There is a story that Pope Gregory saw some fair haired blue eyed people being sold as slaves in Rome. He was surprised because they were so fair. He enquired about them and was told they were Anglo-Saxons from England. He is supposed to have replied 'Not Angles, but Angels'. However, what is certain is that he felt these Anglo-Saxons should know about Christianity. He sent a monk, Augustine, with forty others on a perilous journey from Rome to England to set about preaching the Christian Gospel. It was a long, hard journey and Augustine wanted to turn back, but Gregory refused. Augustine and his companions arrived in England at a place called Ebbsfleet in Kent, and were met by the Saxon King and Queen of Kent who made them welcome. In fact the Queen was already Christian, and, inspired by Augustine's teachings, the rest of the court and the ordinary people were baptised. Augustine set up a church in Canterbury, and from there the new Christian faith spread rapidly in the south, and he himself became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Augustine’s Clash with the Britons
© Royal Mail
By 603 St Augustine was well established at Canterbury as Archbishop, and he undertook a missionary journey to the Celtic area on the borders of Wales and England. He wanted to preach the importance of the Christian tradition he had brought with him from Rome rather than the Celtic tradition. He met with the Celtic Christians at a place known as Augustine’s Oak, and despite much discussion nothing could be agreed. The Celts would not even recognise Augustine as their Archbishop. Augustine was angry and prophesied that if they refused to accept the Roman way, then they would face war. Not long after, the Christian King Ethelfrid, raised an army at Chester and ‘made a great slaughter of the faithless Britons’, many of whom were monks and priests from the monastery at Bangor in north Wales who had come to pray for the soldiers. ‘Thus, long after his death, was fulfilled Augustine’s prophesy that the faithless Britons, who had rejected the offer of eternal salvation, would incur the punishment of temporal destruction.’
Reconciliation, renewal, re-creation and reconversion
This split with the Celtic Christians has never officially been healed, until 31st May 1997 that is!
St Columba
Columba was born a royal prince in Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. He was a great scholar, and became a monk. It was said that he was very tall and athletic, with a voice 'so loud and melodious, it could be heard a mile off'. He spent 15 years preaching in Ireland and founded monasteries, the most important of which was at Derry. He was accused of starting a war between his own clan and that of his king when 3 000 people were killed. Columba vowed to exile himself from Ireland until he had brought the same number of people that had been slain in the battle, 3 000, to Christianity.
He set off in 563 with 12 of his family in a leather covered coracle and landed on Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. They settled there and Columba built a monastery, and it became his headquarters for his missionary journeys all over Scotland, although he did return to Ireland occasionally.
Return to the 'Pilgrims' Way 1997'
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