Portal:Christianity/Selected article/July 2009

The Gregorian mission was the missionary endeavour sent by Pope Gregory the Great to the Anglo-Saxons in 596 AD. Headed by Augustine of Canterbury, its goal was to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. By the death of the last missionary in 653, they had established Christianity in southern Britain. Along with Irish and Frankish missionaries, they converted Britain and helped influence the Hiberno-Scottish missionaries on the Continent.

After the Roman Empire recalled its legions from the province of Britannia in 410, the island was invaded and settled by pagan Germanic tribes. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory sent a group of missionaries to Kent, to convert Æthelberht, the King of Kent. His wife, Bertha of Kent, was a Frankish princess and practising Christian. As well as the delegation's missionary purpose, Gregory probably hoped it would add to the areas acknowledging papal primacy. Augustine was the prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome, and Gregory prepared the way for the mission by soliciting aid from the Frankish rulers along Augustine's route.

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