84. SAINTS PAULINUS AND ITHAMAR, BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER
Our holy Father Paulinus was a Roman monk who was sent to England in 601 by St. Gregory the Great in order to help St. Augustinés mission. The Venerable Bede describes him as «a tall man with a slight stoop, with black hair, a thin face and narrow, aquiline nose. His presence was venerable and awe-inspiring.»
On July 21, 625 he was consecrated bishop of York by St. Justus, archbishop of Canterbury, in order to serve the Christian Queen Ethelburga of Kent at the court of the still pagan King Edwin of Northumbria. In 626 the queen gave birth to a baby girl, Eanfled, and Paulinus baptized her with twelve other Northumbrians at Pentecost. Eanfled later became Abbess of Whitby, reposing on February 10, 704.
«On a certain Lord's Day,» writes a monk of Whitby, Paulinus «is said to have given a very simple display of his discernment of God. When the aforesaid king, surrounded by those who were not only still heathen but not even bound by lawful marriage, hastened with Paulinus to the instruction room from the palace, where they had been exhorted to change from other practices to this, a certain screeching crow sang out words of dire calamity. The whole royal retinue who were in the street, hearing the bird, stopped and turned toward it in amazement, as if that «new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God» were not to be, as it should, in the church, but, as it should not, »to not profit [but to the subverting of the hearers» (II Tim. 2.14)]». Then, with God watching and foreseeing all from His ark, the honourable bishop said to one of his boys, «Shoot an arrow carefully at the bird.» When this had quickly been done, he ordered the bird and the arrow to be saved and carried to the palace after he had completed the instruction of those to be catechized. After they had all assembled in the palace and the new and ignorant people of God had given him a sufficient opportunity, he explained how from so clear a sign they should learn that the ancient evil known as idolatry brought no good to anyone. For he said that that irrational bird sang of his own death, though he had known it not, whereas he could say nothing profitable for men reborn baptized in the image of God who »have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth».»
At Pascha (April 12), 627 Paulinus baptized King Edwin and a vast number of his people. And «from that time until the end of Edwin's reign,» writes the Venerable Bede, «a period of six years, Paulinus continued to preach the word of God in that kingdom with the king's consent and favour; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed and were baptized. Indeed it is said that so great was the zeal for the faith and the desire for the saving grace of baptism among the Northumbrians that on one occasion Paulinus, when visiting the royal estate at Adgefrin [Old Yeavering] with the king and queen, spent thirty-six days with them there administering catechism and baptism. During all that time he did nothing from morning till evening but give instruction in Christ's saving Word to the people who flocked there from every village and district; and after their instruction, he baptized them for the remission of their sins in the river Glen, which was nearby.»
At Holystone, in Coquetdale in Northumbria, at «the Lady's Well», St. Paulinus baptized 3000 people in 627.
«These events,» writes Bede, «happened in the kingdom of Bernicia. In the kingdom of Deira, where he very often stayed with the king, he used to baptize in the river Swale, which flows past the town of Cataracta [Catterick]; for the church there was in its infancy, and it had not yet been possible to build oratories or baptisteries.»
With the deacon James, St. Paulinus moved further south. He preached at Lindsey, baptized in the Trent at Littleborough and at Southwell in Nottinghamshire, and built a beautiful stone church at Lincoln. There he consecrated St. Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, in 628. He also persuaded King Earpwald of East Anglia to accept the Faith.
After the death of St. Edwin in battle in 633, Paulinus fled to Kent with Queen Ethelburga, her surviving children and an escort of thanes. There, being unable to return to his northern see, he acted as bishop of Rochester. There is a tradition that he visited Glastonbury and rebuilt the church of St. Mary, covering its roof with Mendip lead. It is very possible that he helped Queen Ethelburga to found her convent at Lyminge in Kent, where she reposed as abbess on September 8, 547. Paulinus himself reposed on October 10, 644.
In the place of St. Paulinus, Archbishop Honorius consecrated Ithamar, a Kentishman whom the Venerable Bede describes as «not inferior to his predecessors for learning and conduct of life». During his episcopate he consecrated the first Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Canterbury, Deusdedit. He died in about 660 and was buried at Rochester. In 1077, while Bishop Gundulf was carrying out extensive rebuilding, St. Ithamar's relics were translated to the accompaniment of miracles. Another translation was accomplished by Bishop John, who was cured of severe pain in the eyes through the prayers of St. Ithamar.
St. Paulinus is commemorated on October 10, and St. Ithamar on June 10.
Holy Fathers Paulinus and Ithamar, pray to God for us!
(Sources: The Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People; A Monk of Whitby, Life of St. Gregory the Great; Fr. Andrew Phillips, Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition, English Orthodox Trust, 1995, chapter 79; David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, pp. 206, 318–319)