ETELBERTO, king of KENT, saint. - The first Christian king in England, from 593 he had become head of the Confederation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms formed on the island. His wife Berta, a Christian, had prepared him to receive the great missionary expedition of monks, headed by St Augustine, promoted by Gregory the Great. To them E. granted freedom of action and gave a house at Durovernum (Canterbury) and the church of St Martin. On the eve of Pentecost in 597, he himself, together with many of his subjects, received Baptism.
Upon receiving the news of the event, communicated to him by Augustine, Gregory M. replied by comparing E. and Berta to Constantine and St Helena (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1826). He founded the church of St Paul in London and endowed that of St Andrew with rich gifts. He left a code of laws, chiefly penal, which reveals singular piety in a barbarous and uncouth spirit. He died after 56 years of reign, in 616, and was buried beside his wife in the abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury, where Augustine already lay.