ST. PAUL’S FRIENDS
AS three kings from the East brought gifts to the Babe of Bethlehem in Judah, so in Israel of the Isles three kings of the West presented a royal gift of land for the “Cradle of Christianity in Britain.” They gave the mystic Isle of Avalon to those who brought the glad tidings of Salvation, and told of the Ascension of Him who, as a Babe in lowly manger laid, had received the gifts of the three Wise Men, who had followed the star.We know Arviragus was one of the kings, and it is conjectured that the others were his uncle, Bran the Blessed – who had resigned the kingship to become Arch-Druid of Siluria in A.D. 36 – and his cousin Caradoc (Bran’s valiant son, known as the Unconquerable Briton).
Well has the Crystal Isle of Avalon been called the Bethlehem of Britain.
As it was Easter Even in A.D. 38 or 39 when Joseph of Arimathea landed, possibly the three Kings might have been celebrating together the Spring Festival at the Tor of Ynis Wydrin. Certain it is that Caradoc’s sister Gladys was one of the first converts. She was a most accomplished Princess, and “from her intimate knowledge of Greek literature” was named Pomponia Graecina. She married Aulus Plautius, the Roman Governor, and accompanied him to Rome.
Among other converts we may mention three missionaries of European fame. Beatus, who founded the Helvetian Church, gave his name to Beatenberg, and died in A.D. 96; Marcellus, who preached in Gaul and founded the bishopric of Treves, and Mansuetus, of Irish parentage, who, with St. Clement, preached in Gaul and founded the Lotharingian Church.
Some years later Caradoc’s two daughters, Eurgain and Gladys, with their brothers Cyllin and Linus, were baptised by the old saint at Avalon.
In A.D. 43 the Romans had again attempted the conquest of Britain, and though the Eastern tribes eventually made terms and accepted an overlordship, the proud Silurians and Britons of the West refused to yield to the Roman domination. Acclaiming Caradoc as their great Pendragon, all the chiefs obeyed him willingly. In an ancient Welsh Triad he is called “Caradoc, son of Bran, whom every Briton, from the King to the peasant, followed when he lifted his spear to battle.” He was numbered among the three hero kings: Cynvelin (Cymbeline), Caradoc and Arthur.
For many years the brave Silures held out against Rome’s greatest generals – even against Vespasian and Titus. But after one hundred fights the great Pendragon was severely defeated in Shropshire (A.D. 52) and took refuge with his cousin Cartismandua. She basely betrayed him, loading him with chains when sleeping, and sent him a prisoner to the Roman general, Ostorious Scapula. All the British royal family fell into the enemy’s hands, and were taken to Rome. There, before Caesar’s judgment seat, Caradoc, better known as Caractacus, made that memorable speech which won the admiration of his captors. The grandson of LIyr Lediath, a pupil of the great Augustus, he was acquainted with the Latin tongue. Undaunted, though in fetters bound, he stood before the Roman Emperor, whose wife, Agrippina, on that occasion arrogated to herself the right, as daughter of Germanicus, to sit on Caesar’s judgment seat.
Far older than Rome is British sovereignty, and the great British chief was proud of his ancestry. Though in chains, he could state with truth,
“Three hundred years ere Rome rose on her seven hills, peopled by scarce 300 men, my ancestor was Brydain, son of Aedd, called the Great. Through three and thirty generations of kingly ancestors my lineage I trace. “
His dauntless bearing won the pardon of Claudius Caesar, who assigned him a palace on the Mons Sacer in which to pass his seven years of free custody. Moreover, he was allowed to receive his revenues from Siluria, and his younger daughter, Gladys, was adopted into the Emperor’s family and was henceforth known as Claudia.
How many, when reading St. Paul’s second Epistle to Timothy (4:21), realise that Claudia was a British Princess married to Rufus Pudens, a wealthy Roman noble, and that Linus was her younger brother, a British Prince, afterwards the first Bishop of Rome.
The Palatius Britannicum became the refuge and guest house for the early Christians. There Claudia, who, in 53, had married Rufus Pudens (whom she had met at Regnum in time of truce), soon established a Christian Church under Hermas, the Pastor. There St. Paul was a welcome guest, and instructed her children and baptised Bran and Caradoc.
That Rufus was the half-brother of St. Paul had been suggested by the Rev. R.W. Morgan in his book “St. Paul in Britain,” written over sixty years ago. The Apostle says: “Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” Lately a document has come to light which tells us that St. Paul was the son of Prassede, and a wealthy Benjaminite of Tarsus, whose father had purchased Roman citizenship for himself and his family. Prassede was left a widow with one son, Saul. An able and cultured woman of ample means, she married a high Roman official, Pudentinus, then stationed in Cilicia , and after their return to Italy Rufus Pudens was born.
So the daughters of Claudia and Rufus both celebrated in Martial’s verse were named Prassede and Pudentiana, after their grandparents.
It was in Rome that the British Princess Claudia was able to be a power for good, and it was there her husband became a Christian. It is thought that St. Paul went with Bran to Britain, as according to Clement, the third bishop of Rome, ” St. Paul came to Britain and preached in the extremity of the West.” He confirmed the Church planted by St. Joseph, Simon Zelotes and Aristobulus, and is said to have founded Bangor Abbey. Claudia and her family ministered to St. Paul in his last days, and he was interred in the family tomb of those who had been so dear to him.
As St. Joseph founded the first Christian Church in Britain, so his royal convert, Claudia, founded in Rome the first Christian Church, in that palace where she and Rufus were married in A.D.53.
To-day, in the Eternal City, not far from the great basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, can be seen the quaint little church of Santa Prassede, and across the Via Cavour the sister church of Santa Pudenziana. The little old church of Santa Pudenziana, “the most sacred and most ancient of churches,” is of greatest interest to all British people as the home and church of our British Princess Claudia.
An inscription (second century) relates it was “known as that of the Pastor, dedicated by Sanctus Pias Papa, formerly the house of Sanctus Pudens, the Senator, and the Home of the Holy Apostles.”
It is said Caradoc returned to Britain, where his son Cyllin reigned. He lived and died (A.D.80) at LIan-llid, where his elder daughter had founded Cor-Eurgain. Four years earlier the venerable and kindly Joseph had passed to his rest, and on his tombstone we read, in Latin, these words:
“To Britain I came after I had interred the Christ. I taught. I rest.”
From: The People of Destiny. 1994
