The Roman monk St. Augustine of Canterbury (died ca. 606) is known as the Apostle of England. He brought Christianity to England in the 6th century and became the first archbishop of Canterbury.

Gregory the Great, before he became pope, had seen in a slave market in Rome some young boys captured from the Angle tribe. He was said to have been so impressed by their light complexion and fair hair that he remarked, "These are not Angles, these are angels." When Gregory became pope, his desire to convert the Angles to Christianity led him to commission a group of monks to take the gospel message to England. To lead the mission, Gregory chose a man for whom he had gained respect when they shared a cell in the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, a monk named Augustine.

Until this time Augustine had followed the quiet and disciplined...