Saint Paulinus of York (died 644)

Paulinus is a Roman monk, probably of Italian origin. Pope Gregory the Great sends him to the kingdom of Kent in 601, in the second group of missionaries charged with converting the Anglo-Saxons. He reaches England in 604.^[6][7] Until 625 he remains in Kent; the sources do not make clear what he does there during these years.

Bede the Venerable, writing in the early eighth century, draws a famous physical portrait of Paulinus, which he probably owes to James the Deacon, a close companion of Paulinus still alive in Bede's day:

“A tall man with a slight stoop, black hair and a thin face, with a thin hooked nose, at once venerable and imposing.” — Bede the Venerable, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, c. 731^[8][9]

On 21 July 625 (Bede's date, which historians debate), Paulinus is consecrated bishop by Archbishop Justus of Canterbury. He then accompanies Princess Æthelburg, sister of King Eadbald of Kent, who is to marry the pagan ruler of Northumbria, Edwin. One of the conditions of the marriage is that Æthelburg may remain Christian and practice her worship freely: Paulinus is charged with celebrating the office for the new queen.^[10][11]

Bede's chronology, however, raises some problems: certain papal letters addressed to Edwin which have come down to us suggest that Eadbald himself had converted only shortly before, which contradicts Bede. Historians David Peter Kirby and Henry Mayr-Harting hold that Paulinus and Æthelburg left for Northumbria before 624, and that Paulinus returned to Kent to be consecrated.^[12] The essential remains: Paulinus is sent to Northumbria as the queen's bishop, and he seeks to convert the king's subjects.

According to Bede, when Paulinus tells King Edwin that the birth of his daughter Eanflæd on Easter Day 626 is a divine answer to his prayers, Edwin promises to convert and to allow his daughter's baptism if he defeats the kingdom of Wessex, whose ruler had just ordered an attempt on his life. Victorious, Edwin nevertheless delays keeping his promise. It is Paulinus's account of a dream Edwin had once had at the court of King Rædwald of East Anglia that finally decides him: in this dream a stranger would have prophesied that power would return to Edwin as soon as someone laid a hand on his head. As Paulinus explained the dream to the king, he would have laid his hand on Edwin's head, the proof the king needed.^[13][14]

It is unlikely that a supernatural event and Paulinus's persuasiveness alone sufficed to convert Edwin. The attitude of the aristocracy, won over by Paulinus, and the letters of Pope Boniface V urging Edwin to convert played a decisive role. Edwin and many of his followers are baptized at York in 627.^[15][16]

Paulinus's activity extends as far as the neighbouring kingdom of Lindsey. A legend tells of Paulinus's stay with Edwin and Æthelburg at Yeavering, where he would have spent thirty-six days baptizing new converts.^[17] Paulinus establishes his church at York, the city Gregory's plan destined to receive the second metropolitan see of England. Built of stone, this church has never been found. Paulinus also founds several churches on royal estates, including the one at Lincoln, corresponding to the present church of St Paul-in-the-Bail.^[18][19]

Two striking figures pass through Paulinus's baptism: Hilda, future founder of Whitby Abbey, and Eanflæd, Edwin's daughter, who will succeed Hilda as abbess of Whitby. As the only Roman bishop in England at that date, Paulinus also consecrates Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury, another member of the Gregorian mission, after Justus's death, between 628 and 631.^[20][21]

On 12 October 633, Edwin is defeated and killed by the Welsh at the battle of Hatfield Chase. The exact date of this battle remains uncertain: in a letter dated June 634, Pope Honorius I writes to Paulinus and to Archbishop Honorius to tell them he is sending each of them a pallium, without any allusion to Edwin's death, nine months after the supposed date of the battle. For historian David Peter Kirby, this silence tends to prove that the battle took place in 634.^[22][23]

Edwin's defeat and death bring about the division of his kingdom. His widow Æthelburg decides to return to Kent, taking with her her son, her daughter and one of Edwin's grandsons. Paulinus accompanies her, but leaves behind him his deacon, James (James the Deacon), who attempts to continue the evangelization of the region while Edwin's successors choose to return to paganism. For greater safety the two boys are sent to the continent, to the court of the Frankish king Dagobert.^[24][25]

Paulinus receives the see of Rochester, which he governs until his death. The pallium sent by the pope reaches him only after he has left York, and proves useless.^[26] He dies at Rochester on 10 October 644 and is buried in the sacristy of the church of Rochester. Ithamar succeeds him: the first Anglo-Saxon bishop to reach a see from the Gregorian mission.^[27][28]

After his death Paulinus is venerated as a saint, recognized by the Catholic Church and by the Church of England, both of which keep his feast on 10 October.^[29][30] His relics are translated after the building of a new church at Rochester in 1080. Several shrines are dedicated to him at Canterbury, and at least five churches are consecrated to him. His cult at Rochester seems to have grown only after the Norman Conquest.^[31]

The iconography of Saint Paulinus most often shows him as a bishop: mitre, crozier and pontifical vestments. The stained glass of Rochester Cathedral, where he died and was buried, depicts him thus. The Great East Window of York Minster shows him alongside Pope Gregory the Great, founder of the mission, and Saint Wilfrid, another great Anglo-Saxon bishop of York. The scene of the baptism of King Edwin is sometimes illustrated, in reference to the founding event of the Church of York in 627.^[32]

The extent of Paulinus's missionary efforts remains difficult to assess. If one follows Bede, his mission in Northumbria was a success; but little evidence points that way, and it is more likely that his efforts remained largely ineffective in the long term. Nevertheless Hilda remains Christian, and it is thanks to the Irish missionaries invited by King Oswald, a few years later, that Northumbria is converted for good.^[33][34] Paulinus nonetheless remains the first bishop of York, the man who planted the Church his successors would cause to grow.

• Saint Gregory the Great (540-604): the pope who sent the Gregorian mission and drew up the metropolitan plan of York.
• Benedictine monasticism: the monastic setting from which the Roman missionaries of the seventh century came.
• Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231): another great evangelizer, whose Franciscan vocation was awakened by the funeral procession of the martyrs of Ceuta.