Page 25 - Saints of the Month: February

Saints of the Month: February

extant genuine document relating to him is
the fragment preserved by Bede of the letter
he addressed to the Celtic bishops exhorting
them to peace and unity with Rome. The
death of King Ethelbert, in 616 was followed
by a heathen reaction under his son
Eadbald, and under the sons of Sebert who
became kings of the East Saxons. Saints
Mellitus and Justus, bishops of the newly-
founded Sees of London and Rochester, took
refuge with St. Lawrence at Canterbury and
urged him to fly to Gaul with them. They
departed, and he, discouraged by the
undoing of St. Augustine’s work, was
preparing to follow them, when St. Peter
appeared to him in a vision, blaming him for
thinking of leaving his flock and inflicting
stripes upon him. In the morning he
hastened to the king, exhibiting his
wounded body and relating his vision. This
led to the conversion of the king, to the
recall of Saints Mellitus and Justus, and to
their perseverance in their work of
evangelizing Kent and the neighbouring
provinces. These events occurred about 617
or 618, and shortly afterwards St. Lawrence
died and was buried near St. Augustine in
the north porch of St. Peter’s Abbey church,
afterwards known as St. Augustine’s. His
festival is observed in England on 3
February.

Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, I, xxvii;
Ii, iv-vii; Elmham, Historia Monasterii S. Augustini in
Rolls Series (London, 1858); Acta SS. Boland.,

26