Who is St. Austin? And Why Is Our Parish Named in His Honor

What does the name of our parish tell us? Is St. Austin’s a church only named for the place where it is located? The name of our parish gives us, first of all, a glimpse into the spirituality of the Paulists. It is characteristic of them to name a church after a city whose namesake has the same name as a saint. Part of the Paulist charism is to meet people where they are, so the name of our church is an expression of their gift for evange-lizing.

St. Austin, or St. Augustine of Canterbury as he is more common-ly called, expresses the missionary spirit of the Paulists. He brought the knowledge of the Christian faith, and the Rule of St. Benedict to England in 596.
Augustine had been a monk in the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome founded by St. Gregory, a future pope and biographer of St. Benedict. Gregory sent Augustine to instruct the Anglo-Saxons. In Canterbury, Augustine rebuilt an ancient church which formed the nucleus for his metropolitan basilica and for the later monastery of Christ Church.

And so when the Paulists came to the mission territory of Texas in 1908 to establish St. Austin parish, the church was named in honor of another missionary, St. Augustine of Canterbury.
 

From Susan Anderson Kerr in “The Spirit”, Summer 1989