Sculpture
of King Æthelberht of Kent, an Anglo-Saxon king and saint, on Canterbury Cathedral in England.
Sculpture
de Æthelberht de Kent, roi et saint anglo-saxon, sur la Cathédrale de
Cantorbéry en Angleterre.
Saint Ethelbert
Roi du Kent et
Confesseur (+ 616)
Il fut le premier roi
chrétien de Kent. Il était marié avec Berthe la fille du roi des Francs. Il
écouta avec bienveillance les paroles de saint
Augustin de Canterbury, un des moines qu'avait envoyés le pape saint
Grégoire de Rome. Il se convertit et fut baptisé par saint Augustin
lui-même qui revenait d'Arles en Provence où il avait reçu la consécration
épiscopale. Saint Ethelbert fit bâtir la première cathédrale Saint Paul de
Londres.
À Cantorbéry en
Angleterre, l’an 616, la mise au tombeau de saint Éthelbert, roi du Kent, que
saint Augustin, encore moine, convertit à la foi du Christ et baptisa, le
premier des rois du peuple des Angles.
Martyrologe romain
Entraînez les autres avec
vous. Qu’ils soient vos compagnons sur la route qui mène à Dieu. Que celui qui,
dans son cœur, a déjà entendu l’appel de l’amour divin en tire pour son
prochain une parole d’encouragement.
Saint Grégoire le Grand
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/692/Saint-Ethelbert.html
Stained-glass window of Æthelberht from the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford
ETHELBERT (mort en 616) roi du Kent (560-616)
Ethelbert of Kent, King
(RM)
(also known as Ædilberct,
Æthelberht, Aibert, Edilbertus)
Born c. 560; died at
Canterbury on February 24, 616; feast day formerly February 24.
In the days of the
Saxons, Ethelbert, great-grandson of Hengist, the first Saxon conqueror of
Britain, reigned for 36 years over Kent beginning about 560, the oldest of the
kingdoms. Although he had been defeated by Ceawlin of Wessex at the battle of
Wimbledon in 568, Ethelbert became the third bretwalda of England, exercising
supremacy over all other Saxon kings and princes south of the Humber. Under his
rule Kent was the most cultured of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; it was closely
associated with the Frankish Rhineland.
He married a Christian
princess, Bertha, granddaughter of King Clovis of the Franks and sister of
Chilperic's brother Charibert, king of Paris. Bertha brought with her to
England her own chaplain, Bishop Saint Liudhard of Senlis, and in a church
built in Roman times in Canterbury that was dedicated to Saint Martin, he
preached the Gospel in a heathen land.
Bertha herself was
lovable and gentle, and though we know little of her life, her memory remains
as a bright light shining in the darkness of those ancient days. Bertha was a
zealous and pious Christian princess, who by the articles of her marriage had
free liberty to exercise her religion. To Ethelbert and his people she brought
the pattern and example of a Christian life and prepared the way for the coming
of Augustine (Austin). Although in one place Saint Gregory the Great compares
her piety and zeal to that of Saint Helen, as late as 601, he reproached her
for not having converted her husband.
Although Ethelbert was a
very courteous man, he was himself not yet a Christian. When Augustine and his
missionaries, sent from Rome by Gregory the Great, landed on the isle of Thanet
and requested Ethelbert's permission to preach, he ordered them to remain where
they were and arranged for them to be well tended until he had reached a
decision.
Ethelbert feared that the
missionaries might be magicians, so he would not receive them indoors, in case
he needed to retreat quickly from their sorcery. In that time they believed at
that time, an evil spell would be ineffective outdoors. So the king arranged to
meet them in the open air on Thanet Island under a great oak.
They came in the bright
morning light, the emissaries of Rome, bearing before them a great silver cross
and a picture of our Lord painted on a large wooden panel, and chanting
Gregorian strains. At their head marched Augustine, whose tall figure and
patrician features were the center of attention. it was a moving sight, and who
could have foretold all that the day held in store for England! As the paraded
forwarded they prayed for their salvation and that of the English.
The king, surrounded by a
great company of courtiers, invited the visitors to be seated, and after
listening carefully to what Augustine had to say, gave a generous answer:
"You make fair speeches and promises, but all this is to me new and
uncertain. I cannot all at once put faith in what you tell me, and abandon all
that I, with my whole nation, have for so long a time held sacred. But since
you have come from so far away to impart to us what you yourselves, by what I
see, believe to be the truth and the supreme good, we shall do you no hurt,
but, on the contrary, shall show you all hospitality, and shall take care to
furnish you with the means of living. We shall not hinder you from preaching
your religion, and you may convert whom you can."
