1) Saint Aidan
In the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria fluctuated between Christian and pagan monarchs. One of their great Christian kings was Saint Oswald of Northumbria. He converted to Christianity in his early youth while he was in Dál Riata, the Western area of Scotland where many Irish people lived in those times. It was in this area that the famous Iona monastery was located. Saint Oswald held Iona in high regard and so when he became king he sent a messenger to Iona to request one of their monks to be sent to Northumbria for the purpose of converting pagans and instructing the Christians to the high standards of excellence that Iona was known for. The abbot at that time was the fifth abbot of Iona, Saint Ségéne mac Fiachnaí, and he selected Saint Aidan for this mission. Saint Oswald gave Saint Aidan a monastery in a place called Lindisfarne and Saint Aidan was followed by many other Irish monks to Northumbria.
As he spent an important part of his life in England, Saint Aidan is mentioned multiple times in Saint Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’ In Book III, Chapter V, Saint Aidan is described in this way:
Chapter V
OF THE LIFE OF BISHOP AIDAN. [A.D. 635.]
From the aforesaid island, and college of monks, was Aidan sent to instruct the English nation in Christ, having received the dignity of a bishop at the time when Segenius, abbot and priest, presided over that monastery; whence, among other instructions for life, he left the clergy a most salutary example of abstinence or continence; it was the highest commendation of his doctrine, with all men, that he taught no otherwise than he and his followers had lived; for he neither sought nor loved any thing of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the poor whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; and wherever in his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if infidels, to embrace the mystery of the faith or if they were believers, to strengthen them in the faith, and to stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.
His course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our times, that all those who bore him company, whether they were shorn monks or laymen, were employed in meditation, that is, either in reading the Scriptures, or learning psalms. This was the daily employment of himself and all that were with him, wheresoever they went; and if it happened, which was but seldom, that he was invited to eat with the king, he went with one or two clerks, and having taken a small repast, made haste to be gone with them, either to read or write. At that time, many religious men and women, stirred up by his example, adopted the custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, till the ninth hour, throughout the year, except during the fifty days after Easter. He never gave money to the powerful men of the world, but only meat, if he happened to entertain them; and, on the contrary, whatsoever gifts of money he received from the rich, he either distributed them, as has been said, to the use of the poor, or bestowed them in ransoming such as had been wrong. fully sold for slaves. Moreover, he afterwards made many of those he had ransomed his disciples, and after having taught and instructed them, advanced them to the order of priesthood.
It is reported, that when King Oswald had asked a bishop of the Scots to administer the word of faith to him and his nation, there was first sent to him another man of more austere disposition, who, meeting with no success, and being unregarded by the English people, returned home, and in an assembly of the elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good to the nation he had been sent to preach to, because they were uncivilized men, and of a stubborn and barbarous disposition. They, as is testified, in a great council seriously debated what was to be done, being desirous that the nation should receive the salvation it demanded, and grieving that they had not received the preacher sent to them. Then said Aidan, who was also present in the council, to the priest then spoken of, “I am of opinion, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been and did not at first, conformably to the apostolic rule, give them the milk of more easy doctrine, till being by degrees nourished with the word of God, they should be capable of greater perfection, and be able to practice God’s sublimer precepts.” Having heard these words, all present began diligently to weigh what he had said, and presently concluded, that he deserved to be made a bishop, and ought to be sent to instruct the incredulous and unlearned; since he was found to be endued with singular discretion, which is the mother of other virtues, and accordingly being ordained, they sent him to their friend, King Oswald, to preach; and he, as time proved, afterwards appeared to possess all other virtues, as well as the discretion for which he was before remarkable.
Chapters XIV-XVII tell us about several of the most noteable miracles and good deeds of Saint Aidan, including miracles associated with one of his relics which was a post that he was leaning on at the time of his death. On two occasions it did not burn in fire and chips from it caused miraculous cures.
2) Saint Finan
Saint Aidan’s successor as Abbot of Lindisfarne was Saint Finan who was also sent from Iona. His abbacy was a time in which the good work of Saint Aidan was continued on and many more converts to Christianity were made. A great enemy of the Christian Anglo-Saxons was their fellow Anglo-Saxon, but pagan, King Penda, king of the Mercians. He made frequent wars with them and so it was a great acheivement for the Christian kingdoms when King Penda’s son converted to Christianity! The son’s name was King Peada, king of the Middle Angles. He was baptised by Saint Finan. After this, he supported the conversion of his people. Furthermore, King Sigebert, king of the East Saxons, was preached to by King Oswy, the Christian king of Bernicia and Northumbria. King Sigebert decided to convert and Saint Finan also baptised him.
Saint Finan sent Saint Cedd, one of the great Anglo-Saxon saints to preach to these nations and Saint Finan ordained him as bishop of the East Saxons. With the baptism of these two kings and the ordination of this saintly bishop, Saint Finan of Lindisfarne was a central figure in the conversion of the Middle Angles and the East Saxons.
It is also during the abbacy of Saint Finan that the Easter dating controversy began to become an issue. This is related to the Gregorian missions which had been sent from Rome with their dating method. Christians using this method had now arrived further north and encountered the other method of calculation. The tensions arose at this point but would not reach their culmination for a few more years.
3) Saint Colmán
It is during the abbacy of Saint Colmán, also sent from Iona to take over Lindisfarne, that the Easter dating controversy had to be resolved in Northumbria. An impossible situation had emerged as King Oswy was celebrating Easter in accordance with the calculation method of Iona and Lindisfarne whereas his wife, Queen Eanfleda, was celebrating Easter according to the other method because she had been brought up in Kent which used the Roman method. The Synod of Whitby was called in 664 and ultimately it was decided that Northumbria would follow the Roman method.
Saint Colmán left Lindisfarne with those monks who were disappointed with the result of the synod. He returned to Iona and then to Ireland where he founded the great School of Mayo which was also known as Mayo of the Saxons because of the Anglo-Saxons who came with him. This is covered in Book IV, Chapter IV of ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’ The most notable of these Anglo-Saxon followers of Saint Colmán was Saint Gerald of Mayo who became the next abbot. This new monastery was on a small island called Inishbofin.
4) Saint Tuda
A consequence of the Synod of Whitby was the splitting of the position of Abbot of Lindisfarne and Bishop of Lindisfarne. For Saints Aidan, Finan and Colmán, they assumed and held each position simultaneously. After the departure of Saint Colmán, Saint Tuda became the Bishop of Lindisfarne. He was also Irish but he was from southern Ireland which in large part was following the Roman method. At the same time, an Anglo-Saxon called Saint Eata was made Abbot of Lindisfarne on the recommendation of the departing Saint Colmán.
However Saint Tuda’s abbacy was extremely brief because the Yellow Plague began in the same year as the Synod of Whitby (664). He caught the plague and died within months of taking the position. This was the end of an era for Lindisfarne because instead of electing a new Bishop of Lindisfarne, a new jurisdiction was drawn and the Bishop of York became the bishop for an area that included Lindisfarne. This situation would last from 664 until 678 when Lindisfarne would again have a bishop centred there (the first of whom would be the aforementioned Saint Eata who was already the Abbot of Lindisfarne). 664 was the end of an era for Lindisfarne as it was no longer closely associated with Iona and Irish monks but it would have saintly Anglo-Saxon abbots in the future and continue the legacy that began with Saint Aidan.
ORTHODOX BLOG 