Friday, October 10, 2025

It is the 10^th of October 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I'm your guest host, Sam Leanza Ortiz.

Thank you to all of you who have tuned in these last two weeks. I hope you've enjoyed the shows. It's always a pleasure for me to be back on the Almanac, and I thank Dan for the opportunity and Christopher for keeping the show running with an amateur podcaster like me! Dan will be back tomorrow with a weekend edition for you, and all will be back to business as usual on Monday.

But today, we turn back to the seventh century to remember the life of Saint Paulinus of York, who died on this day in 644. Paulinus was featured in an episode last week as an instrumental figure in the life of Honorius of Canterbury, but his eventful life is deserving of its own show, so let's get into it.

Paulinus was born around 584 in Rome and became a monk in his adolescence. Around the age of 16, Paulinus, along with a monk named Mellitus, was sent to the kingdom of Kent in England. Paulinus was part of the second wave of the Gregorian mission, a commissioned group of evangelists that Pope Gregory the Great sent to minister to the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain. While Christianity had trickled into the British Isles a few centuries earlier, Paulinus was part of a more official mission by the church.

The record on Paulinus goes quiet until 625, when the Venerable Bede tells us that he was consecrated bishop by Justus of Canterbury. By this time, he had gotten on well with the king of Kent, as he was chosen to escort the king's daughter, Ethelbert, to marry the Northumbrian king, Edwin.

In Northumbria, Paulinus set his evangelistic sights on Edwin, as it was a common strategy at that time to convert a king to win a people. Paulinus had already baptized Ethelbert, and after the birth of Edwin and Ethelbert's daughter, Paulinus revealed that it had been he who had prayed for the child. Edwin responded with a deal, promising to convert if he won an important battle over the West Saxons.

Edwin went on to win that battle, but delayed his conversion. He was only truly convinced after Paulinus revealed to Edwin a dream Edwin had had about receiving power by a person laying a hand on his head, which Paulinus proceeded to do, winning Edwin over.

In 627, Paulinus baptized Edwin and many of his followers, with one report claiming it took 36 days to baptize all in attendance. Paulinus conducted these baptisms in York and subsequently established a church there. This was not by happenstance, but a concerted effort to establish York as the second metropolitan see behind Canterbury in England, per Pope Gregory the Great's plan. York had a longstanding connection to Rome, being the site of the proclamation of Constantine the Great's accession to Augustus of Rome in 306.

By 634, Paulinus received the pallium from the pope, elevating him to the archbishopric of York. However, aside from the formality of the role, Paulinus would not do much as archbishop and ultimately left it vacant in understandable haste. When Edwin was killed in battle in the early 630s, Paulinus escorted Edwin's widow, Ethelbert, and her children out of Northumbria. They returned to Kent, where his British journey began three decades before.  

When he was back in Kent, he became the bishop of Rochester, the position he would hold for the remainder of his life. As with his early years, little is known about his later years. We know he died in 644 and that it did not take long for him to be venerated as a saint. As the bishop of Rochester, he was succeeded by the first Anglo-Saxon bishop, a sign that the native congregations could have leaders from among their own.

The Roman communion in England would last for almost a millennium until the Reformation, though interestingly, in Catholicism’s brief resurgence with the Oxford movement of the nineteenth century, the Anglican-turned-Catholic Saint John Henry Newman received his first communion on Paulinus’s feast day, perhaps signaling a return to what Paulinus and his fellow missionary hoped to achieve when they arrived in the seventh century, working to strengthen the church in England until the day of his death, now his feast day, on this the 10^th of October.

The last word for today comes from 2 Timothy 2:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.² And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. ³ Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.⁵ Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.⁶ The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. ⁷ Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 10^th of October 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

This show has been produced by Christopher Gillespie. 

This episode has been written and read by Sam Leanza Ortiz, who knows that there’s only one football team in the New York – that’s right. Go Bills. I’m filling in for Dan van Voorhis, who knows York is the chocolate city, but they didn’t invent the peppermint patty.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.