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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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St Augustine
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(of Canterbury, d. 604) Known as the apostle of England, he introduced Christianity to the southern part of Britain. He was sent from Rome by Pope Gregory I, with 30 or 40 monks, to convert the *Anglo-Saxons. Reaching England in 597, they were well received by the king of Kent, Ethelbert, whose wife Bertha came from a Frankish tribe on the Continent and was already a Christian. Ethelbert, soon converted, built Augustine a church in his capital city, *Canterbury, of which Augustine became the first archbishop. Augustine sent monks from Canterbury to establish other English sees. St Justus became the first bishop of Rochester in 604, and St Mellitus the first bishop of London in the same year. St Paulinus later went from Canterbury to become the first archbishop of *York. Augustine's feast day is May 26.
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