He accommodated them in
the royal city of Canterbury and before the year was over there were 10,000
converts according to a letter from Saint Gregory to Patriarch Eulogius of
Alexandria. On Whit Sunday 597 (traditionally, though it is more likely to have
occurred in 601), King Ethelbert himself was baptized by Saint Augustine. In
601, Gregory wrote an encouraging letter to Ethelbert, congratulating him on
becoming a Christian. Not since the conversions of Constantine and Clovis had
Christendom known an event so thrillingly momentous.
From that time, Ethelbert
was changed into another man. His only ambition during the last 20 years of his
life was to establish the perfect reign of Christ in his own soul and in the
hearts of his subjects. His ardor in penitential exercises and devotion never
abated. It must have been difficult to master his will in the while wielding
temporal power and wealth, but Ethelbert continuously advanced in the path of
perfection.
In the government of his
kingdom, his thoughts were completely turned upon the best means of promoting
the welfare of his people. He enacted wholesome laws, abolished the worship of
idols, and turned pagan temples into churches. While he granted religious
freedom to his subjects, believing conversion by conviction was the only true
conversion, thousands of them also became Christians. His code of laws for Kent
is the earliest known legal document written in a Germanic language. The first
law decreed that any person who stole from the church or clergy must make
immediate reparation.
Ethelbert gave his royal
palace of Canterbury to Saint Augustine for his use, founded a cathedral there,
and built the abbey of Saints Peter and Paul (later called Saint Austin's) just
outside the city walls. He also laid the foundations for Saint Andrew's in
Rochester and many other churches. King Ethelbert was instrumental in bringing
King Sebert (Sabert) of the East Saxons and King Redwald of the East Angles to
faith in Christ. He built the cathedral of Saint Paul's in London in the
territory of King Sebert.
Saint Gregory the Great,
delighted with the progress made in the English mission field, sent a number of
presents to King Ethelbert. The pope wrote that "by means of the good
gifts that God has granted to you, I know He blesses your people as well."
He urged King Ethelbert to destroy the shrines of idols and to raise the moral
standards of his subjects by his own good example.
Upon his death, Ethelbert
was buried beside his first wife Bertha in the porticus (side-chapel) of St.
Martin in the Abbey Church of SS. Peter and Paul. Later his relics were
deposited under the high altar of that same church, then called Saint Austin's.
Polydore Virgil reports that a vigil light was kept before the tomb of Saint
Ethelbert, and was sometimes an instrument of miracles even in the days of King
Henry VIII. There seems to have been an unofficial cultus at Canterbury from
early times, but his feast is found in calendars only from the 13th century,
and generally on February 25 or 26, because Saint Matthias occupied February
24. He is commemorated in both the Roman and British Martyrologies (Attwater,
Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0225.shtml
_-_BL_Egerton3028_f55r_(Ethelbert_baptized_by_St._Augustine)_(cropped).jpg)
Le
Baptême d'Æthelberht de Kent,
détail
d’une miniature d'un manuscrit du Roman de Brut, vers 1340
_-_BL_Egerton3028_f55r_(Ethelbert_baptized_by_St._Augustine).jpg)
Audeberd [Ethelbert] baptized by St. Augustine, circa 1325-1350, illumination on parchment, 20 x 12, British Library
Also
known as
Ædilberct
Æthelberht
Aedilberct
Aethelberht
Aibert
Albert
Edilbertus
Profile
Son of Eormenric;
great-grandson of Hengist, Saxon conqueror of Britain. Raised as a pagan worshipper
of Odin. King of
Kent (in modern England)
in 560.
Defeated by Ceawlin of Wessex at the battle of Wimbledon in 568,
ending his attempt to rule all of Britain. Married the Christian Bertha,
daughter of Charibert, King of
the Franks; they had three children,
including Saint Ethelburgh
of Kent. Convert to Christianity, baptized by Saint Augustine
of Canterbury in 597;
his example led to the baptism of
10,000 of his countrymen within a few months, and he supported Augustine in
his missionary work
with land, finances and influence. Issued the first written laws to the English people
in 604.
