PAULINUS, bishop of York, saint. — He was the apostle of the Saxon see; the year of his birth is uncertain, and he died at Rochester on 10 October 644. From the monastery of St Andrew on the Caelian, where he resided, he was sent by Pope St Gregory in 601 to England to bring the pallium to the monk St Augustine, primate of Canterbury.
He exercised his apostolate in Kent from 615 to 625, when he went to the court of Northumbria to accompany Æthelberga, the betrothed of King Edwin, whom he succeeded in converting to Christianity and baptized on 12 April 627. Having been consecrated bishop, he established his see at York and carried out fruitful activity at Yeavering, Carrick Bridge, Dewsbury, and Southwell. After the defeat of Edwin by King Penda of Mercia (633), he accompanied the widowed Æthelberga and her children safely back to Kent. In 634 he received the pallium as archbishop of York, but, owing to the hostility of King Penda, his activity was chiefly exercised at Rochester, where he died and was buried, and where his remains remained until the time of the Protestant Reformation. Feast, 10 October.