August 31 is the feast of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne and below is an account of his life taken from a work by a nineteenth-century Anglican writer on the Bishops of Lindisfarne and other northern sees. The Rev. George Miles is generous in his appreciation of the Irish, at one point describing Ireland as ‘one grand seminary’. He is at some pains to contrast the ‘Celtic’ mission of Aidan with the ‘Roman’ mission of Augustine, a common theme in works of this era. A point of interest is his quotation from a sermon of Saint Gall, describing the type of preaching undertaken by Irish missionaries. Unfortunately, he does not link to a source for this. A further curiosity is the mention of one of the first Icelandic Christians, who, after a visit to Jerusalem, entered a Russian monastery. Thus for all its romantic tone and dated view of the ‘Celtic Church’ this is still an account worth reading:

S. AIDAN, a man of saintly, zealous, prudent, and heroic life, was the first and greatest Bishop of Lindisfarne. Little is known of his childhood. A glimpse of his youth or early manhood is found in the Life of S. Columba, which refers to Aidan’s reception into the community of Hy (Iona), the mother of Lindisfarne. On a certain Wednesday, we are told, a young man of comely appearance and gentle manners reached the Island of Saints, after a stormy and perilous voyage, and at once sought the presence of Columba, the chief of that little colony of monks, prostrated himself, craved the good man’s blessing, and humbly desired to be admitted into the community, and he was duly received.

At Iona a friendship sprang up between Aidan and Oswald, son of Ethelfrid, the late King of Bernicia and Deira, who had been sent by Donald IV., King of the Picts, to whose court he and his brothers fled after the victory of Redwald, King of the South Saxons to be baptised and brought up in the Christian Faith.

Fergna was Abbot of Hy when Oswald arrived, and he placed him under the care of Aidan, who acted as his instructor, not only in faith and morals, but also in secular studies. Aidan soon discovered Oswald’s aspirations after the recovery of his kingdom his elder brother, Eanfrid the apostate, had been slain by Cadwallon, and he (Aidan) laboured assiduously to make him a good soldier of Christ, so that if, in God’s good providence, he ever attained his hopes and rights he might be serviceable in the propagation of the Faith amongst his subjects.

The time came at length. Oswald, grown to manhood, marched with a small force into Bernicia to meet Cadwallon, the Welsh pagan, who was encamped on the heights overlooking the Tyne in the neighbourhood of Hexham. Oswald had entered Bernicia trusting in the help of God. He received an assurance of this in a dream in which the blessed Columba appeared to him and promised him victory. Oswald on his part made a vow that if he gained his father’s throne he would do his utmost for the conversion of the people.

Before the battle a cross was erected on the field, and Oswald called upon his followers to bend their knees, and with one voice beseech the Lord Almighty, the Living and the True, to defend them by His mercy from their fierce and proud enemy, for He knew that they had undertaken a just war. After prayer, as the day dawned, they joined battle with their enemies.

Cadwallon had an immense force, which he boasted to be irresistible. He was at a disadvantage so far as the ground was concerned, whereas Oswald and his small army had chosen a good position, protected on the north and west by steep, rocky banks, and on the south by a barrier left by the Romans. Cadwallon was utterly routed and fled southwards, followed by Oswald’s victorious soldiers, who caught him and slew him at Deniseburn (Rowley Burn), a tributary of the Devil’s Water.

This important battle (635) was called the Battle of Heavenfelth (Heaven’s Field), and in later times the field became a place of devotion. S. Oswald’s chapel was built upon the spot where the banner-cross had been erected by the King, and the monks of Hexham used to go on the day before the anniversary of Oswald’s death, to spend the night in prayer, and to recite the office with many psalms, “pro salute animae ejus.” The next day they offered the holy oblation. The monks of Durham kept his memory green by their processions three times a year, in which they carried a figure of the King in silver gilt, and on one side of their conventual seal was a representation of the King’s head.

To return. Oswald, having gained his kingdom, and driven out or subdued the pagans, remembered his vow and sent to his old home, Iona, for missionaries to teach his subjects the Christian Faith. Iona cheerfully responded to his appeal, and sent Gorman, who found the people so stubborn, independent, and indifferent, that he lost heart and returned to Iona in despair.