Born
24
February 616 at Canterbury, England of
natural causes
buried in
the side chapel of
Saint Martin in the abbey church
of Saints Peter and Paul
relics later
translated to Canterbury
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Catholic
Encyclopedia, by Ewan MacPherson
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our
Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Christian
Biographies, by James E Kiefer
images
sitios
en español
Martirologio
Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Saint Ethelbert of
Kent“. CatholicSaints.Info. 22 May 2020. Web. 23 February 2021. <http://catholicsaints.info/saint-ethelbert-of-kent/>
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-ethelbert-of-kent/
St. Ethelbert
King of Kent; b.
552; d. 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from
Hengest. He succeeded his father,
in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win
from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His
political importance was doubtless advanced by
his marriage with Bertha,
daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks (see BERTHA
I). A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the
old Roman church of
St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her
every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself
had been reared, and remained, a worshipper of Odin. The
same natural virtue, combined with a
quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality,
appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597,
the Apostle of England landed
on the Kentish coast (see AUGUSTINE
OF CANTERBURY).
In the interval
between Ethelbert's defeat by Ceawlin and the arrival of
the Roman missionaries, the death of the Wessex king had
left Ethelbert, at least virtually, supreme in southern Britain, and
his baptism,
which took place on Whitsunday next
following the landing of Augustine (2
June, 597) had such an effect in deciding the minds of his wavering
countrymen that as many as 10,000 are said to have followed his example within
a few months. Thenceforward Ethelbert became the watchful father of
the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. He founded the church which in
after-ages was to be the primatial cathedral of
all England,
besides other churches at Rochester and Canterbury.
But, although he permitted, and even helped, Augustine to convert a heathen temple into
the church of
St. Pancras (Canterbury), he never compelled his heathen subjects
to accept baptism.
Moreover, as the lawgiver who issued their first written laws to
the English people (the ninety "Dooms of Ethelbert", A.D.
604) he holds in English history a place thoroughly consistent
with his character as the temporal founder of that see which did
more than any other for the upbuilding of free and orderly political
institutions in Christendom.
When St.
Mellitus had converted Sæbert, King of
the East Saxons, whose capital was London,
and it was proposed to make that see the metropolitan, Ethelbert,
supported by Augustine,
successfully resisted the attempt, and thus fixed for more than nine centuries
the individual character of the English church. He
left three children, of whom the only son, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.
Sources
STUBBS in Dici. Christ.
Biogr., s.v.; HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biogr., s.v.; BEDE, Hist. Eccl.,
I, II; GREGORY OF TOURS, Historia Francorum, IV, IX; Acta SS.;
BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 24 Feb.
Macpherson, Ewan.
"St. Ethelbert." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1909. 25 Feb. 2017
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05553b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to Almighty
God for Timothy and Theresa Leland & Family.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05553b.htm
St. Ethelbert, Confessor, First
Christian King among the English
HE was king of Kent, the
fifth descendant from Hengist, who first settled the English Saxons in Britain,
in 448, and the foundation of whose kingdom is dated in 455. Ethelbert married,
in his father’s life-time, Bertha, the only daughter of Charibert, king of
Paris, and cousin-german to Clotaire, king of Soissons, and Childebert, king of
Austrasia, whose two sons, Theodobert, and Theodoric, or Thierry, reigned after
his death, the one in Austrasia, the other in Burgundy. Ethelbert succeeded his
father Ermenric, in 560. The kingdom of Kent having enjoyed a continued peace
for about a hundred years, was arrived at a degree of power and riches, which
gave it a pre-eminence in the Saxon heptarchy in Britain, and so great a
superiority and influence over the rest, Ethelbert is said by Bede to have
ruled as far as the Humber, and Ethelbert is often styled king of the English.
