Not Angles But Angels: The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English

Augustine of Canterbury is a man who has, unfortunately, been lost to the majority of  historians. In, fact, if he pops up in a history book, it is often as a mere footnote. Yet, it was through this man that God brought Christian renewal to Southern England. Let me introduce you...

The mission to convert the English people was initiated by Pope Gregory the Great in the late 6th century, which according to tradition was inspired after Gregory saw a few Anglo-Saxon youths in the Roman marketplace. Struck by their blond hair and blue eyes he commented that they were “not Angles but angels.” This providential encounter with these foreign children eventually led him to commission a Roman monk named Augustine to preach the gospel to the English people with hopes of conversion.

Little is known about Augustine’s early life or how old he was when Pope Gregory commissioned him to be “the Apostle to the English.” His mission began in A.D. 596, and his orders were clear. Knowing that Ethelbert of Kent, the king of the Anglo-Saxons, had married a Christian Frankish queen named Bertha, Augustine was to travel to Kent and present himself and the gospel of Jesus Christ to King Ethelbert.

Shortly after Augustine and his company left for England, however, he turned back for Rome because the journey was arduous. Gregory exhorted him, “Do not be deterred by the troubles of the journey or by what men say. Be constant and zealous in carrying out this enterprise which, under God’s guidance, you have undertaken.” With these words of encouragement Augustine and his troop continued on their journey and eventually arrived in Arles of Gaul, where they met Bishop Etherius. Etherius gave them rest, re-equipped them for the journey ahead, and provided them with translators.

In 597 Augustine landed in Thanet, an island off the coast of Kent. He sent his Frankish translators to Kent to deliver a message to King Ethelbert claiming, “They came from Rome bearing very glad news, which infallibly assured all who would receive it of eternal joy in heaven and an everlasting kingdom with the living and true God.” A few weeks later Ethelbert arrived in Thanet to hear this mysterious message of Augustine. Upon hearing the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the promise of the forgiveness of sins, Ethelbert responded, “Your words and promises are fair indeed; but they are new and uncertain, and I cannot accept them and abandon the age-old beliefs that I have held together with the whole English nation.” We can only imagine how Augustine must have felt at this crushing blow. Having traveled all the way from Rome only to be rejected by the man he was sent to convert must have been devastating. But God was working in Ethelbert’s heart. He went on to say, “Since you have travelled far, and I can see that you are sincere in your desire to impart to us what you believe to be true and excellent, we will not harm you. We will receive you hospitably and take care to supply you with all that you need; nor will we forbid you to preach and win any people you can to your religion.”

Ethelbert granted Augustine and his missionaries a home in Canterbury, one of the king’s greatest cities, which soon became a base for the English mission. Tradition says that while they entered the house they sang, “We pray Thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy wrath and anger may be turned away from this city and from Thy holy house, for we are sinners. Alleluia.”

As soon as they were settled in their new home Augustine and his men got to work. They emulated the life of the Apostles by meeting daily for prayer, holding vigils, and preaching to whomever would listen. God blessed their ministry, and before long many believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these was King Ethelbert himself, who was converted and baptized early in Augustine’s ministry. Augustine, keeping in close touch with his mentor Pope Gregory by letter, soon founded a monastery and was declared the Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. In 604 an Apostolic See was established in Rochester and eventually the East Saxons were converted to Christianity. While the gospel message was spreading throughout southern England several monasteries were being established in Kent, and later a cathedral in London was built and dedicated to St. Paul. God was blessing Augustine’s efforts.

Sometime between 604 and 609 Augustine died. There is no record of how he died, only that he did. Yet, his death did not hinder the spread of the gospel. In 617 Edwin became king of Northumbria, a land that lay north of the Humber River just above Kent. Edwin was married to the Christian princess Ethelburgh, the daughter of the converted Ethelbert and Bertha. Because his wife was a Christian, he was not hostile to Christianity, though he did not claim Christ for himself. Yet, in 627 he was converted and baptized on Easter day because of the ministry of Paulinus, one of Augustine’s missionaries. Edwin became zealous for the gospel message and eventually lead King Earpwald, son of Redwald, King of the East Angles to Christ. Because Edwin had influence over a great part of North England, his conversion had far reaching consequences and demonstrates the tremendous success of Augustine’s mission to the English. Bede, a seventh century English monk and historian, records that the Northumbrian land experienced such peace under King Edwin that, “A woman could carry her new-born babe across the island from sea to sea without any fear of harm.”

Why did Augustine’s mission to the English succeed? Maybe it was because Christianity was not too foreign of a religion for the English. The monasteries Augustine established would not have been entirely different from what the Anglo-Saxon warrior tribes were accustomed to, with the demand of obedience to the Abbott and to God. Perhaps it was partly due to the familial relations both Ethelbert and Edwin had with their Christian wives. Certainly, these kings had seen Christianity practiced but may not have understood it until Augustine arrived.

More likely it was the differences Christianity offered to these warrior tribes that made it appealing. Paul Cavill suggests, “The sweetness of the message the monks taught should not be underestimated: news of a powerful creator God who loves rather than demands, and hope for a better life after this brief struggle (for such it was) must have been welcome.”

This message of peace should lead to great cultural change, and, in fact, the evidence suggests just that. Archaeologists have discovered several swords and other weapons in the rivers in and around the Anglo-Saxon lands and have traced them to the early 7th century, about the time of Augustine’s mission. Paul Cavill, a modern English historian, believes that mass baptisms were occurring during this time, and the warrior pagans were leaving their swords in the river along with their old, sinful life. He writes, “The notion that a man might go into baptism in his warrior regalia and emerge to be clothed in the regalia of a soldier of Christ, and leave behind his weapons, has imaginative power, and offers a plausible explanation for the finds.”

Augustine of Canterbury’s mission to the English was indeed successful. It paved the way for Christianity to spread throughout England. In the 16th century this English church would go through many reforms through the work of Thomas Cranmer who, following in the footsteps of the monastic lifestyle practiced by Augustine and his missionaries, would organize the Book of Common Prayer as a worship aid to the English people. These men through the power of the Holy Spirit have had a great influence on Christianity at large, especially in the modern English church - the Anglican Church.