When Gorman related his failure to the brethren S. Aidan was amongst them, and gently rebuked him:”It seems to me, brother, that you have been harder than was meet with your ignorant hearers, and have not, according to the teaching of the Apostles, offered them first the milk of gentle teaching, till, being gradually nourished by the Divine Word, they had become capable of receiving more perfect instruction, and of fulfilling the higher precepts of God.” Aidan’s speech decided the future. The brethren knew that he was the best man for the work, and it was quickly agreed that the mission should not be abandoned, but that Aidan should be ordained for the work. Undoubtedly there were many difficulties, yet few missions had better auspices, for the King was ready to help and to further the work by every possible means. A patient, persevering and prudent evangelist, who would not look for immediate results, but be content to sow that others might reap, was needed for the undertaking, and S. Aidan was unquestionably the right man for the work. His discretion, tact, patience, and resoluteness proved that the choice was a wise one. Gorman’s retreat, therefore, proved to be a good thing for the Church.

The conduct of the Community of Iona with regard to Gorman is a great contrast with that of S. Gregory with respect to Augustine of Canterbury, who lost heart when he heard of the savage manners of the Saxons, and returned to Rome to be released from his enterprise. The Blessed Gregory was not the man to accept excuses or to send substitutes, for being of noble and heroic spirit himself, he desired his disciples and followers to be the same. Through his firmness the Roman mission to Kent was not abandoned. Still, amongst many who have turned back from arduous duties and perils may be found the names of great and earnest men. S. Mark the Evangelist left S. Paul at Perga in Pamphilia and returned to Jerusalem; Theonus, the last British Bishop (erroneously called Archbishop) of London, lost heart and fled ; Mellitus also fled from London, and Justus from Rochester,believing that it was better to return to their own country,where they could serve God in peace and quietness, rather than remain amongst apostate barbarians ; S. Palladius conducted an apparently un-successful mission to Ireland, was unable to remain in the country, and died on his way back to Rome ; S. Willebrord quitted Heligoland in despair; S. Milles, Bishop of Susa, found the people of the city so incorrigible, and his presence the cause of so much dissension that he left and denounced Divine vengeance upon it; the holy Wigbert left Friesland after working there two years without any prospect of success; Friedrich, a Saxon prelate, after five years’ opposition by the Scalds (pagan minstrels) gave up his work in Iceland in despair ; and the great Francis Xavier, thinking it impossible to make converts in India, left the country in disgust. Time would fail to tell of others. Yet men love to dwell upon the work of those who amid many discouragements have toiled on, like James the Deacon, who remained amongst the Northumbrians after Paulinus had hurried away with the Church treasures and Queen Ethelburga and her children into Kent.

To return to S. Aidan. He received a hearty welcome on his arrival in Bernicia from his old friend and pupil, King Oswald. The Bishop began his work in down-right earnest. Close by the King’s residence was a small island, which the King gladly assigned to Aidan and his community.

The Celtic monks preferred islands over which, if possible, they had exclusive rights, and large enough to provide them with food for themselves, pasturage for their cattle, and were close to the mainland. Monks became deeply attached to their island homes, and memories fondly clustered around those sacred spots where their golden days were spent. The sons of Iona, of Lindisfarne, of Lerins, and of a thousand other seagirt “cities” tell the same story. To leave them was a severe trial to many, though they bravely responded to the call of duty and the commands of their superiors to start new missions or to undertake special work in the Church, or in their last hours when taking farewell of the brethren. The apostrophe of S. Caesarius to Lerins typically expresses their feelings and emotions:

” happy isle, blessed solitude, in which the majesty of our Redeemer makes every day new conquests and where such victories are won over Satan ! Thrice happy isle, which little as she is produces so numerous an offspring for heaven ! It is she who nourishes all those illustrious monks who are sent into all the provinces as bishops. When they arrive they are children, when they go out they are fathers. She receives them in the condition of recruits, she makes them kings. She teaches all her happy inhabitants to fly towards the sublime heights of Christ upon the wings of humility and charity. That tender and noble mother, that nurse of good men, opened her arms to one love : but while so many others owe heaven to her teaching, the hardness of my heart has prevented her from accomplishing her task in me” (quoted in Montalembert’s Monks of the West).

