The opus Alexandrinum pavement set in the Trinity Chapel floor of Canterbury Cathedral is the focus of this thesis. Under-researched and historically misunderstood, it is my belief that it is a locally made, unique example of Hibernio-Roman stone work c. 600 CE, made under the patronage of Queen Bertha (wife of King Æ thelbert of Kent) and created from the salvage porphyry columns and revetments of the old Roman cemetery-mausoleum complex located on.

Kent' s main road to the sea. Documentation on the pavement dates to the ninth century and later centuries have modified it. In manuscript format, I will exam and discuss the original pavement, and will outline what is known about the surviving contemporary buildings and pavements in and near Canterbury and Kent. In addition, the designs of the opus Alexandrinum pavement in the Trinity Chapel have ties to contemporary manuscripts in the Hiberno-Northumbrian centers.

Finally, the early accounts of Augustine of Canterbury' s mission of 597 and the conversion of the Saxons (by the Venerable Bede, for example) as well as other contemporary accounts (from the eighth to the eleventh centuries) will support my hypothesis about the commissioning and the survival of this remarkable work of art.