High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! James the Deacon (died after 671 AD) was an Italian deacon who accompanied Paulinus of York on his mission to Northumbria. He was a member of the Gregorian mission which came to England to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, although when he arrived in England is unknown. After Paulinus left Northumbria, James stayed near Lincoln and continued his missionary efforts, dying sometime after 671 according to the medieval chronicler Bede.