Paulinus (died 10 October 644) was a Roman missionary and the first
Bishop of York. A member of the
Gregorian mission sent in 601 by
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregor ...
to
Christianize the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
from their native
Anglo-Saxon paganism
Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centurie ...
, Paulinus arrived in England by 604 with the second missionary group. Little is known of Paulinus's activities in the following two decades.
After some years spent in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, perhaps in 625, Paulinus was
consecrated a bishop. He accompanied
Æthelburg of Kent, sister of King
Eadbald of Kent
Eadbald ( ang, Eadbald) was King of Kent from 616 until his death in 640. He was the son of King Æthelberht and his wife Bertha, a daughter of the Merovingian king Charibert. Æthelberht made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign ...
, on her journey to
Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
to marry King
Edwin of Northumbria
Edwin ( ang, Ēadwine; c. 586 – 12 October 632/633), also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christi ...
, and eventually succeeded in converting Edwin to Christianity. Paulinus also converted many of Edwin's subjects and built some churches. One of the women Paulinus
baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
was a future saint,
Hilda of Whitby
Hilda (or Hild) of Whitby (c. 614 – 680) was a Christian saint and the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in 664. An important figure in the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon Engla ...
.
Following Edwin's death in 633, Paulinus and Æthelburg fled Northumbria, leaving behind a member of Paulinus's clergy,
James the Deacon
James the Deacon (died after 671) was a Roman deacon who accompanied Paulinus of York on his mission to Northumbria. He was a member of the Gregorian mission, which went to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxo ...
. Paulinus returned to Kent, where he became
Bishop of Rochester. He received a
pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...
from the pope, symbolizing his appointment as Archbishop of York, but too late to be effective. After his death in 644, Paulinus was canonized as a saint and is now venerated in the
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
,
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
, and
Anglican Churches.
Early life
Paulinus was a monk from Rome sent to the
Kingdom of Kent
la, Regnum Cantuariorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the Kentish
, common_name = Kent
, era = Heptarchy
, status = vassal
, status_text =
, government_type = Monarchy ...
by Pope Gregory I in 601, along with
Mellitus
Saint Mellitus (died 24 April 624) was the first bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Chris ...
and others, as part of the second group of missionaries sent to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. He was probably an Italian by birth.
[Costambeys "Paulinus (St Paulinus)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''] The second group of missionaries arrived in Kent by 604, but little is known of Paulinus's further activities until he went to Northumbria.
[
Paulinus remained in Kent until 625, when he was consecrated as bishop by ]Justus
Justus (died on 10 November between 627 and 631) was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great, on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arrivin ...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 21 July.[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 224] He then accompanied Æthelburg, the sister of King Eadbald of Kent, to Northumbria where she was to marry King Edwin of Northumbria. A condition of the marriage was that Edwin had promised that he would allow Æthelburg to remain a Christian and worship as she chose. Bede, writing in the early 8th century, reports that Paulinus wished to convert the Northumbrians, as well as provide religious services to the new queen.[
There is some difficulty with Bede's chronology on the date of Æthelburh's marriage, as surviving papal letters to Edwin urging him to convert imply that Eadbald only recently had become a Christian, which conflicts with Bede's chronology. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that Paulinus and Æthelburh must therefore have gone to Northumbria earlier than 624, and that Paulinus went north, not as a bishop, but as a priest, returning later to be consecrated.][ The historian ]Henry Mayr-Harting
Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting (born 6 April 1936) is a British medieval ecclesiastical historian. From 1997 to 2003, he was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and a lay canon of Christ Church, Oxford. ...
agrees with Kirby's reasoning.[Mayr-Harting ''Coming of Christianity'' p. 66] Another historian, Peter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair (22 March 1912 – 9 September 1982) was an English academic and historian specializing in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 1969 he married his third wife, the children's author Pauline Clarke. She edited his ''Anglo-Saxon Northumbri ...
