Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne

Bishop and Missionary
(died 651)

Saint Aidan was an Irish monk from the great monastery of Iona, founded by Saint Columba, who was sent at the request of King Oswald of Northumbria to evangelise the English of that kingdom. He arrived in 635 and established his base on the tidal island of Lindisfarne, close to the royal fortress of Bamburgh, which became the centre of the evangelisation of northern England and one of the most important centres of Christian learning and culture in the early medieval world.

Aidan's method of evangelisation was characterised by great gentleness, personal contact, and care for the poor. He travelled on foot throughout his vast territory so that he could speak with ordinary people along the way, and he used the gifts that the king gave him to ransom slaves and give them their freedom, sometimes educating them and ordaining them to the priesthood. He established a school at Lindisfarne where twelve English boys were educated and formed for the priesthood, a school from which came several of the great saints of the Northumbrian Church.

The Venerable Bede, who is our principal source for Aidan's life, speaks of him with undisguised admiration, praising his love of prayer, his care for the poor and sick, his simplicity of life, and his refusal to respect the powerful at the expense of the truth. When King Oswin gave him a fine horse to make his travels easier, Aidan promptly gave it to a beggar he met on the road. When the king reproached him for this, Aidan asked whether the son of a mare was more to be prized than the son of God, and the king fell to his knees in contrition.

Aidan died on August 31, 651, leaning against the outer wall of the church at Bamburgh, where he had come to spend his last hours. Bede records that the wooden post against which he leaned was twice preserved from fire by miraculous means. He is venerated as one of the great missionaries of Anglo-Saxon England, and his feast is celebrated on August 31st.