St. Augustine in Kent

St. Augustine in Kent. Minster. , Who was St. Augustine? , Augustine, a monk from Rome, was sent by Pope Gregory to bring Christianity to Britain. He landed in Kent in AD 597 with forty followers and set up his mission in Canterbury. Within a few months Ethelbert, the king of Kent, and thousands of local people had been baptised. Christianity then spread through southern England. Augustine remained in Canterbury until his death probably in AD 604 or 605. He founded a monastery which flourished for nearly a thousand years and became a famous place of learning. He also established a cathedral which was rebuilt on a grand scale after the Norman Conquest. Canterbury remains the religious capital of England to this day. , Minster Abbey , Minster Abbey was founded for nuns around AD670 and probably stood on the site of St.Mary's church. It was paid for by King Egbert who set it up as a house of prayer to atone for his crime in murdering his two young cousins. At that time the sea separated Thanet from the rest of Kent and the abbey had a natural harbour which helped it to. prosper. However the abbey was also vulnerable to attack and it was sacked several times by Danish raiders before finally being set on fire in the late tenth century. , Saint Mildred , Mildred was the eighth abbess of Minster Abbey. When she died early in the eighth century people proclaimed her a saint and pilgrims came to worship at her tomb. In 1027 King Cnut gave the bones of St. Mildred and the lands of the ruined abbey to the monks of St. Augustine's in Canterbury. However it seems the Abbot had a difficult time claiming the remains. It is recorded that he raided the shrine in the middle of the night and escaped across the water pursued by the people of Thanet armed with swords and staves. After this adventure the relics were laid in a shrine behind the high alter along with Augustine and the other saints. St. Mildred is the patron saint of Thanet to this day.