St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop

St. Augustine of Canterbury is referred to as the “Apostle of England.” He was prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on Rome’s Coelian Hill when Pope St. Gregory the Great sent (596) him and about thirty monks to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine and his monks landed in Kent during the summer of 597. Because Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had been a Christian before her marriage, the king readily permitted the missionaries to preach in his kingdom. The king likewise gave the monks a house and a church in Canterbury. Through Augustine’s preaching, Ethelbert became a Catholic (597) as did many of his subjects. Augustine established his see at Canterbury—the only Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdom on that island—built the first cathedral there, and sent missionaries and bishops to other parts of England. Augustine’s ministry in England lasted only seven years; he died on May 26, 604 or 605. Because he planted the seeds of the Catholic Church in England, St. Augustine is also known as the Father of the Church in England.

St. Gregory VII, Pope, Religious

Before becoming pope, St. Gregory worked closely with five other popes. His name was Hildebrand, and he was born in Tuscany in about 1021. He then went to Rome, where he became a monk, probably at Santa Maria on the Aventine. When Pope Gregory VI (1045–46) was forced into exile (1046), Hildebrand accompanied him to Germany. When Pope Leo IX (1049–54) was elected, he called Hildebrand to Rome and made him treasurer of the Roman Church. Pope Leo and his successor Pope Victor II (1055–57) both used Hildebrand for special papal missions. Hildebrand subsequently worked closely with Pope Nicholas II (1058–61) and Pope Alexander II (1061–73), and after Alexander’s death, he himself was elected pope on April 22, 1073, by popular acclaim. Pope Gregory was a man of exceptional ability and sought to promote reform within the Church by renewing decrees against clerical marriage and simony, and to abolish lay investiture, that is, secular control over the appointment of bishops and abbots. When Emperor Henry IV of Germany (reigned 1056–1106) ignored the pope’s orders and appointed bishops, Gregory excommunicated (1076) him and forbade him to exercise royal powers. Gregory reconciled him to the Church only after the emperor had submitted at Canossa (January 1077). When Henry later (March 1084) seized Rome, Gregory was forced to go south to Salerno, where he died on May 25, 1085. Today’s prayer speaks of the courage and the love of justice that distinguished Pope Gregory, and thus it recalls what are said to be the pope’s final words: “I have loved justice and despised iniquity, and because of this I die in exile.”