Tuesday, May 27, 2014

May 27: St. Augustine of Canterbury

"Baptism of King Ethelbert
by St. Augustine of Canterbury"
Window at St. Martin Church
Canterbury, England

History

In the year 596, Pope Saint Gregory the Great sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury and around 40 other monks to tell the people of England about Jesus. The men set out from Rome, but on the way, they kept hearing about how mean the English were to Christians. So, they turned back. But the pope had heard that the English King Ethelbert, who was a pagan, had married a Christian lady, so the missionaries were sent to England again. King Ethelbert was very nice to them. He became a Christian the following year, and after that, many other English people became Christians too. To help them adapt, Augustine followed Paul’s example in Acts17:22-34 and converted pagan temples into Christian churches and replaced pagan rites with Christian Holy Days. The “good fruit” of this work was that England became a Christian country rather quickly.

Activity

Celebrate the “good fruit” of St. Augustine of Canterbury’s missionary work with a fruit dessert. This traditional Canterbury Tart is made with baking apples (such as Bramley apples), dessert apples (such as Gala or Braeburn), and demerara sugar, also called turbinado sugar. This recipe is from Great Britain, so they use slightly different names for things. Icing sugar is what we call confectioner’s sugar, and caster sugar is what we call baking sugar or extra-find granulated sugar (regular white sugar will work, too).

Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us!

More reading for parents:

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