The Irish Church in Eastern England

with Dr Sam Newton

in The Old Court, Sutton Hoo (map)
on Saturday, 17th March, 2012.

We shall 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, of the Isle of Mull in south-west Scotland. This followed when 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, illustrated on the front of this programme).
Finally, we shall consider how an Irish influence on the 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).

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at UEA in 1991 and is the author of The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (1993) and The Reckoning of King Rædwald, (2003). He has lectured widely around the country as an independent scholar and has also contributed to many radio and television programmes. He is also a Director of Wuffing Education, NADFAS lecturer, and Time Team historian.

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