In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent his successor as Abbot of St Andrew’s in Rome, St Augustine, to the Kingdom of Kent as a missionary to convert Ethelbert’s pagan realm. He was helped by Ethelbert’s queen Bertha, a Christian, whose own bishop had died and who was eager for a permanent replacement.

Gregory’s missionaries turned back soon after leaving Rome, but Gregory persuaded them them to continue. They landed on the Isle of Thanet, singing and carrying icons, and King Ethelbert invited them to Canterbury. Such was their success that the King himself was baptised, and within a century all England’s kingdoms were Christian.

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