Canterbury Cathedral upgrades video surveillance for a new generation of visitors
St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent in the United Kingdom as a missionary to England in 597 AD. According to the Canterbury Cathedral's historians, It is said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale in the city market and dispatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to Christianity. Augustine was given a church at Canterbury (St. Martin’s, after St. Martin of Tours, still standing today) by the local King. This building had been a place of worship during the Roman occupation of Britain and is the oldest church in England still in use.
Augustine had been consecrated a bishop in France and was later made an archbishop by the Pope. He established his seat within the Roman city walls (the word cathedral is derived from the the Latin word for a chair ‘cathedra’, which is itself taken from the Greek ‘kathedra’ meaning seat.) and built the first cathedral there, becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Since that time, there has been a community around the Canterbury Cathedral, arguably one of the oldest organizations in the English speaking world.