Paulinus of York

(d. 644)

   Missionary, Bishop and Saint.

   Paulinus was sent by Pope Gregory the great to Britain in 601 to be an assistant to St Augustine of canterbury. In 625, after he had been consecrated a Bishop, he went to the north as Chaplain to Queen Ethelberga, the wife of King Edwin, King of Northumbria. In 627 Edwin himself was baptised and Paulinus established the See of York. However, five years later, Edwin was killed in battle by the pagan Cadwallon and Paulinus returned to Kent. There he became Bishop of Rochester. York became the most important see in the British Church after Canterbury.

   Bede, The History of the English Church [many editions];

   H.M.R.E. Mayr-Harting, ‘Paulinus of York’, in G.J. Cuming (ed.), Studies in Church History (1967).