St. Paulinus of York
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Paulinus of York. He was an important figure in the early history of Christianity in these islands. He was not part of the first mission to Kent under St. Augustine of Canterbury, but was later sent by Pope Gregory the Great following a request of St. Augustine for a helper to assist him in the evangelisation of the kingdom of Kent.
Subsequently, Ethelburgh, daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent (the first of the Saxon kings to become a Christian), was espoused to be married to the pagan Edwin, King of the Northumbrians. Paulinus was consecrated a bishop by Justus, who had succeeded Augustine as Archbishop of Canterbury, to accompany Ethelburgh and evangelise the kingdom of Northumbria.
After considerable hesitation Edwin was eventually persuaded to become a Christian and was baptised by St. Paulinus. St. Paulinus established his episcopal see at York. The Venerable Bede (himself a Northumbrian) speaks very highly of Paulinus. He writes that “it is said that so great was then the eagerness of the faith among the Northumbrian people, that at one time Paulinus did nothing for thirty six days together, from morning even until night, but teach the word of Christ to the multitude who flowed unto him from all round about, and when he had taught them, washed them from their sins in the river Glenny.”
It would seem that whatever success the mission may have had was short lived. King Edwin was defeated and killed in battle, and the kingdom of Northumbria was divided and relapsed into paganism. Many would argue that the fact that the kingdom returned to paganism so quickly upon the death of Edwin suggests that the mission of St. Paulinus was not as successful as Bede claims.
Paulinus himself was forced to flee to Kent with Ethelburgh, the widow of King Edwin. The See of Rochester was now vacant, so Paulinus became bishop of Rochester (keeping the pallium which Pope Honorius had originally sent him at York). He died on this day in October, in the year 644. He is buried in the Church of St. Andrew, which King Ethelbert had built in Rochester.
Though the mission to the north under St. Paulinus may seem to have ended in failure, the kingdom of Northumbria was eventually converted by Irish missionaries such as St. Aidan, who was from the monastery of St. Columba on Iona. Whereas southern England was mostly evangelised by missionaries from Rome, starting with St. Augustine, northern England was mostly evangelised by Irish missionaries, starting with St. Aidan in Northumbria.
However, the Roman mission would eventually prevail in the north as well after, at the Synod of Whitby, it was decided that the kingdom of Northumbria would follow the Roman, rather than the Irish tradition. It is interesting to note that it is said that St. Hilda of Whitby was one of those who was converted by the mission to Northumbria under St. Paulinus.
It was the combined efforts of both Roman and Irish missionaries that led to the conversion of the English people. They found a sense of identity through their common faith, although at this time the country was divided into different tribal kingdoms and had not yet achieved political unity.
There is much to learn from this period at the present time, especially since our nation now seems to be returning to the tribalism of our pagan forebears and is becoming more and more disunited. Today the peoples of these islands are divided over the issue of whether they should see the world in nationalist or in cosmopolitan terms.
The nationalist sees the nation as a home to those who were born there. Outsiders are sometimes welcome as guests, but they remain outsiders. By contrast the cosmopolitan sees our society as more like a hotel, in which people may book different rooms, but they all remain visitors and no one truly belongs, for to say some belong and not others will cause division and conflict.
Yet cosmopolitans can often be very contemptuous of non-cosmopolitans, the mass of humanity. Most people want to belong somewhere rather than nowhere. The Christian Church is sometimes co-opted by both nationalists and cosmopolitans in support of their contrasting political agendas.
However, if we are to take the Bible seriously as our starting point, a different picture emerges than either nationalism or cosmopolitanism. The Israelites were defined by their covenant with God. They were a mixed multitude of many tribes, yet Moses welded them into a unity because they all, high and low, rich and poor, were bound to the covenant.
They subsequently conquered a land and had a monarchy and a temple like other nations, but what ultimately united them as a people was their covenant with God. They were judged according to their faithfulness to the covenant. That is why they were able to survive the loss of land, monarchy and temple, because they were a people that “dwelleth alone, that shall not be numbered among nations.” Their identity was derived from their covenant with God.
The prophet Jeremiah looked forward to a time when a new covenant, in which sins would be forgiven, would be written on the hearts of men. The first Christians believed that this new covenant was sealed through the blood of Christ, his saving death and resurrection.
The new covenant people of God, the Body of Christ, are those who have been baptised into Christ, and they are from every tribe, nation and tongue. Their life is sustained by the sacrament of the Eucharist. In this life they will continue to render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, for they will belong to an earthly society, whether it is nationalist or cosmopolitan, but their ultimate commonwealth is in heaven, as they await the Saviour’s second coming and that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
The peoples of these islands came originally from many different tribes, but what ultimately defined them was their adherence to this faith. The Venerable Bede could write the history of the English people before they achieved political unity because they were united as one people by their faith.
The same could also be said of the nations of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, with their clan structure before they obtained their unity as nations. What ultimately gave them their distinct identity was the Christian faith.
If the peoples of these islands are to find a way forward out of the current crisis, it will not come from either nationalism or cosmopolitanism but from the Christian faith. Let us pray that we will follow in the footsteps of St. Paulinus and build up the Church in our land in our own time and place.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
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