Early Christianity and Britain

Hi all,

To my knowledge, Britain stood out at least twice as far as the early Christianity is concerned. First to mention is Pope Linus whose mother Claudia Peregrina seemingly was a daughter of a British chieftain subdued by the Romans. Here Russian wiki seems to provide more details than the corresponding article in English. Despite the questionable validity of the details, it is somehow assumed that Claudia Peregrina must have been mentioned in Timothy 4:21 just next to her son Linus and her husband St. Pudens (step-father of Linus?).

St Linus is very remarkable, because effectively he was the first Roman pope who suсceeded St. Peter (St. Peter's role as a pope is often regarded as rather fictional, as he might have been brought to Rome only to be executed there).

The second time Britain stood out was at the time when Constantine was proclaimed an emperor in York by the troops of his father.   While emperor Constantine is very well known to have had a direct relationship to the rise of the Christianity in the empire. 

Were there any other events  between the 2 already mentioned, which would somehow highlight Britain in the context of the early Christianity?

Thanks.

You're stretching points a lot. Constatine wasn't a Christian until his deathbed, and basically used Christianity as a social mechanism to unify his empire by offering them wealth, land, and patronage if they united and cooperated.

And Linus was Bishop of Rome in a period when Christianity was a number of separate cults were none too popular.

Claudia Peregrina? The only person of that name that comes up is an artist. You mean Claudia Peregrina Rufus who married an Italian centurion and lived in Rome running a safe house. Hardly that significant, and the only information I can find is from a pro-Christian website that has a dubious narrative.

Hi Caldrail,

from your answer I reckon you wouldn't know any other significant events which would be related to both Britain and Christianity before Constantine stepped in, or even if you do know you would't want to share it 🙂

I do realize that any Christian story must be taken with a grain of salt, including the story of Claudia Peregrina Rufus. If you open up the below wiki-link and then right-click on it with your mouse, you can select "Translate to English"  from the context menu to be able to read the translation of the article in English, it has a few more names of British men (with the links) inside the story. That's why I admire Wikipedia: one can read the same article in many languages, sometimes the same article in different languages highlight different facts.

ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Клавдия_(святая)    

PS. Frankly, I am a little bit suspicious about the British claim in the story of  Claudia Peregrina Rufus. The whole concept of her British origin seems to be devised by English writers. So to my surprise Russian wiki-article writers seem to embrace the myth fully.  

Peregrina indicates she was a foreigner or from a family of foreigners, or non-citizen provincials at best.

Yeah, I know how Peregrina translates, but still it doesn't mean she was born in Britain or her father was British. Although who knows, this could be true.

Sometimes I read in English wiki-articles the stories about Russia which I can't find in Russian wikipedia. One of the latest examples we've been over on this forum is related to Myrmidons, Achilles and their connections with the territory of Russia.  

There's no connection between soldiers of Thessalia mentioned in Homer's Iliad and a state that didn't come into existence for hundreds of years after.

2 hours ago, caldrail said:

There's no connection between soldiers of Thessalia mentioned in Homer's Iliad and a state that didn't come into existence for hundreds of years after.

You know, caldrail, I'd always assess other people words by very simple criteria: what new have I learnt from them?
You are definitely in my very top  😅 Captain Obvious, that's what they call it in Russia these days

Yes, I've noticed the Russians have a lot to say. I have a simple criteria too.