Following the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, a series of terrible persecutions were perpetrated. In one of these, Joseph of Arimathea and a group of fellow believers were set adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, but landed at Marseilles in the Vienoise Province of the Gauls (France). This faithful company traversed the wilds of Gaul and at the English Channel Joseph was commissioned as the Apostle to the Britains by Phillip the Evangelist. Joseph had been chosen for such a task, because he knew Britain well already. He was a merchant by trade and had conducted business with the Dumnonian tin-miners and Durotrigian lead-miners of Britain many times before. His boat ran ashore in the Glastonbury Marshes and, together with his 12 followers, he climbed a nearby hill to survey the surrounding land. Having brought with him a staff grown from Christ's Holy Crown of Thorns, he thrust it into the ground and announced that he and his twelve companions were "Weary All". The thorn staff immediately took miraculous root, and it can be seen there still on Wearyall Hill. Joseph's group reached Britain between A.D. 35 and March 16, A.D. 37 (the date Emperor Tiberius died).
Joseph met with the local ruler, Arviragus, and soon secured himself twelve hides of land at Glastonbury on which to build the first monastery in Britain. From here he became the founder of the Celtic Church in Britain. They were allowed to preach in Britain "without impediment, and death threatened to those who interfered" with them. This indicates Joseph was well protected by the ruling family, whose members were probably his friends, business acquaintances and first converts. They were reportedly invited over to Britain by high-ranking Druids, the primary Doctors of Britain who were early converts to the faith of Jesus. History reveals that about this time a Silurian king named Bran was an arch Druid of the British. King Bran had abdicated the throne to his son Caractacus. Later, scholars believe the Apostle Paul converted Bran to Christianity, at which point Welsh records call him Bran the Blessed (Bran Fendigaid).
The Churches of France and Spain must yield in points of antiquity and precedence to that of Britain as the latter Church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the passion of Christ. In the various persecutions that continued in the Holy Land, many faithful Judeans moved to Britain. Following Saul’s conversion to Christ, some of his Galatian converts, visiting the far West to barter the hair-cloths of their native land for the useful metal of Britain, may have provided an additional influx of the Gospel to the Britons in their kindred Celtic tongue. There is also a very considerable body of evidence that shows Aristobulus, future Bishop of Britain and brother of Barnabas the Apostle, traveled to Britain and was the first Christian martyr in the province of Britain. Aristobulus was ostensibly Paul's forerunner in Britain; sent by the apostle to the Gentiles to prepare the way for his own particular mission, which was to follow later and to be separate from Joseph of Arimathea's work at Glastonbury. In the early stages Aristobulus was associated with Joseph, but never attached to the group at Glastonbury. He labored in the part of Britain now known as Wales. Aristobulus became the Elder of the Church at Llan-ilid, with Bran remaining as the apostle to Siluria at Llandaff. In 61 A.D., following Paul’s house arrest in Rome, he headed for Spain. The route of his trip to Spain is found in a Greek manuscript known as the Sonnini Manuscript discovered in the archives of Constantinople: “And Paul, full of the blessings of Christ, and abounding in the spirit, departed out of Rome, determining to go into Spain, for he had a long time purposed to journey thitherward, and was minded also to go from thence into Britain. For he had heard in Phoenicia that certain of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyrian captivity, had escaped by sea to "the isles afar off," as spoken by the prophet, and called by the Romans Britain. And the Lord commanded the gospel to be preached far hence to the Gentiles, and the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And no man hindered Paul; for he testified boldly of Jesus before the tribunes and among the people; and he took with him certain of the brethren, which abode with him at Rome, and they took shipping at Ostium, and having the winds fair were brought safely into a haven of Spain.”
The "haven of Spain" mentioned in the Sonnini Manuscript was, undoubtedly, the Port of Cadiz. The Epistle of Clement and the Muratori Fragment both assert that Paul did indeed visit Spain. Eusebius mentions a gap in the life of Paul between his release from house arrest in Rome in 61 A.D. and his death in 67 A.D. The Sonnini Manuscript continues the story of Paul's mission: “And they departed out of Spain, and Paul and his company finding a ship in Amorica sailing into Britain, they went therein, and passing along the South coast they reached a port called Raphinus [the Isle of Wight would provide the nearest port]. Now when it was noised abroad that the Apostle had landed on their coast, great multitudes of the inhabitants met him, and they treated Paul courteously, and he entered in at the east gate of their city [London], and lodged in the house of a Hebrew and one of his own nation. And on the morrow he came and stood upon Mount Lud [modern-day Ludgate Hill, located within the City of London. The famous St. Paul's Cathedral is erected on the site and the ancient St. Paul's Cross may well mark the very spot where Paul stood as he preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the British.]; and the people thronged at the gate, and assembled in the Broadway, and he preached Christ unto them, and many believed the word and the testimony of Jesus...And it came to pass that certain of the Druids came unto Paul privately, and showed by their rites and ceremonies they were descended from the Jews which escaped from bondage in the land of Egypt, and the apostle believed these things, and he gave them the kiss of peace. And Paul abode in his lodgings three months, confirming in the faith and preaching Christ continually.” On this account the Apostle became the Patron Saint of London, and his emblem, the sword of martyrdom was incorporated into the arms of the City. The exact date for this visit of Paul to London cannot be determined, but it had to be somewhere between the time he was released from house arrest at Rome in 61 A.D. and the destruction of London in 62 A.D. by Boadicea. Clement (see Philippians 4:3), being one of the original band that dwelt at Glastonbury with Joseph of Arimathea, knew Paul intimately long before he followed Linus as the Bishop of the Church at Rome.