His queen Bertha was a very zealous and pious Christian princess, and by the
articles of her marriage had free liberty to exercise her religion; for which
purpose she was attended by a venerable French prelate, named Luidhard, or
Lethard, bishop of Senlis. He officiated constantly in an old church dedicated
to St. Martin, lying a little out of the walls of Canterbury. The exemplary
life of this prelate, and his frequent discourses on religion, disposed several
Pagans about the court to embrace the faith. The merit of the queen in the great
work of her husband’s conversion is acknowledged by our historians, and she
deserved by her piety and great zeal to be compared by St. Gregory the Great,
to the celebrated St. Helen. 1
Divine providence, by
these means, mercifully prepared the heart of a great king to entertain a
favourable opinion of our holy religion, when St. Augustine landed in his
dominions: to whose life the reader is referred for an account of this
monarch’s happy conversion to the faith. From that time he appeared quite
changed into another man, it being for the remaining twenty years of his life
his only ambition and endeavour to establish the perfect reign of Christ, both
in his own soul and in the hearts of all his subjects. His ardour in the
exercises of penance and devotion never suffered any abatement, this being a
property of true virtue, which is not to be acquired without much labour and
pains, self-denial and watchfulness, resolution, and constancy. Great were,
doubtless, the difficulties and dangers which he had to encounter in subduing
his passions, and in vanquishing many obstacles which the world and devil
failed not to raise: but these trials were infinitely subservient to his
spiritual advancement, by rousing him continually to greater vigilance and
fervour, and by the many victories and the exercise of all heroic virtues of which
they furnished the occasions. In the government of his kingdom, his thoughts
were altogether turned upon the means of best promoting the welfare of his
people. He enacted most wholesome laws, which were held in high esteem in
succeeding ages in this island: he abolished the worship of idols throughout
his kingdom, and shut up their temples, or turned them into churches. His royal
palace at Canterbury he gave for the use of the archbishop St. Austin: he
founded in that city the cathedral called Christ Church, and built without the
walls the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards called St.
Austin’s. The foundation of St. Andrew’s at Rochester, St. Paul’s at London,
and many other churches, affords many standing proofs of his munificence to the
church, and the servants of God. He was instrumental in bringing over to the
faith of Christ, Sebert, king of the East-Saxons, with his people, and Redwald,
king of the East-Angles, though the latter afterwards relapsing, pretended to
join the worship, of idols with that of Christ. King Ethelbert, after having
reigned fifty-six years, exchanged his temporal diadem for an eternal crown, in
616, and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. His remains were
afterwards deposited under the high altar in the same church, then called St.
Austin’s. St. Ethelbert is commemorated on this day in the British and Roman
Martyrologies: he was vulgarly called by our ancestors St. Albert, under which
name he is titular saint of several churches in England; particularly of one in
Norwich, which was built before the cathedral, an account of which is given by
Blomfield, in his history of Norfolk, and the city of Norwich. Polydore Virgil
tells us that a light was kept always burning before the tomb of St. Ethelbert,
and was sometimes an instrument of miracles, even to the days of Henry VIII.
See Bede, Hist. Ang. l. 1. c. 25, &c. Henschen. t. 3. Febr. p. 471.
Note 1. St. Greg. M.
l. 9. ep. 60. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume II: February. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/2/246.html
Ethelbert, 1st Christian
King of Kent
The fortunes of Christianity have
waxed and waned in Britain. Early in church history, so many Celts converted to
Christ that the island could be called a Christian country. One of its sons,
Patrick, carried the gospel to Ireland where Christianity also triumphed.
However, the Celts fell to an invasion by Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the fifth
century. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans, worshipping the Norse gods, whose
pantheon was headed by Odin.
Celtic Christians,
hating the invaders who had robbed them of their land, made little or no effort
to convert them to Christ. In the sixth century, Irish monks crossing from
Ireland, began the conversion of pagan England from the north. In the seventh
century Augustine of Canterbury brought the gospel to Kent, in the south.
Ethelbert ruled Kent
then. He worshipped Odin, the god of his fathers, but allowed his wife, Bertha,
to practice Christianity. She was the daughter of a Christianized French king.
Perhaps her influence explains why Ethelbert was gracious to Augustine when he
came, declaring that he brought news of an eternal kingdom.
According to the
eighth-century Anglo-Saxon historian Bede, Ethelbert agreed to meet Augustine
and hear what he had to say. The meeting had to be in the open, however. The
king believed that Augustine's "magic" could only work on him inside
a building.
In spite of his
precautions, Ethelbert was eventually converted with thousands of his
followers, although he did not compel any of them to become Christians. The
king built several church buildings and gave Augustine the ground at Canterbury
where the cathedral now stands. It has always been the primary see of England.
Although Ethelbert's most
important act was to accept the Christian faith, he is notable for promulgating
the first English code of law and for bringing most of Anglo-Saxon England
under his rather loose authority.
