Anglo-Saxon mission in the late 600s and 700s

The Anglo-Saxons had been Christianised in the 500s and 600s by Irish missionaries from the north, and from Roman (and Frankish) missionaries from the south. Thus, these formerly pagan settlers from what is now Germany and the Netherlands came to profess Christ, and embraced the gospel.

This led, in the late 600s and into the 700s, to a missionary movement from what we would call England back to the ancestral homeland of the newly converted Anglo-Saxons. In other words, having themselves turned to worship the true and living God, the Anglo-Saxons had a desire to bring that same gospel to their ancestors still living on the continent of Europe.

Two names stand out among the many Anglo-Saxon missionaries.

The first is Willibrord. He hailed from Northumbria, and arrived in Frisia (Netherlands) in 690. He laboured among the Frisian people for many decades, and saw fruit from his labours, but also died a martyr's death, demonstrating the ongoing hostility to the gospel on the part of at least some of those he came to serve.

A second name is Winfrith (better known by his latter name, Boniface), a native of Crediton in Devon. Winfrith-Boniface began by working alongside Willibrord in Frisia, however he went on to venture further inland to Hesse and Thuringia. His most famous exploit was in 724 to boldly cut down the Oak at Geismar, dedicated to the pagan god, Donar. This bold act represented his evangelistic assault on paganism and the victory of Christ the Lord.

The period of Anglo-Saxon mission lasted from the late 600s until about 750, and followed on from an earlier period of Hiberno-Scottish mission which lasted for about a century from 563, the date of Columba's departure for Iona. (The term "Scottish" (Latin Scoti) in older texts refers to the Irish people; the united Kingdom of Scotland was a later development.)

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