, argues that Æthelburh and Edwin were married before 625, but that she did not go to Northumbria until 625.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' pp. 33–34] If Kirby's arguments are accepted, then the date of Paulinus's consecration needs to be changed by a year, to 21 July 626.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 206 footnote 2]
Bede describes Paulinus as "a man tall of stature, a little stooping, with black hair and a thin face, a hooked and thin nose, his aspect both venerable and awe-inspiring".[Quoted in Blair ''World of Bede'' p. 95]
Bishop of York
Bede relates that Paulinus told Edwin that the birth of his and Æthelburg's daughter at Easter 626 was because of Paulinus's prayers. The birth coincided with a foiled assassination attempt on the king by a group of West Saxons
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
from Wessex. Edwin promised to convert to Christianity and allow his new daughter Eanflæd
Eanflæd (19 April 626 – after 685, also known as Enfleda) was a Deiran princess, queen of Northumbria and later, the abbess of an influential Christian monastery in Whitby, England. She was the daughter of King Edwin of Northumbria and Æth ...
to be baptised if he won a victory over Wessex. He did not fulfill his promise immediately after his subsequent military success against the West Saxons however, only converting after Paulinus had revealed the details of a dream the king had before he took the throne, during his exile at the court of King Rædwald of East Anglia
Rædwald ( ang, Rædwald, ; 'power in counsel'), also written as Raedwald or Redwald (), was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East ...
. In this dream, according to Bede, a stranger told Edwin that power would be his in the future when someone laid a hand on his head. As Paulinus was revealing the dream to Edwin, he laid his hand on the king's head, which was the proof Edwin needed. A late seventh-century hagiography of Pope Gregory I claims that Paulinus was the stranger in the vision;[ if true, it might suggest that Paulinus spent some time at Rædwald's court,][Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 28] although Bede does not mention any such visit.[
It is unlikely that it was supernatural affairs and Paulinus's persuasion alone that caused Edwin to convert. The Northumbrian nobles seem to have been willing and the king also received letters from Pope ]Boniface V
Pope Boniface V ( la, Bonifatius V; died 25 October 625) was the bishop of Rome from 23 December 619 to his death. He did much for the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, and enacted the decree by which churches became places of sanctuary.
...
urging his conversion.[ Eventually convinced, Edwin and many of his followers were baptised at ]York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
in 627.[Lapidge "Paulinus" ''Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England''] One story relates that during a stay with Edwin and Æthelburg at their palace in Yeavering
Yeavering () is a hamlet (place), hamlet in the north-east corner of the civil parish of Kirknewton, Northumberland, Kirknewton in the English county of Northumberland. It is located on the River Glen, Northumberland, River Glen at the northern ...
, Paulinus spent 36 days baptising new converts.[ Paulinus also was an active missionary in ]Lindsey Lindsey may refer to :
Places Canada
* Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia
England
* Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974
** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, ...
,[Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' pp. 115–116] and his missionary activities help show the limits of Edwin's royal authority.[Williams ''Kingship and Government'' p. 17]
Pope Gregory's plan had been that York would be England's second metropolitan see
See or SEE may refer to:
* Sight - seeing
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Music:
** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals
*** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See''
** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho
* Television
* ...
, so Paulinus established his church there.[ Although built of stone, no trace of it has been found.][ Paulinus also built a number of churches on royal estates.][Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 161] His church in Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
has been identified with the earliest building phase of the church of St Paul in the Bail.[
Among those baptised by Paulinus were Hilda, later the founding abbess of ]Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery that later became a Benedictine abbey. The abbey church was situated overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, a centre of the medieval Northumbrian ...
,[Blair ''World of Bede'' p. 147] and Hilda's successor, Eanflæd, Edwin's daughter.[Blair ''World of Bede'' p. 149] As the only Roman bishop in England, Paulinus also consecrated another Gregorian missionary, Honorius, as Archbishop of Canterbury after Justus' death, some time between 628 and 631.[
]
Bishop of Rochester
Edwin was defeated by an alliance of Gwynedd Welsh and Mercian Angles, being killed at the Battle of Hatfield Chase
The Battle of Hatfield Chase ( ang, Hæðfeld; owl, Meigen) was fought on 12 October 633 at Hatfield Chase near Doncaster (today part of South Yorkshire, England). It pitted the Northumbrians against an alliance of Gwynedd and Mercia. The Nort ...