S. Aidan’s first work on taking possession of Lindisfarne would be to build a “city,” i. e. a monastery. This “city” would most probably be built after the style of Iona, for the Celtic monks were very conservative, and “swore” by Columba and Iona. It may not be out of place to give a short description of a Celtic monastery, which represented a village consisting of huts of wicker-work and clay. The abbot’s cell was built on an eminence as a mark of respect. Apart from this were the cells of the brethren, and close by the church with its  “side-house” or sacristy, the refectory, the library ; then guest chambers, and outside the enclosure, cow-byre, mill, granary and outhouses. The ecclesiastical cities were surrounded by ramparts which served as boundary lines, and also for protection against enemies and wild beasts. In this they followed an old custom of surrounding the home of every chieftain’s family with a similar defence (cf. Insula SS. et D. p. 94). Harbour provision was also made for craft.

Aidan formed a “school” in his monastery, and received lads to be educated, some of whom he had redeemed from slavery. He was wise and far-seeing in adopting a custom long practised in the Church in different parts of the world. From the days of schools in the provinces, especially by bishops like Anschar, who founded the first Christian school on the barbarian shores of Schleswig in order that he might train Danish lads purchased from the savage population, and Gregory the Great, who is recorded to have directed a priest named Candidus, manager of the papal patrimony in Gaul, to buy English lads of seventeen or eighteen to be educated as missionaries to work amongst their own countrymen. The number of lads in these schools was sometimes restricted to twelve, as at Lindisfarne. It must have been a source of great happiness to the devoted monks to watch the growth and development of spiritual power in their young disciples as it is to watch the opening of some choice bud in the beautiful spring-time. Some of Aidan’s scholars became famous in the Church, especially Chad, Cedda, Eata, and Boisil. Heieu received her habit from Aidan.

It is customary to speak of S. Aidan as “the True Apostle of England.” If contrasted with Augustine of Canterbury, this may be correct, for the work of the Celtic mission was more enduring, more wide-spreading, than the Roman. But neither S. Augustine nor S. Aidan worked on virgin soil, missionaries preceded them, though the records of their work are meagre, and to some extent fabulous: in Northumbria S. Paulinus and the faithful and courageous James the Deacon; and in Kent the mysterious Luidhard, and wandering Galilean bishops. It was the same in the case of S. Columba others had worked before him in that part of “Scotland,” and amongst them S. Ninian, S. Palladius (with his fellow-labourers, S. Ternan and S. Serf), S. Mungo (or Kentigern), and others, many of whom fled to Mona and Albania (the Isle of Man and the southern part of Scotland) during the Diocletian persecution ; but Columba and his monks did the greatest work. In like manner S. Patrick is called the Apostle of Ireland although others laboured there long before his birth.

S. Aidan’s work at Lindisfarne would most probably be moulded on the discipline and practice of the mother-house of Iona a round of work, study, and prayer, with frequent journeys to the mainland for the purpose of evangelisation.

A pleasing picture is that of S. Aidan in his white tunic, over which was thrown a rough mantle and hood of wool of the natural colour, preaching to the Northumbrians in the presence of the King who acted as interpreter a good picture for an artist “Church and State.” The Venerable Bede tells us that

“The King listened gladly and humbly to the admonitions of the Bishop in all things, and with great diligence took measures for building up and extending the Church of Christ in his kingdom ; and the fair sight might often be seen of the prelate, who had but an imperfect knowledge of English, preaching in his own tongue, and the King, who in his long exile had perfectly learned the language of the Scots, explaining the heavenly Word to his officers and servants. Thenceforward every day numbers of the Scots began to come into Britain, and to preach the word of faith with great devotion, and, as many as were graced with the priestly function, to minister the grace of baptism in the provinces over which King Oswald ruled. Churches were everywhere built, and multitudes gladly flocked to hear the word : endowments were granted by the munificence of the King ; and the children of the English, along with their elders, were instructed by their Scottish teachers in the precepts and observances of monastic discipline.”

The story of King Oswald and Aidan in this work has a parallel in the life of one of the first of Icelandic Christians, Thorwald Kodransson, who after travelling in Saxony and making friends with the Bishop, Friedrich, was baptised by him ; and whom he persuaded to return to Iceland in order to preach to his people. The Bishop preached in German, and Thorwald turned all his words into Icelandic. Their labours, however, were not very successful, and the Bishop, like Gorman, Aidan’s predecessor, returned home dispirited, and Thorwald, after making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, entered a Russian monastery, where he died.