On February 24, 616 the
king died. Because that is the feast of St. Matthias, Ethelbert is commemorated
not on his death day, but on the following day, February 25.
Bibliography:
"Augustine, St., of
Canterbury," and "Ethelbert, St." The Oxford Dictionary of
the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford,
1997.
Bede. A History
of the English Church and People [Ecclesiastical History of England]. Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1968.
Hook, Walter Farquhar,
1798-1875. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London, R.
Bentley, 1865 - 1884.
Howorth, Henry
Hoyle. Saint Augustine of Canterbury. London : J. Murrary, 1913.
McKilliam, A. E. Chronicle
of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London: James Clarke, 1913.
"St. Augustine of
Canterbury," and "St. Ethelbert." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
Stephen
Melton, Æthelberht van Kent (2006) op Lady
Wootton's Green te Canterbury, Engeland.
Ethelbert of Kent, King
and Confessor
25 February 560
The Christian Gospel was
preached in Britain before 200, and by 300 the Celtic peoples of the island
were largely Christian; but in the 400's southeastern Britain (what we now call
England) was invaded by tribes of pagan Anglo-Saxons (Angles, Saxons, and
Jutes) who subdued the Christian Celts or drove them north and west into
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The reconversion of England was then accomplished
by Celtic missionaries entering England from the north and west, and Roman
missionaries entering from the south and east.
The Jute kingdom of Kent
was in the southeast corner of England, and in 597 a delegation of monks
arrived from Rome, headed by Augustine of Canterbury (26 May 605) (not to be
confused with his more famous namesake, Augustine of Hippo (28 August 430)).
Ethelbert, king of Kent, was a pagan, but his wife Bertha, a Frankish princess,
was a Christian, and he welcomed the strangers, listened politely to their
invitation to convert, told them that he was resolved to continue in the
religion of his fathers, and gave them a plot of ground and permission to build
a church and to preach to anyone who cared to listen. Four years later, after
at least 10,000 of his subjects had converted, Ethelbert himself was baptized.
He did not pressure his remaining pagan subjects to follow him, but gave the
missionaries help and encouragement in their preaching, built the cathedral of
Saint Andrew in Rochester and the monastery of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
(later the cathedral of Saint Augustine) at Canterbury; and influenced the
conversion of King Sabert of the East Saxons, in whose territory he built the
church of Saint Paul, London. He died on 24 February 616; but because that is
the Feast of Matthias the Apostle, he is commemorated on 25 February.
Prayer (traditional
language)
O God, who didst call thy
servant Ethelbert of Kent to an earthly throne that he might advance thy
heavenly kingdom, and didst give him zeal for thy Church and love for thy
people: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate him this day may be fruitful
in good works, and attain to the glorious crown of thy saints; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever.
Prayers (contemporary
language)
O God, who called your
servant Ethelbert of Kent to an earthly throne that he might advance your
heavenly kingdom, and gave him zeal for your Church and love for your people:
Mercifully grant that we who commemorate him this day may be fruitful in good
works, and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever.
SOURCE : http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/02/25.html
Statue
of en:Ethelbert of Kent. Interior of en:Rochester Cathedral.
King Ethelbert: the
Christian monarch whose influence is barely acknowledged today
29 February, 2016
An important anniversary
took place on February 24. It was the 1400-year anniversary of the death
of King Ethelbert – the first Anglo-Saxon king to become a Christian.
Yet across England there
was little fuss made and little celebration of the anniversary. Thankfully,
there was a Tridentine Mass offered in the seaside town of Ramsgate – at the
church of St Augustine’s and St Ethelbert’s – by the Kazakhstani Bishop
Athanasius Schneider to commemorate the anniversary. Ethelbert was king of Kent
from 560 – 616.
Born and raised a pagan,
Ethelbert sought to marry the Christian Princess Bertha. Bertha was the
daughter of Charibert, a Frankish king who insisted that a strict condition for
his daughter Bertha marrying Ethelbert be that she would be allowed to practice
her faith freely and she came with her own chaplain, Bishop Luihard.
For the early years of
their marriage, Ethelbert and Bertha would have had what we now call a mixed
marriage. Queen Bertha’s reign in Kent saw the beginning of a Roman Catholic
influence on Anglo-Saxon society – it is thought that Bertha persuaded
Ethelbert to welcome St Augustine and the Roman Mission in 597.
