Since 1848, part of the site has been used for educational purposes (used as boarding houses and a library by The King's School, Canterbury) and the abbey ruins have been preserved for their historical value.

Although he worshipped in a pagan temple just outside the walls of Canterbury to the east of the city, Ethelbert was married to a Christian, Bertha.

624 a short distance to the east, Eadbald, son and successor of Ethelbert, founded a second church, dedicated to Saint Mary which also buried Kentish royalty.

[9] The historian G. F. Maclear characterized St Augustine's as being a "missionary school" where "classical knowledge and English learning flourished".

[10] Over time, St Augustine's Abbey acquired an extensive library that included both religious and secular holdings.

Belief in the miraculous power of this relic had spread throughout Europe, and it brought many pilgrims to St Augustine's, whose gifts enriched the abbey.

[14] Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, William the Conqueror confiscated landed estates, but he respected Church property.

[16] At St Augustine's Abbey, the Anglo-Saxon buildings were completely reconstructed in the form of a typical Norman Benedictine monastery.

[19] Boggis's history calls this period a time of "worldly magnificence", marked by "lavish expenditures" on new buildings, royal visits, and banquets with thousands of guests.

Although the abbey owned estates throughout Kent amounting to 19,862 acres, Boggis holds that "historical evidence proves conclusively that even if Henry VIII had never dissolved them, the English monasteries were already doomed."

These actions were part of the English Reformation's "great transfer" of power, both economic and religious, from ecclesiastical to secular authorities.

[25] As part of the "great transfer", Parliament gave King Henry VIII authority to dissolve the monasteries and confiscate the property for the Crown.

[26] During the rest of Henry's reign, St Augustine's Abbey was held by the Crown with some of its buildings converted into a royal residence.

[28] The royal residence was occasionally used by the monarch as late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, during which the buildings were leased to a succession of noblemen.

On 7 September, her birthday, she attended a ball at the Archbishop's palace, returning at midnight to St Augustine's.

[30] After Cecil died in 1612, James I and VI leased the palace to Edward, Lord Wootton of Marley (sometimes spelled "Wotton"),[32] for a yearly rent of £20 13s and 4d.

[28] Robert Ewell, in his Guide to St. Augustine’s Monastery and Missionary College wrote that in the first half of the 19th century, the abbey "reached its lowest point of degradation".

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.

[36] However, on the night of 31 May 1942, its buildings were so badly damaged by a German Blitz raid that the college ceased operations.

[40] The Abbey is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Canterbury Cathedral and St Martin's Church.

[41] The following list is drawn from Edward Hasted, "The Abbey of St Augustine: Abbots", in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Volume 12 (Canterbury, 1801), pp. 177–225.