Saint Peter of Ambleteuse

In the spring of the year 577, Peter and his companions, followed by forty others whom they had taken in France as interpreters, landed on the small island of Thanet. They immediately approached the King of Kent to make k nown to him roi de Kent King of Kent converted to Christianity by the mission of Augustine. the purpose of their journey and to announce that they had come to bring him good news; namely, the certain promise of eternal joy and an endless reign with the living and true God. Pre-disposed in favor of these envoys by all the accounts that Bertha and her confessor Luidhart had given him regarding the religion, Ethelbert, although still given to idolatry, showed them generous hospitality in his welcome and ensured that they lacked none of the things that might be necessary for them. His kindness did not stop there; for he also wished for them to have suitable lodging in the capital of his kingdom. Peter and his companions did not delay in leaving Thanet for Canterbury. It was then the Easter season. Passing before the small church of Saint M artin, whe Cantorbéry Capital of the Kingdom of Kent and center of the Augustinian mission. re the pious Bertha had so often prayed and wept for the conversion of England, they sang as if it were in the name of the inhabitants: 'Lord, we appeal to your mercy; turn your anger away from this people and from your holy house, for we have sinned.'

The missionaries lived very close to Ethelbert's palace, who often attended their pious exercises and took pleasure in their edifying conversations. They lived, like apostles, in prayer, vigils, and fasting. They preached the word of life to all who were willing to hear it, receiving from their disciples only what was absolutely indispensable for their needs, and conforming in all things with extreme rigor to their profession and their doctrine. They seemed to set aside the good things of this world as not belonging to them. They bore disappointments and obstacles with calm and without anxiety; they would have willingly died to defend the truth they preached, had such been the will of God. Thus, a great number of natives, won over by the simplicity, the purity of their life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine, believed and received baptism.

Conversions multiplied with ever-increasing rapidity, until at last He who turns the hearts of kings like the course of rivers, deigned to make Ethelbert himself feel the first effects of his spirit of light. The reasons that decided this prince to embrace the Christian faith were the multitude of miracles which, performed before his eyes, gave full credit to the promises of the missionaries. It was on the day of Pentecost, June 2, 597, that the King of England received baptism, following the forms still in use today in the ritual of the Roman Catholic Chur ch. Five months roi d'Angleterre King of Kent converted to Christianity by the mission of Augustine. after this ceremony, Saint Augustine returned to France, where he was consecrated Bishop of Great Britain by the hands of Archbishop Virgilius. During this interval, the preaching of the good example given by Ethelbert had been so powerful that in the same year, on Christmas Day, more than ten thousand English people came to seek the grace of regeneration in the holy waters.

Since Ethelbert had taken on the glorious title of child of God, all the honors and all the grandeurs of the earth had become for him as if they had never been; and so that God alone might be glorified in his place in the person of his ministers, he voluntarily moved away from his palace, which he placed entirely at the disposal of Augustine and the other religious, his brothers. Under this illustrious roof, erected as a monastery, our missionaries returned to their former habits of cloistered life, reconciling them, however, with the active obligations that their status as missionaries imposed upon them toward society, and drawing from it, for the fulfillment of these same obligations, a vigor of faith and an energy of action that they would have sought in vain elsewhere.

Until now, we have said nothing of Augustine that is not equally applicable to Pierre of Ambleteuse, long the faithful companion of all his labors. Invested with the particular confidence of the head of the mission, it is our Saint who, with Laurence, had the honor in 598 of being delegated by him to the Holy Father, to report to him on the success of their enterprise, and to ask for a reinforcement of evangelical workers made necessary by the ever-increasing number of their neophytes. Saint Pierre and the priest Laurence spent two years in Rome and returned to England in 601, accompanied by twelve new missionaries. They were provided with letters of recommendation for the bishops and sovereign princes of the part of France they were to cross. All hastened to welcome them with the marks of honor and distinction that their personal merit, joined to their quality as envoys of God, demanded. King Clotaire II, in particular, conceived for our Saint a very special esteem and affection.

The holy Apostles, in order to reach the coasts of England, chose as their place of embarkation the port of Ambleteuse, which did not lack a certain renown at the time. They were, on the part of the inhabitants, the object of the most attentive care.

