Jaenberht of Canterbury

Saint Jaenberht of Canterbury was a monk and then abbot of Saint Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, and archbishop of Canterbury from 765 until his repose on 12 August 792. He came from a prominent family in the kingdom of Kent.

He was consecrated archbishop on 2 February 765, at the court of King Offa of Mercia, and received the pallium in 766. In 776 Kent rebelled and secured its freedom, perhaps at his urging. He attended the church councils at Brentford in 780 and 781. He had a difficult relationship with King Offa, who at one point confiscated lands from the archbishopric; in 787 Offa secured the creation of the rival archbishopric of Lichfield under Hygberht and transferred some of Canterbury's bishoprics to it, though it is not known whether Jaenberht ever recognized its legitimacy. The causes of the conflict: he opposed Offa's deposition of the Kentish dynasty, they quarreled over land, he refused to crown Offa's son Ecgfrith, and he minted his own coins at Canterbury. Matthew Paris, in the thirteenth century, writes that he conspired to admit Charlemagne to Canterbury; the story may reflect a tradition of St Albans or be a fabrication.

He presided at a council at London after the elevation of Lichfield. He was buried in the abbey church of Saint Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury. He has since been revered as a saint, with a feast day of 12 August, as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.