Berthe & Bert
31/07/05
Berthe was a Christian woman. Her husband, Ethelbert, was quite pagan, but allowed his German wife to worship God her own way. (By the way, it's 597 A.D. and we're in Kent, England.) Now Berthe was quite worried about her husband and convinced Ethelbert to at least look into Christianity. Christianity was quite established in England but invaders and conquerors like the Saxons, Angles and Jutes had followed Nordic pagan religions and there just weren't many Christians around Ethelbert and Berthe's neighborhood. So Ethelbert invited Gregory I, Bishop of Rome, to send a few missionaries to Kent...
Augustine didn't want to go. He had no desire to leave his post as prior of the Abbey of St. Andrew in Rome. But a few months later, there he was in England, staring at Ethelbert where they first met, under a grand oak tree. Ethelbert believed that the mighty oak would dispel any magic this Christian might attempt. Augustine instructed his charge patiently on matters pertaining to the faith and by year's end, Augustine baptized Ethelbert.
Ethelbert, the first Anglo-Saxon King to convert to Christianity, gave money to re-consecrate and rebuild an old church in his favorite town where (by now archbishop) Augustine would stay, continuing his mission. And so, Augustine became archbishop of the King's favorite town... The first archbishop of Canterbury.
Augustine didn't want to go. He had no desire to leave his post as prior of the Abbey of St. Andrew in Rome. But a few months later, there he was in England, staring at Ethelbert where they first met, under a grand oak tree. Ethelbert believed that the mighty oak would dispel any magic this Christian might attempt. Augustine instructed his charge patiently on matters pertaining to the faith and by year's end, Augustine baptized Ethelbert.
Ethelbert, the first Anglo-Saxon King to convert to Christianity, gave money to re-consecrate and rebuild an old church in his favorite town where (by now archbishop) Augustine would stay, continuing his mission. And so, Augustine became archbishop of the King's favorite town... The first archbishop of Canterbury.