Sent by Pope Saint
Gregory the Great, St Augustine was the prelate who was charged with
evangelising England, and he was warned that England was “a barbarous, fierce
and unbelieving nation.”
According
to the historian Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Augustine
and his band of twenty missionaries came bearing a silver cross with a painting
of Jesus on a board and greeted Ethelbert by singing a prayer litany.
St Ethelbert was baptised
by St Augustine, but it puzzled me why he was not baptised by his wife’s
chaplain, Bishop Luihard. I asked myself this, and other questions, when
researching this piece. Wouldn’t it have been easier for Ethelbert to have been
brought to Christianity by the bishop who gave the sacraments to his wife?
Couldn’t Ethelbert have converted to Christianity on or before marrying Bertha?
And why did he wait?
Fr
Hunwicke wrote an excellent blog that answered my questions. Had
Ethelbert been received into the Church by Bertha’s personal chaplain, it
“would have made him appear an appendage of her apron strings, if not a vassal
of her father”.
Fr Hunwicke goes on to
explain, that as St Augustine was sent directly from Pope Gregory the Great, it
allowed Ethelbert, “to be instructed that the dedications and the liturgical
dispositions and the choral arrangements of the churches being constructed in
Canterbury precisely paralleled those of the great City itself, making
Canterbury a new, Northern Rome.”
Aside from his great role
in enabling the roots of Catholicism to be planted in English soil, Ethelbert
also published the first written laws in England and re-established the use of
coins as monetary currency. For someone who had such a great influence on
England’s destiny as a nation, Ethelbert’s name is scarcely mentioned nowadays.
St. Ethelbert, King and
Confessor
The first of the
Anglo-Saxons to receive the Christian faith was the premier king, or Bretwalda,
of the Saxon confederation, respected not only as a grandson of Hengist but
also as a great warrior. He married Bertha, a Christian Princess from Gaul, and
agreed that she should continue to practise her religion and bring with her
Luidhard, the Bishop of Senlis, as her chaplain. Ethelbert gave his Queen the
ancient church of St. Martin in Canterbury, built in Roman times, which he
restored. It stood outside the city walls and there is a small postern gate
still there, known as the Quenin Gate, through which she passed daily to hear
mass.
His marriage made Ethelbert well-disposed towards Augustine when he arrived
with his monks in the Isle of Thanet, but he was cautious. He would not meet
these strangers except in the open air in case they should work upon him some
magical charm, and so it was that he received Augustine seated under an oak
tree with Bertha by his side. He listened to the words of the Gospel translated
to him by an interpreter, and when they were ended he said that he could not
immediately abandon all that he held sacred, but the Christian missionaries
were free to preach in his kingdom. He gave to them a piece of land between the
walls and St. Martin's, where the monks established their monastery, which
became the great Abbey of SS Peter and Paul. The fourteenth century gate-house,
known as the Fyndon Gate, has a figure carved on one of the battlements of St.
Ethelbert looking over his city.
The king watched carefully the behaviour of these Christians and became
convinced of the truth of what they preached, so on Whitsunday 597, with many
of his nobles and subjects, he received baptism in the river Stour. Augustine
went to France to be consecrated bishop, and on his return, Ethelbert presented
him with his palace inside the walls, which was consecrated as the Cathedral
Church of Christ. In fact this building was probably the basilica, or town
hall, of the Roman town of Durovernum. The King retired to his palace at
Reculver, another of the old Roman buildings, but continued to assist Augustine
and his company by giving them land at Rochester, where another Cathedral was
built, this time dedicated to St. Andrew. He also influenced his nephew Sabert,
King of the East Saxons, to embrace the faith and to give the land on which to
build St. Paul's Cathedral for London, which was probably an ancient Christian
site on which the British had previously erected a church, then in ruins.
In his letter to Ethelbert, St. Gregory bids him follow the example of
Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, in establishing the faith of Christ
in his dominions. He ends with a blessing, May grace from on high keep
your excellency safe, my Lord Son. St. Ethelbert was to reign another
twenty years after his conversion, and it is recorded that during that time he
was always fair, never using pressure on any to become a Christian and only
having greater affection for those who did, not showing them added favours. He
died in 616 and was buried in SS. Peter and Paul with his Queen, Bertha, and
the good Bishop Luidhard. The great tower, which stood at the west end of the
Abbey Church, was called Ethelbert's Tower, and remained standing after the
impious dissolution, amidst the ruins of the monastery, until 1822 when most of
it succumbed to a violent storm (Bishop Browne, Baring-Gould).
