Bishop of York
Bede relates that Paulinus told Edwin that the birth of his and Æthelburg's daughter at Easter 626 was because of Paulinus' prayers. The birth coincided with a foiled assassination attempt on the king by a group of West Saxons from Wessex. Edwin promised to convert to Christianity and allow his new daughter Eanflæd to be baptised if he won a victory over Wessex. He did not fulfill his promise immediately after his subsequent military success against the West Saxons however, only converting after Paulinus had revealed the details of a dream the king had before he took the throne, during his exile at the court of King Rædwald of East Anglia. In this dream, according to Bede, a stranger told Edwin that power would be his in the future when someone laid a hand on his head. As Paulinus was revealing the dream to Edwin, he laid his hand on the king's head, which was the proof Edwin needed. A late seventh-century hagiography of Pope Gregory I claims that Paulinus was the stranger in the vision; if true, it might suggest that Paulinus spent some time at Rædwald's court, although Bede does not mention any such visit.
It is unlikely that it was supernatural affairs and Paulinus' persuasion alone that caused Edwin to convert. The Northumbrian nobles seem to have been willing and the king also received letters from Pope Boniface V urging his conversion. Eventually convinced, Edwin and many of his followers were baptised at York in 627. One story relates that during a stay with Edwin and Æthelburg at their palace in Yeavering, Paulinus spent 36 days baptising new converts. Paulinus also was an active missionary in Lindsey, and his missionary activities help show the limits of Edwin's royal authority.
Pope Gregory's plan had been that York would be England's second metropolitan see, so Paulinus established his church there. Although built of stone, no trace of it has been found. Paulinus also built a number of churches on royal estates. His church in Lincoln has been identified with the earliest building phase of the church of St Paul in the Bail.
Among those consecrated by Paulinus were Hilda, later the founding abbess of Whitby Abbey, and Hilda's successor, Eanflæd, Edwin's daughter. As the only Roman bishop in England, Paulinus also consecrated another Gregorian missionary, Honorius, as Archbishop of Canterbury after Justus' death, some time between 628 and 631.
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