Holy Hierarch Paulinus of York and Rochester

Saint Paulinus of York and Rochester

Saint Paulinus, commemorated on the tenth of October in the Orthodox calendar of saints, was one of the original Italian monks sent by Pope Gregory Dialogos to convert the heathen English to Christ. Originally a Benedictine of the Abbey of Saint Andrew in Rome, Paulinus accompanied the second group of monks despatched to Rome to help the mission of his brother Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 601. Saint Bede gives us a rare physical description of Saint Paulinus in his History of the English Church and People: ‘A tall man having a slight stoop, with black hair, an ascetic face and a venerable and majestic presence.’

He shared in the full life of the early mission, and apparently formed a close relationship with the young Kentish princess Æþelburg, to whom he served as spiritual father. When Æþelburg assented, whether out of political astuteness or out of physical attraction, to give her hand to Éadwine King of Northumbria – as yet a heathen – it was Paulinus who accompanied her as a personal chaplain. Before he left, he was consecrated as a bishop by Saint Justus. While there, Paulinus took the opportunity to pray for and preach to the heathen Northumbrians, and endeavoured to exert his influence on Æþelburg’s new husband – but his efforts were, for awhile, somewhat frustrated.

Éadwine suffered an assassination attempt by one of his rival king Cwichelm’s envoys – a brawl which left two of his loyal þegnas, Lilla and Forðhere, dead, and which caused the pregnant Æþelburg to go into labour early. By the prayers and more prosaic help of Saint Paulinus, the lives of Æþelburg and her daughter by Éadwine Éanflæd were spared. Saint Paulinus managed to convince Éadwine to let him baptise the newborn Éanflæd along with twelve of his war-band who came to believe in Christ, but Éadwine himself still dithered and would not be baptised into the Church himself.

Instead, quickened to wrath, Éadwine gave his word to Paulinus that if he met Cwichelm in battle and was able by God’s grace to defeat him and punish this evil against his wife and child, he would then put on the baptismal garment when he returned. Éadwine went to battle against the West Saxons at Win Hill, and defeated Cynegils – Cwichelm’s father – there. After his return, Saint Paulinus dipped Éadwine in the waters of the birth from above on the twelfth of April, 627, and became a Christian. Éadwine would himself later be venerated as a saint – his feast is two days hence.

Saint Paulinus saw to it that the wooden kirk – what would later become York Minster – which was built at Éadwine’s capital for Æþelburg’s use, was given a stone cupola and sturdier walls of masonry, and he tended to his flock rigorously from there. He consecrated the Benedictine cloister at Whitby along with its first abbess, Saint Hild. He undertook active missions in and around York at this time, and even undertook missions to Lincoln. It was there, after all, that he met and laid hands on Saint Honorius – thereafter Archbishop of Canterbury.

Éadwine King earned a saintly martyr’s crown, falling in battle against Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon ap Cadfan: a grim tragœdy for the Northumbrians, as the death of Éadwine presaged a heathen backlash and created an anarchic power vacuum in the two kingdoms that would only be filled when his estranged nephew Saint Óswald took power some years later. In the meanwhile, however, Saint Æþelburg, grieving the death of her beloved husband and fearing for the lives of their two surviving children Wuscfrea and Éanflæd and grandchild Yffe, was forced to flee southward among her relatives in Kent. Saint Paulinus went with them, and received a warm welcome from Archbishop Honorius – who returned the favour done for him many years ago by anointing Paulinus as Bishop of Rochester.

Paulinus spent the eleven remaining years of his earthly life in Kent, in semi-retirement as the Bishop of Rochester, before going to his blessed reward. While in Kent, Saint Paulinus assisted Saint Æþelburg in founding the cloister at Lyminge, at which she served as the first abbess. Saint Paulinus, although he was forced to leave Northumbria by the political conditions there, had managed to lay the foundations of Northumbrian Christianity, which would be built upon by Saint Óswald and Saint Aidan in the years to come. For this reason, Saint Paulinus is venerated with particular attention both in Northumbria and in Kent – in the North and in the South. Holy Hierarch Paulinus, pray to God for us!

Holding the example of the holy Paul ever before his eyes,
Paulinus betook himself to a far distant land,
And there, emulating the glorious Apostle to the nations,
He preached the words of life
Unto those who lay in darkness and the shadow of death.
And having pleased his Master by his godly zeal and tireless struggles,
He dwelleth now in the mansions of Paradise,
Where he offereth entreaty continually on behalf of our souls.