Baptism of Anglo-Saxons

Date: December 25, 597 • Location: Rome, Italy

Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise in Kent more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.

Augustine of Canterbury was a Christian monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He was the prior of a Benedictine monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory I chose him in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism.