Bishop Liudhard

Saint Augustine gets a lot of credit for the Gregorian Mission to the court of King Æthelbert of Kent and the mass conversions to Christianity that followed. As fertile as his efforts were, the ground had been prepared by someone else. Twenty years earlier, the Frankish princess Bertha had become Æthelbert's queen, and brought to England the Catholic Bishop Liudhard.

Originally from Senlis on the continent, he created a new parish by restoring a Roman church east of Canterbury. He dedicated it to St. Martin of Tours, making it the first Christian Saxon church in England. (The illustration is a view of the church as it exists today.)

Bede, who is the chief source of the story of the Gregorian Mission, does not say much about Liudhard at all, and we think he died not long after Augustine's arrival in 597. Liudhard would have been preaching in Kent for 20 years at that point, so might have been advanced in years. Augustine's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury, Laurence of Canterbury, had Liudhard's remains removed from St. Martin's Church and buried at the Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which had been founded by Augustine (and was later named for him).

Thought of locally as St. Liudhard, he is given credit for a miracle in the 11th century. An artist, Abbot Spearhafoc, was given a ring by Edith of Wessex, queen of King Edward the Confessor. He lost it, and it was only found again after Spearhafoc prayed to St. Liudhard. Spearhafoc created statues for Liudhard's tomb. Liudhard was also credited for bringing rain when needed.

In the 19th century, a gold medallion was found in a grave in Canterbury with Liudhard's name on it.That sounds simple and straightforward, but it's pretty interesting. I'll explain more next time.