Prayer of St Augustine of Canterbury

Prayer of St Augustine of Canterbury

A short prayer for healing by St Augustine

Watch O Lord, with those
who cannot sleep or weep tonight.
Tend your sick ones.
Rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones.

Amen.

St Augustine of Canterbury

O Lord our God, who by your Son Jesus Christ called your Apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations:

We bless your holy name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today.

And we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

St Augustine was a Benedictine Prior of the Abbey of St Andrew in Rome when he was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great, to lead a mission to Britain and bring Christianity to the then Kingdom of Kent. He arrived in Kent in 597 with forty Monks and companions.

The King of Kent, King Aethelberht, was married to Princess Bertha daughter of one of the Kings of Franks (France). She was a Christian and as a condition of her marriage, she brought a Bishop from France to Kent.

Aethelberht was a pagan but he allowed his wife religious freedom. He also permitted St Augustine to settle and preach in Canterbury and use the Church of St Martin for services.

Within a year of his arrival, St Augustine had converted King Aethelberht to Christianity and thereafter, many others followed.

On one occasion the numbers were so great that a mass baptism of thousands occurred on Christmas day in 597. St Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. When he died in 604, he was revered as a Saint.

Prayer of St Augustine of Canterbury