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Pope Gregory the Great sends a mission to England
In 596 CE, Pope Gregory I formally sent a 40-man mission led by Augustine to Britain to convert the Anglo-Saxons, marking Rome's systematic intervent…
Timeline
- 590–596Rome · LazioAfter becoming pope, Gregory I, drawing on his earlier concern for Britain's situation and the religious mission to "preach to the Angles," planned and approved in Rome a scheme to send a mission to England.
- 596Rome · LazioGregory appointed the abbot Augustine as mission leader, who set out from Rome with about forty monks for Britain. On the way the mission briefly turned back out of fear, but continued after papal urging.
Sources
- Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book I — Bede https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/bede-book1.asp
- Gregory the Great, Registrum Epistularum — Gregory I https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/gregory-letters.asp