Collect: “O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Saints Days:

Wednesday, October 10: Saint Paulinus

Most likely born in Italy at the end of the 6th century, Paulinus was among the group of missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory in order to help Augustine of Canterbury. When Ethelburga was to marry the king Edwin, Paulinus went with the bride’s party in order to persuade King Edwin to convert to Christianity. The Venerable Bede writes,

“Although Paulinus found it difficult to bring the king’s proud mind to accept the humility of the way of salvation or to accept the mystery of the life-giving cross, he nevertheless continued, by words of exhortation addressed to the people, and by words of supplication addressed to the divine compassion, to strive for the conversion of the king and his nation.”

After much inner turmoil, King Edwin decided to take the Christian faith, along with many others. They were baptized in 627, around 180 years after the first arrival of the English in Britain. The king quickly built a church of wood in York for his baptism and Paulinus became bishop there. When Edwin was killed in battle by the pagan king Penda of Mercia, Paulinus had to flee from York and he became Bishop of Rochester. He died on October 10 in 644.

Homely Links:

• Love Calls Us To the Things of this World by Richard Wilbur is one of my favorite poems. Bley created a lovely printable using the title — get it for free through the link above.
• All Hallows Eve and All Saints are three weeks away. Here is our post on background of those days (including N.T. Wright’s thoughts on the communion of the Saints.)

Books to Buy or Borrow:

• For All Saints: Bley put together a list of stories of the saints  in this post.