Augustine Came to Kent  E-mail this product to a friend

Barbara Willard has beautifully combined history and the Christian faith in this book.

Barbara Willard has beautifully combined history and the Christian faith in this book. With a true storyteller's instinct, she has interwoven historical facts with an absorbing fictitious tale in such a way that eager readers will take delight in, and learn from, the great adventure of St. Augustine's mission to the land of the Angles (later England). The story centers on young Wolf who has journeyed many difficult miles from Rome to the land of his birth. He witnesses the historic meeting between the Saxon King of Kent and the man who would be known as St. Augustine of Canterbury. It is the year 597 and Pope Gregory is sending a select number of his monks, led by Fr. Augustine, to re-evangelize England. Young Wolf, born in that land but raised in Rome, accompanies his father, Wolfstan, who goes as a guide and interpreter. Though the King of Kent's wife is a Christian, the missionaries from Rome do not know whether they will be welcomed, tolerated or martyred. In a story full of adventure, Wolf meets Fritha, a Saxon girl whose life and destiny are soon closely bound up with his own. Events, significant in the history of Christianity, are vividly brought to life by this veteran writer of historical fiction.