Pugin's Church and Shrine of St Augustine

St Augustine's Church
Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury Pugin's church of St Augustine
Church with cloister attached
St Augustine's Church Location in Kent
Coordinates: 51°19′42″N 1°24′37″E / 51.328397°N 1.410269°E / 51.328397; 1.410269
OS grid reference	TR3766864329
Location	Ramsgate, Kent
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	AugustineShrine.co.uk
History
Founded	1846 (1846)
Founder(s)	Augustus Pugin
Dedication	St Augustine of Canterbury and Our Lady of Sorrows
Consecrated	1884
Cult(s) present	St Augustine of Canterbury
Associated people	Augustus Pugin, Edward Pugin, Peter Paul Pugin, Dom WIlfrid Alcock, Alfred Luck, Kenelm Digby
Architecture
Status	Shrine Church; Education, Research, and Visitor Centre
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I listed
Designated	4 February 1988
Architect(s)	Augustus Pugin
Style	Gothic
Years built	1846-52
Administration
Parish	Ramsgate and Minster
Deanery	Thanet
Archdiocese	Southwark
Clergy
Archbishop	Archbishop Peter Smith
Rector	Fr Marcus Holden

For the former monastic community in Ramsgate, please see St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth.

For the original abbey founded by St Augustine c. AD 597 and destroyed in 1538, please see St Augustine's Abbey.

St Augustine's Church or the Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury is a Roman Catholic church in Ramsgate, Kent. It was the personal church of Augustus Pugin, the renowned nineteenth century architect, designer, and reformer. The church is an example of Pugin's design ideas, and forms a central part of Pugin's collection of buildings in Ramsgate. Having built his home (The Grange, Ramsgate, next door), Pugin began work on St Augustine's in 1846 and worked on it until his death in 1852. His sons completed many of the designs. This is the site where Pugin is buried, in a vault beneath the chantry chapel he designed, alongside several members of his family.

St Augustine brought Christianity to the English for the first time in AD 597, landing very close to the site of St Augustine's. After his death (c.604), his tomb soon became a shrine. This shrine, which was enlarged and moved over the centuries, was destroyed under the orders of King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in 1538, and St Augustine's remains in Canterbury were destroyed. Some relics of the saint had been sent to Europe as gifts in previous centuries.

St Augustine’s was built by the renowned architect and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin - most famous for his designs of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster - between 1845 and his death in 1852. This is the only church he built funded by himself. According to the Pugin Society, it is the pinnacle and most personal of Pugin’s designs, “full of the character of its designer.”