St Martin's Church, Canterbury
The Church of St. Martin is a Parish church in Canterbury, situated slightly beyond the town centre.
It is said to be England's oldest parish church in continuous use and the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent in the 6th Century before Augustine arrived from Rome. Queen Bertha was a Christian when she arrived in England with her Chaplain, Bishop Luidhard, and King Ethelbert, her husband, allowed her to continue to practise her religion in an existing church which the Venerable Bede says had been in use in the late Roman period but fallen into disuse. There is a strong possibility that the church is that church. Local finds prove that Christianity did exist in this area of the city at the time, and the church contains many reused Roman bricks or spolia. However, its design is not specifically Roman and as such may have been built just after the Roman occupation and at the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon migration in the mid 4th century.
External links
Sources
- F. Haverfield, "Early British Christianity" The English Historical Review Vol. 11, No. 43. (Jul., 1896)
 | This article about a church building or other Christian place of worship is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |