Saint Peter of Canterbury was a native of Italy, like the other members of the Gregorian mission. Saint Peter became the abbot of the monastery that Æthelberht founded in Canterbury, originally dedicated to the saints Peter and Paul, but later rededicated as St Augustine’s, after the leader of the mission. Bede describes Peter as both abbot and presbyter, a word usually translated as priest.
Saint Peter drowned while crossing the English Channel on the way to Gaul, at a place called Ambleteuse, near Boulogne. Saint Peter’s death has traditionally been dated to around 607, but evidence suggests that he was present at a church council in Paris in 614, so he probably died after that date. He was the first abbot of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul in Canterbury (later St Augustine’s Abbey) and a companion of Augustine in the Gregorian mission to Kent. Augustine sent Peter as an emissary to Rome around 600 to convey news of the mission to Pope Gregory I.
Sources:
Walsh New Dictionary of Saints p. 482
Hunt "Petrus (St Petrus)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Blair World of Bede p. 87
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_of_Canterbury
