The Many Hidden Saints of Kent: Holy Men and Women Who Remain ‘Powerful Intercessors’, by Edward Pentin

The Catholic history of the English county that’s slightly smaller than Rhode Island has had an enormous impact on the world, thanks in large part to its close links with possibly as many as 80 saints and blesseds.

CANTERBURY, England — “It’s like an epicenter of holiness,” said Canon Marcus Holden, “like several continents put together, all in one little place.”

Canon Holden, who formally established the Shrine of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Ramsgate in 2012, was referring to the “remarkable” Catholic history of the county of Kent in England, an area slightly smaller than Rhode Island but with close links to possibly as many as 80 saints.

Many of them are hardly known to most English citizens — even citizens of Kent — aside perhaps from some of its most famous who, to name just a few, include St. Augustine of Canterbury, the sixth-century chief evangelizer of the English, the 12th-century martyr St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury, the Carmelite St. Simon Stock of Aylesford, and Reformation martyr St. John Fisher of Rochester. …