Icon of Saint Ethelbert
http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/ethlbert.htm
SOURCE : https://celticsaints.org/2014/0224a.html
_Stolnica.jpg)
Canterbury Cathedral: Sculptures of three of the six kings on the left hand side of choir screen (Pulptium); from left to right Henry V, Richard II, Ethelbert
Statue
of Æthelberht of Kent, Canterbury Cathedral choir screen
Sant' Etelberto Re
del Kent
552 circa – 24 febbraio
616
Gregorio Magno e Agostino
di Canterbury vengono ricordati come gli apostoli degli Angli. Al loro fianco
bisogna ricordare anche Etelberto e sua moglie Berta. Nato verso il 552,
Etelberto ancora in giovane età divenne il più potente sovrano anglo
dell’epoca. Verso il 588 sposò Berta, la figlia cattolica del re franco
Cariberto. Dando prova di tolleranza, permise alla sua sposa di continuare a
professare la sua fede. Ancora più magnanimo egli si mostrò nel 597 quando
accolse la delegazione di monaci inviata da papa Gregorio e guidata da
Agostino. Egli ascoltò i missionari e concesse loro di stabilirsi presso
Canterbury con facoltà di predicare e convertire. Lo stesso Etelberto ricevette
il battesimo nel giorno di Pentecoste del 597. Saggio e prudente, non costrinse
i sudditi a seguire la sua scelta, ma certo favorì quanti si facevano
battezzare. La svolta favorevole al cristianesimo venne consolidata dalla
costruzione , non lontano da Canterbury, di un monastero dedicato ai santi
Pietro e Paolo. Inoltre il re concesse ad Agostino dei terreni per edificare la
sede episcopale di Canterbury e lo sostenne nell’organizzazione di un sinodo
cui parteciparono vescovi e dottori dalla vicina regione dei Britanni. Nel 601
arrivò in Inghilterra una nuova spedizione di monaci.Tra di loro vi erano
Paolino, Mellito e Giusto. Con l’aiuto di Etelberto, diverranno vescovi
rispettivamente di York, Londra e Rochester. Favorevole al
cristianesimo, Etelberto rimase un sovrano saggio ed equilibrato che procurò
benefici a tutta la sua nazione. Morì il 24 febbraio del 616 dopo un regno di
più di 50 anni e venne sepolto accanto alla moglie Berta, anch’ella venerata
come santa.
Emblema: Corona,
Scettro
Martirologio
Romano: A Canterbury in Inghilterra, sant’Etelberto, re del Kent, che il
vescovo sant’Agostino convertì, primo tra i principi inglesi, alla fede di
Cristo.
Etelberto nacque
all’incirca nel 552 e, incoronato re del Kent, ebbe il primato di essere il
primo sovrano anglosassone a convertirsi al cristianesimo. Egli fu il terzo
“bretwalda” , cioè capo supremo, d’Inghilterra e i territori sottoposti alla
sua giurisdizione comprendevano tutta l’Inghilterra a sud del fiume Humber. Non
oltre il 588 il re Etelberto si sposò con la principessa Berta, figlia del re
francese Cariberto. La condizione posta per la celebrazione del matrimonio fu
che alla sposa venisse concessa la libertà di continuare a professare la
religione cristiana e potesse essere accompagnata dal vescovo di Letardo, suo
cappellano. Fu poi certamente quest’ultimo ad influire sulla conversione del
nuovo marito. Nel 597 il pontefice San Gregorio Magno inviò dei missionari,
capeggiati dal celebre Agostino di Canterbury, per una più efficace evangelizzazione
dei popoli anglosassoni. La spedizione ebbe come prima tappa l’isola di Tanatos
ed i missionari contattarono il re per spiegargli le loro intenzioni. Le
accurate cronache di Beda il Venerabile ci ricordano come “dopo alcuni giorni
il re si recò nell’isola e, fermatosi all’aperto, ordinò ad Agostino ed ai suoi
compagni di recarsi a colloqui da lui. Temeva infatti, a causa di un’antica
superstizione, che entrando con loro in luogo chiuso essi lo avrebbero potuto
ingannare per mezzo di arti magiche. I monaci si accostarono allora a lui con
una croce d’argento e “predicarono la parola di vita al re ed a tutti quelli
che erano con lui”. Sempre animato da un estrema prudenza, Etelberto rispose
loro: “Sono bellissimi i discorsi e le promesse che fate, ma poiché sono cose
nuove e incerte non posso dare il mio assenso ed abbandonare tutto ciò in cui
ho creduto per tanto tempo con tutto il mio popolo”. Apprezzando però il lungo
viaggio da essi compiuto e la buona volontà dimostrata, il re accordò loro un
sistemazione adeguata presso Canterbury e la facoltà di predicare e convertire
chi lo avesse desiderato.
