I
have been to Canterbury many times, and on my wanders around I usually visit
the rather spectacular Cathedral there.
On my most recent visit I decided for a change to have a day outside and
go and explore the ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey.
Like
anyone from the North, I thought it would be nice to be outside on a warm,
sunny day. Of course, I didn’t take into
consideration that it would be one of the hottest days of the year, and
incredibly humid. Not being used to that
intensity of heat, I spent a lot of my visit seeking out shady places and
gulping down lukewarm water from my water bottle. I really should have invested a little more
in one with a double skin, cold water would have been heavenly.
Talking
about heavenly, St Augustine, who founded St Augustine’s Abbey, was one of the
fathers of Christianity in England. Before
he arrived on British shores, there were sects of Christians living there, and
there had been since Roman times.
However, it seems they were the wrong sort of Christians. So, to show the wayward Christians the right
path, and convert the hordes of Pagans there, Pope Gregory the Great sent over Augustine,
along with a group of monks. Augustine and
his saintly colleagues travelled from Rome, but on arriving in France they were
told horrible tales about the hostile and violent people of the British
Isles. Put off by these tales, Augustine
considered turning back, but Pope Gregory urged him to carry on. Arriving in Britain in AD 597, Augustine
quickly converted the King of Kent, Ethelbert, to Christianity, a task not too arduous,
as the King’s wife was already Christian.
King Ethelbert then granted Augustine land to the east of Canterbury on
which to build an abbey, and on this land St Augustine’s Abbey was built. Originally, it was founded as the Church of Saints
Peter and Paul, the St Augustine name not coming until after the death of
Augustine.
Augustine
was the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and he and his monks converted many of
the pagans of Kent to Christianity. His
mission of uniting with the Christian Church already in Britain was a failure
though. It appears that many of them were suspicious of his links with King
Ethelbert, and were also not too keen on submitting to the church in Rome.
On
26th May AD 604, Augustine died and was buried in the abbey church. Soon after his death he was venerated as a
Saint, and the abbey became a place of pilgrimage.
St
Augustine’s Abbey was the earliest monastery built in England and thrived for
over 900 years. It was seen as one of
the most important Benedictine Monasteries in the Medieval world, then King
Henry VIII happened. He fell out with Pope
Clement VII, who would not grant an annulment of his marriage, so Henry quickly
had laws passed that abolished papal authority in England. Henry was then declared to be the head of the
Church of England. After this a mass land grab took place, in which lands and
buildings which had belonged to the Roman Catholic Church were seized by the
Crown. In 1538, St Augustine’s Abbey was
dissolved. The monks there were given a
life pension and then kicked out, while many of the buildings were demolished, items
of any value were taken, and shrines and relics were destroyed.
Well,
that’s a very brief potted history of the place, much of it learned as I
pottered around reading the tourist info at the site, or reading the guidebook
as I sheltered in the shade from the relentless burning rays of the sun.
Before
leaving, to head somewhere a bit cooler, I left a Skulferatu on the crumbling
stone by one of the windows, in what was once the cloister of the abbey.
The
coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –
Latitude
51.278339
Longitude
1.087793
what3words:
fire.silly.zealous
I
used the following sources for information on St Augustine’s Abbey –
Tourist Info at site
