Saint Augustine icon, Handmade Greek Orthodox icon St Augustine of Canterbury, Byzantine wood plaque

This wonderful icon has been created with the technique of lithography and has a double varnish to ensure waterproof and duration in time. The creator of this icon has learned the canonization of iconography in workshops of the Monasteries of Mount Athos, where he was taught both the technique of lithography and the process of handmade artificial ageing.

Our father among the saints Augustine of Canterbury (d. May 26, 605) was a Benedictine monk and the first Archbishop of Canterbury. His feast day is May 26.

The wife of King Ethelbert of Kent, called Bertha, daughter of Charibert, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, had brought a chaplain with her (Liudhard) and either built a church or restored a church in Canterbury from Roman times and dedicated it to St. Martin of Tours, a major patronal saint for the Merovingian royal family. Ethelbert himself was a pagan, but allowed his wife to worship God her own way. Probably under influence of his wife, Ethelbert asked Pope Gregory I to send missionaries.

In 596, Augustine had been prior of the monastery of Saint Andrew, founded by Pope Gregory I, and was sent by Gregory at the head of forty monks to preach to the Anglo-Saxons. They lost heart on the way and Augustine went back to Rome from Provence and asked that the mission be given up. The pope, however, commanded and encouraged them to proceed. Thus, Augustine was sent to King Ethelbert, Bretwalda of England, by Pope Gregory the Great in 597. He was accompanied by Laurence of Canterbury, the second archbishop, and other Benedictine monks, and they landed on the Island of Thanet in the spring of 597.

Ethelbert permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in his town of Canterbury and before the end of the year he was converted and Augustine was consecrated bishop at Arles. At Christmas 10,000 of the king's subjects were baptized.

Augustine sent a report of his success to Gregory with certain qu