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Saint Laurence of Canterbury (d. February 3, 619) was the second Archbishop of Canterbury. He arrived at Thanet with St. Augustine in 597 as part of the missionary effort dispatched from Rome to Kent in 595. He was sent back to Pope Gregory I to report on the successes in Kent in converting King Ethelbert. He succeeded Augustine to the See of Canterbury around 604 and ruled until his death. He was succeeded as Archbishop by MellitusSaint Mellitus (d. April 24 624) was sent to England in 601 AD by Pope Gregory I in response to an appeal from St. Augustine of Canterbury for a fresh band of missionaries. He was commissioned by Gregory to convey the pallium to Augustine, together with a, the bishopA bishop is an ordained person who holds a specific position of authority in any of a number of Christian churches. Bishops in the New Testament The bishop's role is typically called the " episcopacy", because the word "bishop" is derived ultimately from of London.During Laurence's reign, Ethelbert died ( 616Events The Persians capture Alexandria. Eadbald succeeds Ethelbert as king of Kent. Aethelfrith of Northumbria defeats the army of Powys. Aethelfrith meets Raedwald and the army of East Anglia in the Battle of the River Idle, is slain by Raedwald, which e) and his son EadbaldEadbald (died January 20, 640) was the King of Kent from 616 until his death. He succeeded his father AEthelbert as king. At first, Eadbald renounced his baptism, rejected Christianity, and married his father's widow. He was later converted by Laurence of returned to the old faiths and many prominent missionaries fled to GaulGallia (in English Gaul is the Latin name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. In English the word Gaul commonly ref. But Laurence managed to reconvert him. The tale is that Laurence had been prepared to give up when he was visited by St. Peter in a vision, who chastised him and whipped him. The marks of the whipping remained and the display of them to Eadbald effected his conversion.
On his death he was buried in St. Peter's Abbey church, later renamed St. Augustine's. His festival is on February 3.
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