We begin with a look at the Irish background and the missions of St Columba († 9th June 597) to the north of Britain and of St Columbanus († 21st Nov. 615) to France and beyond.

According to St Bede († 25th May 731), the first Irish mission to the English was led by St Fursey († 16th Jan. c.650), who arrived in East Anglia not long after 630. Here king Sigeberht, Rædwald’s step-son, gave him a site for his minster at Cnobheresburgh, thought to be the Roman fortress at Burgh Castle near Yarmouth. Around the same time King Sigeberht provided another Roman site for the minster of the first bishop of the Eastern Angles, St Felix († 8th March 647), which was known by the Irish-sounding name of Dommoc.

A major influence on northern and eastern England emanated from the Columban island base at Iona, off the Isle of Mull in south-west Scotland. This followed after the victorious Northumbrian king (and St) Oswald († 4th Aug. 642) established the bishopric of St Aidan († 8th Oct. 651) on the island of Lindisfarne in 635. One of Aidan’s pupils, St Cedd († 26th Oct. 664), became bishop of the Eastern Saxons on or about the year 653. Remarkably, part of one of his minsters survives at the Roman fortress site at Bradwell on the Essex coast, now the church of St Peter.

Finally, we shall consider how an Irish influence on English Christianity may have lasted long after the Synod of Whitby, for the Irish love of their native bardic poetry may have encouraged the English church to adopt the medium of Old English alliterative verse to further the Christian message, as exemplified by St Bede’s telling of the legend of the poet St Cædmon of Whitby († 11th Feb. 680).

Timetable for the day

10.15 – 11.15: The Coming of St Fursey

11.15-11.45: Coffee-break

11.45 – 12.45: The Coming of St Cedd

12.45-13.45: Lunch-break

13.45-14.45: St Cædmon and the Power of Poetry

Some Suggestions for Optional Background Reading

Alexander, M., The First Poems in English (Penguin Classics 2008)

Brown, Michelle P., How Christianity came to Britain and Ireland (Lion Hudson 2006)

Farmer, D.H., The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford University Press, 1978).

Gallyon, M., The Early Church in Eastern England (Lavenham 1973)

Hoggett, R., The Archaeology of the East Anglian Conversion (Woodbridge 2010)

Mayr-Harting, H., The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford 1977)

About Dr Sam Newton

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at UEA in 1991. He published his first book, The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia, in 1993, and his second, The Reckoning of King Rædwald, in 2003. He has also published several papers, some of which are available on Academia – https://independent.academia.edu/SamNewton - or on his website www.wuffings.co.uk .

He has lectured widely around the country and contributed to many radio and television programmes, especially Time Team, for whom he worked for seven series. He is a tutor for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, an accredited Arts’ Society lecturer, and a Director of the Wuffing Education Study-Day Partnership.

In 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

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