St Augustine's Cross is a stone memorial in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, in a fenced enclosure on the south side of Cottington Road, west of Cliffs End, at

Pegwell Bay Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet in the English Channel coast astride the estuary of the River Stour north of Sandwich Bay, between Ramsgate and Sandwich in Kent. Part of the bay is a nature reserve, with seashore habitats including mudflats an ...

Thanet Thanet may refer to: *Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England *Thanet District, a local government district containing the island *Thanet College, former name of East Kent College *Thanet Canal, ...

, about west of

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to the Census, there was a populatio ...

, north of Richborough Roman Fort, and east of Canterbury, in the parish of Minster. The cross was erected in 1884 to commemorate the arrival of

St Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

in England in AD 597. It is believed to mark the place where St. Augustine met King Ethelbert for the first time.

Background

In 595,

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

selected the monk Augustine to lead a mission to England to convert the

Anglo Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

in the

Kingdom of Kent la, Regnum Cantuariorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the Kentish , common_name = Kent , era = Heptarchy , status = vassal , status_text = , government_type = Monarchy ...

to Christianity. The Gregorian mission landed in Kent in 597.

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...

wrote in his ''

Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict be ...

'' that "Over against the eastern districts of Kent there is a large island called Thanet which, in English reckoning, is 600 hides or families in extent. It is divided from the mainland by the river Wantsum, which is about three furlongs wide, can be crossed in two places only, and joins the sea at either end. Here Augustine, the servant of the Lord, landed with his companions, who are said to have been nearly forty in number. They had acquired interpreters from the Frankish race according to the command of Pope St Gregory." This has been interpreted as meaning that Augustine landed at Ebbsfleet.

Cross

The cross was commissioned and erected in 1884 by

Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, (11 May 181531 March 1891), styled Lord Leveson until 1846, was a British Liberal statesman and diplomat from the Leveson-Gower family. He is best remembered for his service as Secreta ...

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown Minister of the Crown is a formal constitutional term used in Commonwealth realms to describe a minister ...

(1851–52, 1870–74, 1880–85) and

Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century, when the title was Keeper of the Coast, but may be older. The Lord Warden was originally in charge of the Cinq ...

(1865-1891). He was inspired by a tradition associated with an oak tree known as the Augustine's Oak - felled within living memory - reputed to be the place where King Ethelbert first met Augustine.HISTORY OF ST AUGUSTINE’S CROSS
/ref> St Augustine's Well, a stream nearby, is reputedly the place where Augustine baptised his first convert. Ethelbert was reputedly baptised there on

Whit Sunday Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian High Holy Day of Pentecost. It is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the H ...

, 597. The cross was carved by John Roddis of Birmingham, using stone from a quarry in Doulting which was also used to build

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It ...

. The cross follows a Saxon or Celtic design based the Sandbach Crosses, early Christian examples from the 8th to 9th century from

Sandbach Sandbach (pronounced ) is the name of a historic market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach itself as the largest, Elworth, Ettiley Heath ...

in Cheshire. The tapering shaft about high stands on a stepped base, topped by a circular

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses e ...

. The base and cross add another . The complete monument is about high. The sides of the shaft are decorated with a lozenge pattern and carvings of archbishops, angels and beasts. On the west face of the cross are the emblems of the Four Evangelists - a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle. The west side of the shaft is decorated with rectangular panels showing the Annunciation, the

Virgin and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent ...

, the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Cartha ...

and the

Transfiguration Transfiguration(s) or The Transfiguration may refer to: Religion * Transfiguration of Jesus, an event in the Bible * Feast of the Transfiguration, a Christian holiday celebrating the Transfiguration of Jesus * Transfiguration (religion), a mo ...

. The

twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minis ...

are depicted on the north side and fourteen early

Christian martyrs In Christianity, a martyr is a person considered to have died because of their testimony for Jesus or faith in Jesus. In years of the early church, stories depict this often occurring through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at th ...

on the south. The east face of the cross is decorated with "

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

motifs" which continue down the shaft, with diamond shaped panels depicting

St Alban Saint Alban (; la, Albanus) is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorde ...

, St Augustine and St Ethelbert. Raised

ropework Ropework or marlinespike seamanship are traditional umbrella terms for a skillset spanning the use, maintenance, and repair of rope. Included are tying knots, splicing, making lashings, whippings, and proper use and storage of rope. While the ...

corners with knotwork edging around the sides. Nearby are the Hugin reconstructed

Viking longship Longships were a type of specialised Scandinavian warships that have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by the No ...

, Pegwell Bay Country Park, and St Augustine Golf Course.

Plaque

The cross is accompanied by a metal plaque bearing a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

inscription written by

Henry Liddell Henry George Liddell (; 6 February 1811– 18 January 1898) was dean (1855–1891) of Christ Church, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1870–1874), headmaster (1846–1855) of Westminster School (where a house is now named afte ...

, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (1855–91), which commemorates the meeting between Augustine and Ethelbert, Augustine's first sermon, and the subsequent spread of Christianity across England. A separate plaque displays an English translation of the inscription.

References

St Augustine's Cross
English Heritage
History: St Augustine's Cross
English Heritage *
Saint Augustine's Cross, Minster
British Listed Buildings
The Life Of Granville George Leveson Gower Part Two
Edmond Fitzmaurice, p. 510-512

saintsandstones.net *{{NHLE, num=1266551 , desc=, accessdate=6 November 2012 Residential buildings completed in 1884 English Heritage sites in Kent Grade II listed buildings in Kent

Background

Cross

Plaque

See also

References