AGOSTINO, bishop of CANTERBURY, saint. - Apart from a vague notice by Leone III (PL 102, 1032), who calls him the companion (syncellus) of St Gregory the Great, his life before the year 596 is entirely unknown. In that year, when the Pope chose him for the evangelization of the still pagan Anglo-Saxons, A. was prior of the Benedictine monastery of S. Andrea ad elivum Scauri in Rome. A charming legend included by Beda in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (II, 1) says that St Gregory had conceived the idea of converting the Anglo-Saxons while he was still a young monk. It is certain that, as pope, in 595 Gregory ordered the priest Candido to purchase in Gaul young slaves of that people, so that they might be educated in one of the Roman monasteries (Registrum, VI, 10), intending, we believe, to make them future apostles. Two events must have contributed to the decision of 596 to send missionaries at once to that people and attempt the undertaking: the fact that King Etelberto of Kent, for twenty years already the husband of the Catholic princess Berta, had in 593 attained a certain supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy with the title of bretualda, and, even more, the changed political conditions in the kingdom of the Franks, which had brought Brunechilde to the regency and which were favourable to the implementation of the Pope’s plan. In the spring A. and his companions departed from Rome. At Aix, the reports received concerning the people whom they were to evangelize plunged them into real discouragement, and A. himself returned to Rome to be relieved of the task entrusted to him; but the firmness of St Gregory overcame every hesitation. He sent A. back to his companions with the title of abbot and furnished with letters of recommendation that made their undertaking easier.
The following year they landed on the island of Thanet, accompanied by some Frankish interpreters. A. immediately sent word of their arrival to King Etelberto, informing him that they came from Rome to bring the good news to that people. The king, who had allowed his wife the free practice of her religion and to bring with her a bishop to officiate in the Breton church of S. Martino, received the missionaries with benevolent tolerance. In its simplicity, Beda’s account of the arrival of the missionaries and the beginning of their work is most vivid (Hist. eccl., I, 25), and this work was soon crowned with great successes. As early as Pentecost 597 the king received baptism, and at Christmas no fewer than ten thousand Anglo-Saxons followed his example. Meanwhile, in accordance with the instructions received from the Pope, A. had gone to Arles to be consecrated bishop by Virgilio, pontifical vicar for Gaul. News of such happy successes was brought to Rome by two of the missionaries sent by A., also to discuss with the Pope certain questions that had by then arisen in the field of their apostolate. St Gregory took such joy in it that he could not refrain from expressing it also in his letters to Berta (Registrum, XI, 35) and to the patriarch Eulogio of Alexandria (Registrum, VIII, 29). In June 601 A.’s envoys, to whom the Pope had added a new band of missionaries, resumed their journey to England,
provided with letters from the Pope for the king, the queen, and A., to whom they also brought the archiepiscopal pallium. In one of his letters to A., St Gregory outlined the general framework of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to be established in the newly won land (Registrum, XI, 39): it was to consist of two metropolitan sees, one in London and the other in York, each with twelve suffragans. As may be seen, the plan was based on the Roman division of the empire and not on the political situation of England at that time. London no longer possessed its former importance; A. therefore wisely decided to establish his see permanently at Canterbury, and of the twelve suffragans he consecrated only two, Melito for London and Giusto for Rochester. He worked hard for the union of the old Breton element with that of the recently converted Anglo-Saxons, but did not succeed: the Bretons were too attached to their religious customs, although the divergences concerned matters of secondary importance, such as the rite of baptism, the celebration of Easter, the form of the tonsure, etc. He died at Canterbury on 26 May 604. Anglican historians have not always judged his person and his work fairly: they have accused him of being unequal to the task entrusted to him, of pride, and often of excessive submission to the wishes of Rome. There is no doubt that, compared with the great figure of Gregory the Great, that of A. remains in the shadow: indeed, the official title of Apostle of England is attributed to Gregory; nevertheless, no one can deny that in fact it belongs to A. His feast is celebrated on 28 May.