Two Great 'Mediterranean Christians.'

When two Mediterranean Christians transformed the English Church.

Martyn Whittock  28 July 2024.

The ruins of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.(Photo: Getty/iStock)

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great "cloud of witnesses." (NRSV) That "cloud" has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this "cloud." People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian church as it exists today.

In the 7th century AD, the Christian Church in England was transformed by the work of two remarkable men. Neither was born in England, or for that matter in the British Isles. The two men in question were Theodore of Tarsus (now in modern Turkey), also known as Theodore 'the Syrian,' and Hadrian 'the African' (from North Africa).

Though well known to historians of early medieval England and Britain, most modern believers in the UK will never have heard of them. Yet, between them, these two Christians from the Mediterranean world helped to transform the Christian community in early England. And their influence spread across the British Isles. They were two remarkable men of faith, learning, and influence.

The British Isles in the 7th century

Politically and culturally, the British Isles in the 7th century were complex, fragmented, multi-cultural, ethnically and linguistically diverse, and experiencing a time of tremendous change.

In the early 5th century, formal Roman rule had ended in Britain. Prior to that, Roman political and military control and cultural influence had dominated what is now England and Wales and had extended well into what is today southern Scotland (none of these countries then existed).

Further north, the highlands of Scotland were never conquered (after a failed Roman attempt in the late 1st century) and remained outside direct imperial control. Ireland was never invaded by Rome. During the time of the Roman Empire in Britain (basically from AD 43–410) much of Britain was plugged into a vast, multi-cultural political unit that stretched from southern Scotland to Syria (and at times further east); from the Rhine and Danube frontiers to North Africa and southern Egypt.

As a result, it was possible to find Syrian archers and Tigris boatmen operating on Hadrian's Wall (begun c.122), rubbing shoulders with cavalry drawn from Frisia and even from the steppe lands of modern Ukraine and southern Russia (Sarmatians). CT.