Thus, in return for the bodily nourishment they received from them in abundance, they believed they could not better prove their gratitude than by lavishing spiritual food upon them. Saint Pierre distinguished himself above all by the testimonies of affection he gave them. During the night he spent at Ambleteuse, he rose in turn with his companions to make stations and pray in the church before the relics of several saints and martyrs, among others, before those of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, with which they were, thanks to the munificence of Pope Gregory, going to enrich England.

The next day, the ship that was to bring our Saint back to Engla pape Grégoire Pope contemporary to Saint Psalmodius. nd weighed anchor, and the latter, after a happy and short crossing, had the satisfaction of delivering himself to Augustine, to King Ethelbert, and to Queen Bertha, the letters and gifts that Pope Gregory was sending them.

Shortly after the departure of Saint Peter of Ambleteuse for Rome , Bishop August évêque Augustin Leader of the evangelical mission to England and first Archbishop of Canterbury. ine, in concert with his royal disciple, had founded a monastery in the vicinity of Canterbury, intended not only to offer the model of Christian society in its most perfect form on earth, but also dedicated to receiving the burial of Augustine and his successors, as well as the kings of Kent. The first patrons of this monastery were initially the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul; but Saint Dunstan, who spent entire nights there in prayer before the altar of the most holy Virgin, later renewed its dedication and added Saint Augustine to the number of its special protectors. Saint Peter of Ambleteuse was elected by his companions to be the first abbot of the royal monastery of Canter bury. King Ethelbert, in his monastère royal de Cantorbéry Capital of the Kingdom of Kent and center of the Augustinian mission. capacity as founder, gave him the investiture, and Bishop Augustine gave him the abbatial blessing.

The first care of the venerable abbot was to choose from among the English subjects suitable for recruiting and strengthening his community. Nothing could give an idea of the zeal and prudence he displayed in the government of this small republic. However, his lively and constant solicitude for the salvation of souls could not be confined within the very circumscribed limits of his abbey. If it happened that some evangelical workers felt the need to come to him to recollect themselves and be refreshed in the solitude of the cloister, it was Saint Peter who renewed their strength, revived their courage, rekindled their ardor for the conversion of the idolaters, encouraged them to bear with joy all the pains and fatigues inseparable from a life entirely of labor and devotion, and suggested to them the most appropriate means to attract a happy success to their labors.

After Saint Peter had honorably pursued this noble career for the space of two years, a major matter arose to be negotiated in France for the good of England. Ethelbert, who knew all the wisdom of our Saint and the high degree of esteem in which he was held by the King of France, would not entrust the care of this important mission to any other. Peter therefore embarked for France, abandoning himself once again and without hesitation to all the perils of the sea. But he had barely covered half the distance that separates England from the Boulonnais when the ship carrying him, assailed by a violent storm, perished with a large part of its crew. This shipwreck cost our Saint his life, or, to put it better, it procured it for him, since it only snatched away the life of the body in order to put him in full possession of that of the soul. It was the 6th of January in the year 608.

His body, found on the be ach of Ambleteuse, plage d'Ambletense Landing port and site of the shipwreck and the saint's first cult. was at first buried without honor like that of the most common stranger. However, this injustice did not take long to be repaired, for God permitted a marvelous prodigy to come and make the merit of our Saint shine before all eyes and reveal all the glory that his soul enjoyed in heaven.

It is asserted that every night a brilliant light shone above his grave. The inhabitants, surprised by such a miraculous fact, went to inquire to know who this holy personage could be whom the Lord favored in such a way. It is thus that they recognized in him that venerable priest Peter, who already during his lifetime had shown them so much kindness and devotion; and the unhoped-for possession of his precious remains was for them like the confirmation and the sure pledge of his persevering protection.

However, the small town of Ambleteuse not being as capable of defending itself against the enterprises of the enemy as the city of Boulogne co uld be, Boulogne City where the saint's relics were transferred for greater security. the latter requested and soon obtained the custody of this invaluable treasure. The transport was carried out from Ambleteuse to Boulogne on December 30, 608, and in the most solemn manner. The burial took place within the very enclosure of the cathedral.

