St Gregory, St Augustine and the Mission to England

Fr Brendan Thomas • May 26, 2019

Monastic History in Glass and Stone (3)

How the Chapel of St Benedict, in its stained glass and carving tells us something of the whole history of Benedictine Monasticism, the importance of the English Church, and the place of Belmont in this story.

In 597 St Augustine (of Canterbury) arrived in England on his famous mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons at the request of St Gregory the Great (c.540-604).

It would be nice to think that Augustine, who had been prior of Gregory’s own monastery on the Caelian Hill in Rome, had brought with him a copy of the Rule of St Benedict, but this we do not know for sure. In fact neither Augustine nor Gregory can properly be described as ‘Benedictine’ as the monastic practice of that period was to follow, not a single rule, but to select from different rules - a so-called regular mixta . Neither can we say that the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul that Augustine founded at Canterbury was the first monastery to be founded on these shores, as monasticism was a conspicuous feature of the British church in Celtic times. However both Gregory and Augustine (beautifully

portrayed in the stained glass) would be honoured as Apostles of the English and as part of their mission would establish monastic life amongst the Anglo-Saxons. The monk Paulinus (d. 644), belonged to a second group sent from Rome. He became the first Archbishop of York. Pictured with shell in hand, we might remember that he baptized the powerful Hilda of Whitby (614-680) amongst others.


In fact the Anglo-Saxons were about to make a decisive contribution to the Benedictine story. The Rule's first recorded presence in England was in Northumbria. It is probable that St Wilfred of York (c.633-709) brought the rule back from Gaul in 653 and introduced it in his monasteries at Ripon and Hexam in the north, and Salsey in the south. He had journeyed with St Benet Biscop (628-89), a Northumbrian nobleman who was later to found the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and they were both to champion the Roman against the Celtic observance at the Synod of Whitby in 664.

Benet Biscop, perhaps more than Wilfred, can be called the true founder of Benedictine monasticism in England. He not only changed his name from Witizia in honour of Benedict, but recommended the Rule’s special authority. From the middle of the 7th century the Rule provided the basic framework for the overwhelming majority of new foundations.


Biscop, portrayed staff in hand with the cockleshell of a pilgrim, is a central figure in the windows. St Benedict’s strictures on stability never seem to have stopped monks travelling, but Benet Biscop’s journeys were for a purpose. He frequently travelled to Rome and brought back books, icons, paintings and relics that show a love of learning and a concern for beauty in the worship of God. These books and relics that holds would foster the remarkable learning and holiness of Bede.

Biscop brought masons from Gaul to build something rare in those days – stone churches. To adorn them he brought the first glaziers to England and fragments of that stained glass can still be seen today at Jarrow. He even brought back on one journey John, the Arch-Cantor, from the monastery of St Martin at the Vatican so that his monks could learn to sing the chant as it was sung at St Peter’s in Rome. John instructed them on how to keep the festivals of the Church’s year.

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