Paulinus, St

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Paulinus, St (d. 644). First bishop of the Northumbrians. A Roman monk, tall, dark, thin-faced with an aquiline nose, according to Bede one of Mellitus' party sent in 601 by Pope Gregory I to help Augustine in Kent. He was consecrated by Justus, apparently on 21 July 625, to accompany the Princess Æthelburg to Northumbria to marry Edwin, but the dating is controversial. Paulinus may have met Edwin previously, at the court of Raedwald of East Anglia, and baptized him at York, his episcopal seat, in 627. He preached at Yeavering, Catterick, Lincoln (where he consecrated Honorius to succeed Archbishop Justus), and elsewhere, and introduced the building of churches in stone. After Edwin's death (633) at Heathfield Chase, Paulinus fled to Kent and took up the see of Rochester, where he was buried in the church of St Andrew.

A. E. Redgate

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Saint Paulinus

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Saint Paulinus