ALBINUS (d. 732)

Photo :Great Gate of St. Augustine's Abbey, taken Sep 2002

abbot of the monastery of St. Peter's, Canterbury, better known as the monastery of St. Augustine. He assisted Bede in the compilation of his ‘Historia Ecclesiastica,’ and what we know concerning him is chiefly derived from the dedicatory epistle at the beginning of that ​work. Albinus was a pupil of Archbishop Theodore and his coadjutor Adrian, abbot of St. Peter's. Through the instructions of the latter he became not only versed in the scripture's, but likewise a master of Greek and Latin (Chron. G. Thorne). On the death of Adrian, Albinus succeeded to the abbacy, being the first native Englishman who filled that post. Bede in his epistle says that he was indebted to Albinus for all the facts contained in his history relating to the Kentish church between the first conversion of the English and the time at which he was writing. Much of this information was collected by the presbyter Nothelm, who, at the instigation of Albinus, undertook a journey to Rome and searched the archives there. Nothelm was the medium of communication between Bede and Albinus, for it does not appear that the two ever met. Albinus died in 732, and was buried beside his master Adrian.

[Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica, Prologus; Chron. Guliel. Thorne (ap. Twysden), c. iii. § 6. See also Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, ed. nova, 1723, p. 398, for a letter from Bede to Albinus, the only one known.]

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 01

by Charles Francis Keary


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