Who was St Birinus?
St Birinus (or Berin
in its anglicised form) was a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St Andrew on
the Coelian Hill in Rome, the same monastery from which had come St Gregory the
Great and St Augustine of Canterbury, whom Gregory had sent to convert the
English in 597.
Birinus
is sent to England
In 634, Pope Honorius I chose Birinus to “sow the seed of our
Holy Faith in the distant lands beyond the Kingdom of the English, where no
other had been before him”. Birinus was consecrated Bishop in
Genoa by Asterius, the Archbishop of Milan, and landed on the south coast in
635. Within a year he had reached the Thames Valley and achieved his greatest
missionary success, the conversion of Cynegils, the King of the West Saxons.
Birinus
brings Christianity to the region
According to tradition, Birinus and Cynegils first met on
Churn Knob near Blewbury. King Oswald of Northumbria was visiting Wessex at the
time seeking the hand in marriage of King Cynegils’ daughter. Oswald stood as
godfather to Cynegils when Birinus baptised him beside the River Thame, close
to the spot where the present abbey stands. With King Cynegils’ conversion,
Christianity became acceptable throughout the south and west of England.
According to St Bede, the two kings gave Birinus the “city of Dorcic” for his
cathedral. In the course of his travels throughout his large diocese, Birinus
“built and dedicated several churches and brought many people to God by his
holy labours”.
The
legacy of St Birinus
After his death on 3rd December 650, Birinus was buried in
the church he had built in Dorchester. In about 680 his relics were translated
to Winchester, one of the churches Birinus himself had founded. Shrines were
erected in his honour in Dorchester-on-Thames, Abingdon and Winchester.
Devotion to him continued until the sixteenth century, with the dissolution of
the monasteries and the destruction of the shrines by King Henry VIII.
St
Birinus today
Because of the
English climate the monks of Winchester and Dorchester received permission from
the Pope to hold an outdoor procession in honour of Saint Birinus in the
mid-summer. The modern procession continues this tradition. The feast of Saint
Birinus is celebrated on 5th December.
Links:
How Christianity came to the Thames Valley – the first chapter of Tony Hadland’s
book: Thames Valley Papists