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...

The results of the elections for Members of the European Parliament are announced today. From some of the interviews I've seen about why some voted UKIP, you would think that the UK electorate sees immigrants as scapegoats for all the problems we have. I don't share that view.  This mosaic image show a 6th century immigrant to Kent. He's the monk with the halo talking earnestly (through an interpreter) to the man with the crown on his head. The Benedictine monk is probably Roman and certainly sent from Rome. So he was an immigrant to the Kingdom of Kent. He is Augustine, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The seated king is Aethelbert , the pagan King of Kent, also an immigrant - at least by descent from the invading Anglo-Saxons who drove the native Britains to the north and west. Sitting next to him and apparently praying is his Christian wife, herself an immigrant from France. Augustine of Canterbury probably died on 26 May in 604 or 605 A.D. which is ...