Christianity was brought to Britain in the time of the Romans. When the Romans left, invading pagan Jutes, Saxons and Angles drove Christianity out to the remoter regions, where it survived until Irish missionaries reintroduced the faith to England, via Iona and then Lindisfarne. They established a number of monasteries for prayer, worship and teaching. One such monastery was founded here in AD 654, by St Cedd, ten years before the Synod of Whitby.