page_title: St Augustine's Abbey
section_title: Restoration to present
hierarchical_section_title: St Augustine's Abbey / Dissolution to present / Restoration to present
caption_attribution_description: English: monastery in Canterbury in Kent, United Kingdom
context_page_description: St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent dismantlement until 1848. Since 1848, part of the site has been used for educational purposes and the abbey ruins have been preserved for their historical value.
context_section_description: The condition of the abbey did not go unnoticed. In 1844 a rich young landowner, member of parliament, and generous churchman, Alexander James Beresford Hope, visited the ruins, found them deplorable, and bought them. Inspired by the missionary zeal of the Reverend Edward Coleridge, Hope and other donors gave additional money to restore and construct buildings for the establishment of a college to train young men as missionaries in the British colonies. They envisioned a dual purpose for the college: (a) to educate missionaries and (b) to excavate and preserve the abbey remains. St Augustine's Missionary College remained in existence until 1947. However, on the night of 31 May 1942, its buildings were so badly damaged by a German Blitz raid that the College ceased operations.
  From 1952 to 1967, the Missionary College buildings were used as The Central College of the Anglican Communion.
  From 1969 to 1976 the college was used by the theological department of King's College London as a base for final year ordination preparation.
  Since 1976, the college buildings, together with some new ones, have been used by the King's School, Canterbury, for boarding houses and the School Library. This part of the St Augustine's Abbey site was purchased by the School in 1994.
  The ruins of the abbey are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the care of English Heritage.
caption: English Heritage entrance on Longport to St Augustine's Abbey ruins[1]
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