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==Life==
The wife of King Ethelbert of Kent, called Bertha, daughter of Charibert, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, had brought a [[chaplain ]] with her (Liudhard) and either built a church or restored a church in Canterbury from Roman times and dedicated it to St. [[Martin of Tours]], a major patronal saint for the Merovingian royal family. Ethelbert himself was a pagan, but allowed his wife to worship God her own way. Probably under influence of his wife, Ethelbert asked Pope Gregory I to send missionaries.
In 596, Augustine had been prior of the [[monastery]] of Saint Andrew, founded by Pope [[Gregory the Dialogist|Gregory I]], and was sent by Gregory at the head of forty monks to preach to the Anglo-Saxons. They lost heart on the way and Augustine went back to Rome from Provence and asked that the mission be given up. The pope, however, commanded and encouraged them to proceed. Thus, Augustine was sent to King Ethelbert, Bretwalda of England, by Pope [[Gregory the Dialogist|Gregory the Great]] in 597. He was accompanied by [[Laurence of Canterbury]], the second archbishop, and other Benedictine monks, and they landed on the Island of Thanet in the spring of 597.
