Died c. 606-608; feast at Saint Augustine's in Canterbury is kept on
December 30. Saint Peter was a monk at Saint Andrew's Monastery in Rome
until, in 596, he was sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great to England
with the first group of missionaries under Saint Augustine of
Canterbury. In 602, Peter became the first abbot of SS. Peter and Paul
(afterwards Saint Augustine's) at Canterbury.
Saint Peter was probably the monk delegated by Augustine to take news to
the pope of the first Anglo-Saxon conversions. He then brought back
Saint Gregory's replies to Augustine's questions. Later Peter was
dispatched on a mission to Gaul, but was drowned in the English Channel
at Ambleteuse (Amfleet) near Boulogne. According to the Venerable Bede,
the local inhabitants buried him in an "unworthy place" but, as the
result of a prodigy of mysterious light appearing over his grave at
night, translated his relics to a church in Boulogne with suitable
honour
(
Benedictines,
Delaney,
Farmer).