AUGUSTINE, ST. (died c. 613), founder of the Christian Church in southern England, and first archbishop of Canterbury, occupied a position of authority in the monastery of St. Andrew at Rome, when Gregory I. summoned him, probably in A.D. 595, to lead a mission to England. The apprehensions of Augustine's fol lowers caused him to return to Rome, but the Pope furnished him with letters of commendation and encouraged him to proceed. He landed in Thanet in A.D. 597, and was favourably received by Aethelbert, king of Kent, who granted a dwelling-place for the monks in Canterbury, and allowed them liberty to preach. Augus tine first made use of the ancient church of St. Martin, at Canter bury, which before his arrival had been the oratory of the Queen Berta and her confessor Liudhard. Aethelbert, upon his conver sion, employed all his influence in support of the mission. In A.D. 597, Augustine was consecrated bishop by Vergilius at Arles, and in 6o1 received the pallium from Gregory and was given authority over the Celtic churches in Britain, as well as of all future bishops consecrated in English territory, including York, which was to be independent after Augustine's death. In A.D. 6o3 he consecrated Christ Church, Canterbury, and built the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards known as St. Augustine's. At a conference with the British bishops at Augustine's Oak he endeavoured in vain to bring about a union between the Celtic and the Roman churches. In A.D. 604 he consecrated Mellitus and Justus to the sees of London and Rochester respectively. He died soon after wards, though the Saxon Chronicle records the date of his death as A.D. 614, and the Annales Monasterienses as A.D. 612.
See Bede, Eccl. Hist. (ed. by Plummer), i. 3.