Con la conversione del re
Etelberto, tradizionalmente collocata alla vigilia di Pentecoste dell’anno 597
circa, aumentarono concessioni e favori di ogni genere nei confronti dei
missionari. E’ comunque da specificare che il sovrano, pur lieto del numero
sempre crescente di conversioni, preferì non imporre mai ai suoi sudditi
l’adesione al cristianesimo.
Nel 601 lo stesso papa
Gregorio Magno, inviandogli fra l’altro alcuni doni, volle proporgli
direttamente in una lettera alcuni punti sui quali avrebbe potuto lavorare:
“Affrettati ad estendere la fede cristiana ai popoli a te sottomessi,
moltiplica il tuo lodevole zelo per la loro conversione, perseguita il culto
degli idoli, abbattine gli edifici di culto, edifica i costumi dei sudditicon
la tua grande purezza di vita […] e quanto più avrai purificato dai loro
peccati i tuoi sudditi, tanto meno avrai da temere a causa dei tuoi peccati
davanti al terribile esame di Dio onnipotente”.
Fuori delle mura di
Canterbury, Etelberto fece dunque edificare un nuovo monastero dedicato ai
santi Pietro e Paolo, che in seguito fu intitolato a Sant’Agostino di
Canterbury. Proprio a quest’ultimo il re donò dei terreni per la sua nuova sede
episcopale sempre nella medesima città e lo aiutò nell’organizzazione di un
sinodo a cui parteciparono anche “i vescovi ed i dottori della vicina regione
dei britanni”. Etelberto non mancò inoltre di esercitare una certa influenza
sulla conversione di Saberto, re dei Sassoni Orientali, che da lui dipendeva in
quanto “bretwalda”. Capitale di tale regno era Londra ed anche qui il sovrano
del Kent fondò la primitiva St. Paul’s Cathedral, nominando San Mellito primo
vescovo della città. Si adoperò inoltre per l’istituzione di un’altra nuova
sede episcopale preso Rochester. Primo vescovo del Kent fu invece
designato un certo Giusto. Non mancarono comunque mai da parte del santo
sovrano aiuti e sostegni di vario genere per le tre diocesi da lui fondate:
Canterbury, London e Rochester. MA oltre alla politica filo-ecclesiastica, non
bisogna dimenticare che Etelberto procurò alla sua nazione benefici secolari,
dotandola del suo primo codice legislativo, basato principalmente sulla legge
salica di Clodoveo, il primo re dei franchi convertitosi al cristianesimo.
Rimasto nel frattempo
vedovo, il re Etelberto morì il 24 febbraio 616, dopo un regno durato
cinquantasei anni. Ricevette degna sepoltura accanto a sua moglie, anch’essa
oggi venerata come santa, nella cappella di San Martino del monastero dei Santi
Pietro e Paolo in Canterbury. Fino alla Riforma Protestante dinnanzi alla loro
tomba fu sempre presente una candela accesa, nonostante la mancata
ufficializzazione del culto, che fino al Medioevo rimase limitato a
Canterbury. Oggi Sant’Etelberto del Kent è invece ricordato dal
Martyrologium Romanum nell’anniversario della sua morte. La vicenda dei Santi
Etelberto e Berta del Kent è paragonabile a quella di un’altra coppia reale
europea, i Santi Mirian III e Nana, sovrani della lontana Georgia, che
accolsero e sostennero l’attività missionaria di Santa Nino e si meritarono
giustamente dalle Chiese orientali l’appellativo di “Isapostoli”, cioè “Uguali
agli Apostoli”. Proprio questa fu la funzione principale che ebbero anche
i sovrani del Kent nei confronti di Sant’Agostino di Canterbury, che grazie al
loro sostegno poté avviare decisamente la cristianizzazione dell’Inghilterra.
Autore: Fabio
Arduino
