scholar and prolific author
in Latin. He translated the early Church
Fathers and contributed significantly to the
English Church.
His most famous work is The Ecclesiastical
History of the English People, completed in
731, which gained him the title ‘Father of
English History’ His non-historical works on
grammar, chronology and biblical studies
contributed greatly to the Carolingian
Renaissance.
He was Priest to Saint Cuthbert who
described Bede’s death in a letter.
He died at Jarrow on 26 May 735 and was
buried there.
In 1899, he was made a ‘Doctor of the Church’, the only native Britain to
receive that title.
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