Seeker

When did Christianity first come to Britain? Certainly not with the missionary monk St Augustine of Canterbury. In the Church of England it is his day today - more of Augustine, 1st Archbishop of Canterbury in a moment. Pictured in this stained glass with blond hair and pale complexion, Augustine looks more like an Anglo-Saxon than the Italian born immigrant that he was.  There are medieval traditions (and legends) of Christians in Roman Briton in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. There is good evidence that by the 3rd and 4th centuries there were churches and bishops in the British Isles. Augustine of Canterbury (not to be confused with Augustine of Hippo ) was certainly not the first Christian missionary in this small corner of northern Europe. On the old Roman Road from Dover to London was an ancient Celtic town on the River Stour which the Romans developed into the walled city of Canterbury as a centre for Roman regional government. At the time when Pope Gregory sent a g...

Have you ever wondered why people say " bless you" when you sneeze? Some say it originated from the time of a terrible plague in Rome in 590 A.D. The Roman plague ended in spasms of sneezing or yawning. Gregory, as the new Bishop of Rome ordered that "God bless you" should be said to all who sneezed and the sign of the cross made on the mouths of those who yawned. It strikes me that the signing could have encouraged the plague's spread! Today the Church of England remembers 'Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604'. 3 September is the anniversary of Gregory's consecration in 590 A.D. as Bishop of Rome and 'Successor of St Peter'. Gregory (540 - 604 A.D.) was the first to refer to the role of 'Pope' as "servant of the servants of God" - a helpful image for any Christian minister. The English church (in all its expressions) has special reason to remember Gregory the Great - not for his instructions on sneezing...