Devotion to the relics of Saint Peter of Ambleteuse attracted a great influx of faithful to Boulogne for a long time, who were seen obtaining through his intercession a multitude of spiritual and temporal graces. Gocelin testifies that the entire body of Saint Peter of Ambleteuse rested, in the 11th century, in the church of the regular canons of Boulogne. Subsequently, the flesh having decayed, the bones were transferred to the sacristy. The head was enclosed, in 1528, in a rich silver reliquary weighing twenty-four marks. One of his arms was likewise encased in a silver arm whose hand was gilded. The other arm, as well as several other parts of the body, were left for the veneration of the inhabitants of Ambleteuse. But all these glorious remains, which had once contributed to forming a true living temple of the Holy Spirit, were pitilessly desecrated and dispersed in 1567 by the French Calvinists, who also took all the gold and silver reliquaries, numbering nearly one hundred, that the cathedral of Boulogne possessed. The other relics of Saint Peter also disappeared from the church of Ambleteuse when the English stayed in that town. The Protestant soldiers who then occupied the port of Ambleteuse had made it so much their task to erase the slightest vestiges of Catholic piety that they had managed to deal a rather harsh blow to the cult of which our Saint was the object in the region.

It was, however, in the views of Providence to raise its servant from the oblivion into which his memory had fallen. In 1763, the rumor spread that the cathedral of Boulogne still possessed two considerable portions of his body. Immediately, it was believed that the exposition of these holy relics would contribute to reviving the devotion of the inhabitants of Ambleteuse for their ancient protector, and the entire village made the request to the chapter of Boulogne. Mgr de Paris de Pressy, Bishop of Boulogne, gave his approval. Consequently, on January 24 of that same year 1763, the parish priest and the inhabitants of Ambleteuse went to the cathedral of Boulogne, where, after having attended a solemn mass in honor of the Saint, they requested his precious relics from the hands of Mr. Ballin, chaplain of the chapter. A large gathering of the faithful, preceded by their pastor, making the air resound with hymns of their gratitude, accompanied this pious convoy to its destination. The festival in Ambleteuse lasted for eight days and excited the most edifying testimonies of devotion from the surrounding populations. Entire parishes came in procession to pay homage to the holiness of the blessed abbot; and, throughout the year that followed, a multitude of miraculous healings performed through his intercession attested to his power.

At the moment when our first revolution broke out, in 1789, one could still see in the church of Ambleteuse a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter, at the top of which appeared, on a cornice, the statue of this Saint, represented in his Benedictine religious habit. The portion of relics of which we have just spoken was also kept there with much care and respect. But the revolutionary fire, which overturned everything in its path and left none of the holy things standing, spared this church no more than all the others. It was entirely devastated and the chapel destroyed with everything sacred it contained. One had been fortunate enough, however, to save the relic, which remained secretly deposited in a house in the neighborhood belonging to Mr. Poilly (Antoine), until 1806, the time at which, this house having been entirely consumed by flames, its precious deposit disappeared with it. Since 1806, the church of Ambleteuse possessed nothing more of its blessed patron. But, in 1846, Mr. Hamy, parish priest of Ambleteuse, having had an altar to Saint Peter, abbot, rebuilt in his church, received as a gift, on this occasion, from Mr. Leroy, a priest attached to the establishment of Mr. Haffreingue, independently of some other small parcels also coming from the body of our Saint, a bone of large dimension which appears to have belonged to one of the thighs. To hide this interesting remnant from the rage of the enemies of the faith in '93, the precaution had been taken to hide it in the masonry of an old wall of a house in the upper town. It is the demolition of this wall that later led to this unexpected discovery.

Formerly, a considerable number of pilgrims went to Ambleteuse, not only to venerate the relics of our Saint, but also to quench their thirst at the water of a fountain that bore his name and which had the very particular virtue of curing fever. This fountain, which, according to local tradition, was formed at the very place where the body of Saint Peter came ashore, remained buried under the sand for quite a long time. Before 1791, many excavations had been made to discover it, but in vain. It was only about two years later that, following a violent storm, the sea, clearing it a little from the sands that obstructed it, brought a part of it to light. At this happy news, the inhabitants of the three hamlets composing the commune of Ambleteuse all ran to the work and finished what the sea had begun, by completely clearing the surroundings of this fountain of everything that could mask its view. It was then surrounded by cut stones forming a square, which was covered by one or more other large stones. And on the side of the village, to give the inhabitants the ease of drawing from it at their leisure, an opening had been provided, closed by a wooden door which fell into rot immediately after the clearing operation. They hastened to taste the water, and although it had been completely deprived of air for a very long time, it was found to be excellent. From that day on, the sick, especially the feverish, came there again as in the past to seek health. A chapel has been built over this fountain.

Légendaire de Marinie.