, on a date traditionally given as 12 October 633.[ One problem with the dating of the battle is that Pope ]Honorius I
Pope Honorius I (died 12 October 638) was the bishop of Rome from 27 October 625 to his death. He was active in spreading Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and attempted to convince the Celts to calculate Easter in the Roman fashion. He is chiefl ...
wrote in June 634 to Paulinus and Archbishop Honorius saying that he was sending a pallium
The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...
, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, to each of them.[ The pope's letter shows no hint that news of Edwin's death had reached Rome, almost nine months after the supposed date of the battle. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that this lack of awareness makes it more likely that the battle occurred in 634.][Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 56]
Edwin's defeat and death caused his kingdom to fragment into at least two parts.[ It also led to a sharp decline in Christianity in Northumbria][ when Edwin's immediate successors reverted to paganism.][ Widowed queen Æthelburg fled to her brother Eadbald's Kent kingdom. Paulinus went with her, along with Edwin and Æthelburg's son, daughter, and grandson. The two boys went to the continent for safety, to the court of King ]Dagobert I
Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dy ...
. Æthelburg, Eanflæd, and Paulinus remained in Kent, where Paulinus was offered the see, or bishopric, of Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, which he held until his death. Because the pallium did not reach Paulinus until after he had left York, it was of no use to him.[ Paulinus's deputy, ]James the Deacon
James the Deacon (died after 671) was a Roman deacon who accompanied Paulinus of York on his mission to Northumbria. He was a member of the Gregorian mission, which went to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxo ...
, remained in the north and struggled to rebuild the Roman mission.[Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 116]
Death and veneration
Paulinus died on 10 October 644 at Rochester,[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 221] where he was buried in the sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is usually located ...
of the church.[Blair ''World of Bede'' pp. 97–98] His successor at Rochester was Ithamar
In the Torah, Ithamar () was the fourth (and the youngest) son of Aaron the High Priest."Ithamar", '' Encyclopaedia Biblica'' Following the construction of the Tabernacle, he was responsible for recording an inventory to ensure that the constructed ...
, the first Englishman consecrated to a Gregorian missionary see.[Sharpe "Naming of Bishop Ithamar" ''English Historical Journal'' p. 889] After Paulinus's death, Paulinus was revered as a saint, with a feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
on 10 October. When a new church was constructed at Rochester in the 1080s his relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s, or remains, were translated
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
(ritually moved) to a new shrine.[ There also were shrines to Paulinus at Canterbury, and at least five churches were dedicated to him.][Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 418] Although Rochester held some of Paulinus's relics, the promotion of his cult there appears to have occurred after the Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
.[Rollason "Shrines of Saints" ''Archaeology Data Services''] He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, the Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
, and the Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...
.[Holford-Stevens and Blackburn ''Oxford Book of Days'' p. 409][Walsh ''Dictionary of Saints'' p. 475]
Paulinus's missionary efforts are difficult to evaluate. Bede implies that the mission in Northumbria was successful, but there is little supporting evidence, and it is more likely that Paulinus's missionary efforts there were relatively ineffectual. Although Osric Osric is an Anglo-Saxon name and may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People Anglo-Saxon kings
* Osric of Deira, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira in the 630s
* Osric of Northumbria, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the 720s
* Osric of ...
, one of Edwin's successors, was converted to Christianity by Paulinus, he returned to paganism after Edwin's death. Hilda, however, remained a Christian, and eventually went on to become abbess of the influential Whitby Abbey.[ Northumbria's conversion to Christianity was mainly achieved by ]Irish missionaries
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity sprea ...
brought into the region by Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald Oswald may refer to:
People
*Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name
*Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name
Fictional characters
*Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...
.[Mayr-Harting ''Coming of Christianity'' p. 68]
See also
* List of members of the Gregorian mission
The Gregorian mission was a group of Italian monks and priests sent by Pope Gregory the Great to Britain in the late 6th and early 7th centuries to convert and Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism.BrooksGregorian ...
Notes
Citations
References
*
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Further reading
*
*
External links
* – listing of most contemporary and close to contemporary mentions of Paulinus in the primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
s. Includes some spurious charter listings.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulinus Of York
644 deaths
7th-century English bishops
7th-century Christian saints
Bishops of York
Bishops of Rochester
Burials at Rochester Cathedral
Gregorian mission
History of Northumberland
Northumbrian saints
Year of birth unknown
Yorkshire saints