Birinus: a hymn for a very obscure saint

Birinus, a seventh-century Continental churchman, is by tradition the missionary who converted the kingdom of Wessex. As such he is a patron saint of the diocese of Oxford.

 A hymn commissioned by the Bishop of Dorchester (Birinus's original see, now an abbey church as the minster centre of an episcopal area in the diocese of Oxford.) The tune for this is Engleberg, and I can't think of any other that will fit it... but do try!

With heart aflame, with courage undeterred 

Birinus sowed the seed of God's True Word

And faith sprang up to life in all who heard:

alleluia!

Where none had preached before, Birinus went 

In faithful service to the God who sent 

His only Son to call us to repent:

Alleluia!

With kindly teaching he showed forth God's grace 

And all who listened saw in him Christ's face

And knew the Love transcending time and space:

Alleluia!

And as we celebrate the truth he brought 

We join with him to share the faith he taught

And praise the God who our salvation wrought:

Alleluia!

For Christ the Lord is worthy of our praise

His mercy will sustain us all our days

And guide our stumbling feet in all our ways:

alleluia!

To Father, Son and Spirit glory be

Both now and always to the One in Three,

Whom we shall praise for all eternity:

Alleluia!

Birinus is mentioned in both Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (731) and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Chronicle gives the date of Birinus’ arrival in England as 634, and Bede narrates his arrival thus:

'The West Saxons… accepted the faith of Christ through the preaching of Bishop Birinus. He had come into Britain at the direction of Pope Honorius, having promised in his presence that he would sow the seeds of the holy faith in the most inland and remote regions of the English, where no other teacher had been before him. He was accordingly consecrated bishop by Asterius, Bishop of Genoa, at the pope's command; but when he had reached Britain and entered [Wessex], he found [the West Saxons] completely heathen, and decided that it would be better to begin to preach the word of God among them rather than to seek more distant converts. He therefore evangelized that province, and when he had instructed its king, he baptized him and his people.' (Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London: Penguin, 1974), III.7, p. 151)

Having baptized the king, Birinus was given Dorchester-on-Thames ‘for his episcopal see’, which would remain the cathedral until the episcopal see was transferred to Lincoln in 1086. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the date of Birinus’ death as 650, and Bede tells us that he died at Dorchester.

All that these rather dry sources tell us about the intervening 16 years is that Birinus ‘built and dedicated several churches and brought many people to God by his holy labours.’ (Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London: Penguin, 1974), III.7, p. 151.) The details are scarcely filled in by later writers, although by the late eleventh century two miracles are attributed to Birinus. The first is a healing; the second is told by William of Malmesbury:

[Birinus] made his way to the sea in order to cross to Britain. While he was packing his bits and pieces, the sailors were urging him to hurry as the wind was favourable, and so he forgot those cloths which are called ‘corporal cloths’. He was already out to sea, with the ship happily ploughing its furrow through the calm waters, when he remembered he had left them behind. He was at a loss what to do. If he asked the sailors to go back, they would certainly laugh at him as the voyage was going so well. But if he kept quiet, he would have to put up with his apostolic worship being imperfect. And so, brandishing the weapons of his faith, he summoned all his courage, climbed down the side into the sea and with all speed made for the shore he had just left. There he found the corporal cloths, picked them up, and for the second time his daring had a blessed and happy outcome, for he returned to his companions, brushing aside by the power of his faith the crests of the waves and the thousand ways to death he encountered. They for their part had been won over by this great miracle, had cast anchor and were holding the ship stationary. They took him back on board, all competing to do him honour, and he soon reached the coast in the region of the West Saxons. (William of Malmesbury, The Deeds of the Bishops of England (Gesta Pontificum Anglorum), trans. David Preest (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2002), p. 103.)

A modest miracle, with something self-deprecatory about it; a miracle attributable not so much to Birinus’ personal holiness as to his forgetfulness, unwillingness to inconvenience others and reluctance to be laughed at; but a miracle where, through his faith and despite his feebleness, the light of God shone briefly into a dingy world. Although we know little about Birinus’ life and ministry, we know that through his faithfulness the light of God shone into many lives, and the love of God was made known in places where it had never before been preached.

I commend to you Eleanor Parker's excellent blog on Birinus at https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-miracle-of-st-birinus.html?m=1 (from which this summary is largely drawn!) if you want to know more.