Before Christianity, the British Isles were inhabited by pagan Celtic tribes. English tradition links the introduction of Christianity to Britain to the Glastonbury legend of Josef of Arimathea. Then Christianity was introduced through the Romans (Roman invasion: 55/54 B.C. – 407 A.D.). The Romano-British population after the withdrawal of the Roman legions (407 A.D.) was mostly Christian.

The first known saint of England was St. Alban, a Christian martyr who died about the year 287 A.D. Alban was a Roman-Briton who lived in the south of England in the town of Verulanium, now the city of St. Albans. Alban was arrested and put to death for sheltering a Christian who was fleeing persecution. Although the early beginnings of Christianity in England did not survive, for the Anglo-Saxon invasion (5th and 6th centuries A.D.) largely wiped out Christianity from the areas occupied by the Saxons and Angles, the tradition of St. Alban’s heroic deed and conversion to faith did, and he is venerated as one of Britain’s most popular saints. By the 7^th century, Anglo-Saxon England was largely pagan, meanwhile, some Christians among the Roman-Britons and the Saxons, who had come from France, remained in the south, in England, though they were scattered. It was already the end of the 6^th century when Saint Augustine (+ 604 A.D.) set out from Rome to Canterbury (in the Kingdom of Kent) with the mission of bringing Christianity once again to the Angles. His dream was to unite the Angles, Saxons and Britons into one Church. Although he was not successful, his dream was fulfilled nearly seventy-five years later by St. Theodore of Tarsus (602 – 690 A.D.), the seventh bishop of Canterbury. He organized the Church into dioceses and was able to make peace with the Celtic bishops in the north and west of the country.

Ireland was converted largely by Roman-British missionaries – notably by Saint Patrick (389 – 461 A.D.) at some time after withdrawal of the Roman legions from England. He brought the Christian faith to the Irish people and became known as the Apostle to Ireland. Irish Christianity developed in a monastic style. Celtic missionaries from Ireland brought Celtic Christianity to Scotland – notably through Saint Columba (521 – 597 A.D.), one of the descendants of the royal house of Ireland. He established a mission on the island of Iona, off the west coast of modern-day Scotland. From there, he and his monks brought Christianity to the Picts and established churches throughout Scotland and later in the Kingdom of Northumbria. Thus, the first strongholds of Christianity in the British Isles took root in the west, in Ireland, and in the north, in Scotland.

Базылева Галина Витальевна, учитель английского языка

НОУ СОШ Православный центр непрерывного образования во имя преп. Серафима Саровского, Москва