St. Augustine of Canterbury meets King Aethelbert
(partly obscured by galero which is very slowly turning to dust)
Today is the feast of St. Pancras, an early Roman martyr. As mentioned in an earlier post today, Pope St. Gregory the Great bestowed relics of St. Pancras upon St. Augustine of Canterbury before ordering St. Augustine to England to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. St. Augustine duly carried the relics to England, where his efforts at evangelization met with great success, some of which may undoubtedly be attributed to the intercession of St. Pancras. The first church St. Augustine consecrated in England was dedicated to St. Pancras, and it thrived for nearly a thousand years, before being dissolved and almost completely destroyed by King Henry VIII.
The mosaic above may be found in St. Augustine's chapel in Westminster Cathedral and depicts St. Augustine of Canterbury and his party of monks meeting King Aethelbert. The galero very slowly turning to dust belonged to Cardinal Hume.
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