Mention is made in the Magna Tabula Glastonia (cited by Ussher) of Joseph traveling to Gaul in 60 A.D. -- at the beginning of the Boudicean War -- and returning to Britain with another band of recruits. In this band was Simon Zelotes, one of the original twelve disciples of the Messiah. This was the second journey to Britain for Simon Zelotes and, according to the records, his last. Both Cardinal Baronius and Hippolytus, place Simon's first arrival in Britain in the year 44 A.D during the Claudian War. Simon was directly associated with Joseph of Arimathea’s group at Glastonbury during both of his visits to Britain. It is recorded that Simon was unusually bold and fearless, as his name implies. The evangelizing mission of Simon was short-lived as he preached the Christian Gospel right in the heart of the Roman occupation. He was condemned to death and was crucified by the Romans at Caistor, Lincolnshire, and there buried circa May 10, 61 A.D. There is likewise considerable evidence to show that St. Peter also visited Britain and Gaul several times during his lifetime, his last visit to Britain taking place shortly before his arrest, incarceration and crucifixion in Nero's Circus at Rome in February, 68 A.D. There is also a tradition that during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian (81 A.D.) some of the disciples of the apostle John visited Caledonia (Scotland). This small group may have come to a place now known as Fortingall where there is a very ancient Yew tree, which is believed to be the oldest tree in Europe. Aerial photographs of the Village of Fortingall suggest that a monastic settlement may have been established there for spreading the Celtic Christian faith. There was a strong Christian base established in Scotland by 200 A.D., as the ancient Scots Chronicles record that the then king, Donaldus, was the first Christian King of Scotland.
According to some accounts, King of Britain Lucius ((Lever Maur, or the Great Light) sent Fagan and Dyfan to Rome to obtain advice from the Bishop of Rome, Eleutherius, and "....The letter in reply, as contained in the Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio, is still exists in Rome. Eleutherius suggested that a good king was always at liberty to reject the laws of Rome - but not the law of God....” King Lucius established his kingdom in the Christian Faith about A.D. 170. The Britons are reported to have preserved the faith, which they had received, uncorrupted and entire, in peace and tranquility, until the time of the Emperor Diocletian. The Gallican Church (The Celtic Church in Gaul) was dispersed in the fierce persecution which raged in the district round Lyons and Vienne in A.D. 177 and this brought Christian refugees across the Channel, providing a new influx of Christian witness to the British Isles. This part of the early Gallican Church was formed by a colony from Asia Minor. Pothinus, the Bishop of Lyons, had come directly from that country, bringing with him Irenaeus the disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, the disciple of St. John (It is noted that Irenaeus of Lyons always maintained a sort of independence of Rome). Many features of Oriental ritual in the Celtic Church may be through this additional Gallican channel.
B
ritish bishops participated in the Council of Arles (314 AD). During the fourth and fifth centuries there was a constant emigration of Celtic Culdees into Armorica. The presence of British bishops at various Gallican Councils is attested by their signatures, as at Tours A.D. 461, at Vannes 465, at Orleans 511, and at Paris 555. Celtic Christianity’s expansion to become the accepted religion of the Britons was aided by a succession of princes who became monastic priests during the fifth and sixth centuries, founding many abbeys and churches, and becoming honored as "saints" after their death. Christianity was also present in Ireland and there was significant fellowship between the churches of the two islands. The most famous Irish saints to preach extensively in Britain were St. Brigid (439 - 524) and Saint Columba (520 - 593). It has been pointed out that Columba never sought Papal sanction for the conversion of the Picts. Both St. Patrick and St. Columba have been regarded by some modern writers as Culdees. The Culdees claimed that the tenets of their teaching derived directly from the disciples of St. John. The earliest clearly British Christian leader recorded after the departure of the Roman Legions from the island was St. Dyfrig, who was a Bishop. He founded a number of important churches and monasteries and taught St. Illtud (c. 425 to c. 505). The Middle Eastern influence on Celtic Christianity was further facilitated by the early commercial trade which is known to have existed, between Britain and the East, and by the frequent expeditions recorded to have been made by early Christian pilgrims of the Celtic Church to the Holy Land, and by the immigration of foreign Christians. The earliest type of monumental cross in Scotland is an Egyptian or Coptic wheel cross. It appears on several stones at Kirkmadrine in Wigtonshire, along with the Alpha and Omega.