St. Aidan of Lindisfarne statue near St. Mary’s Church, Lindisfarne. photo Dig Ventures

                                                        

Celts to the Crèche

Day 1

November 15

St. Aidan of Lindisfarne

died August 31, 651 AD (Feast Day)

Welcome to this 1st day of our 40 Day Celtic Advent pilgrimage!

How delightful to journey together to the crèche in Bethlehem, that sacred manger of new birth and fresh new starts. Celtic Advent consists of 40 days as does the season of Lent. 

We will begin this pilgrimage with St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. He was an 7th c. Irish monk/bishop who established a famous Celtic-style monastery on the beautiful and sacred isle of Lindisfarne. This tidal isle in the area of Northumbria in northeastern England is  known as a “thin place” where heaven and earth are only separated by a thin, almost gossamer veil.

Some scholars believe Aidan was raised, educated, baptized, and later served as a Bishop on the tiny, yet historic monastic island of Iona founded by the much loved and revered St. Columba in the area known as the Inner Hebrides on the southwest coast of Scotland before he came to Lindisfarne.

Other scholars propose that Aidan came from the great Irish monastic foundations of Inish Craig (later called Scattery Island) founded by St. Senan (read more about Senan under St. Canaire, Day 35 of Celts to the Crèche) and later moved to the isle of Iona before going to Lindisfarne.

From Lindisfarne, Aidan was able to evangelize and share the Good News of God’s love through Jesus the Christ that shone as a beacon of light throughout England. Bishop Aidan appropriately became known as the “Apostle to the English.”

You may desire to continue reading more about Aidan or scroll on down directly to the Meditation

            Statue of Aidan on Lindisfarne near St. Mary’s  Church. Photo from Dig Ventures

King Oswald Requests Spiritual Help from Iona.  As the future King of Northumbria, Oswald and his brothers had been raised in exile among the Irish of the  Dal Riata, it is likely that Oswald had visited the great Irish, Celtic abbey of Iona, perhaps even living there.  Iona is a tiny island off the western coast of Scotland founded by St. Columba (see Day 4 of Celts to the Crèche).

In 634, Oswald returned from exile and became King of Northumbria, in northeast England, near the Scottish border.  He immediately sent for help from Iona to convert his pagan kingdom. The monk Corman was sent from Iona to convince the Northumbrians to follow Christ. It quickly came to light that Corman obviously wasn’t the right person for this daunting task. He didn’t last too long as he described the Anglo-Saxons as too obstinate and intractable. He returned to Iona where Aidan heard Corman tell his story of woe.

Aidan bravely told Corman that he had been unreasonably harsh with his unlearned listeners in Northumbria. Then with even more courage, Aidan explained to Corman that he  should have allowed the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria to be fed the milk of the Word like babies and not expect them to eat the meat of solid doctrine.

Aidan to Lindisfarne. The Spirit works in interesting ways!  A short year later after Corman arrived in Northumbria and then abruptly left, Aidan in about 635 took Corman’s place and began setting up his monastery on Lindisfarne (known also as Holy Island). Lindisfarne is an island that is cut off twice a day by the water. Lindisfarne was far enough away for some quietness and solitude, but also close to the Northumbrian king’s palace at Bamburgh. Yet, Aidan had a problem communicating with the Northumbrians as Irish Aidan could not speak the British language. The problem was solved when King Oswald who was fluent not only in the British language, but also in Gaelic that he had learned from his childhood years of exile among the Irish, was able to  translate for Aidan as he preached the milk of the gospel to the people in the area.

Aidan’s Influence. Aidan’s monastery on Lindisfarne flourished and many more monks came from Iona to help him set up churches and to evangelize northern Britain. Aidan not only set up churches, but he also recognized the giftedness of Hilda (see Day 2 of Celts to the Crèche) and enlisted and entrusted her to set up double monasteries (where monks and nuns both lived and worshipped, ruled over by an Abbess) in Northumbria. 

Aidan’s Gifts. Aidan was considered to be a man of deep faith, prayer, and simplicity whom the Northumbrians trusted to follow his teachings. Sadly, Aidan’s dear friend King Oswald was killed by King Penda of Mercia in battle in 642 and Oswin became king.  Aidan and the new King Oswin also had a good relationship. There is a story that King Oswin gave peripatetic Aidan, a horse to help him over difficult terrain in his evangelistic work. Aidan then in turn gave the horse to a beggar who was asking for alms. When Oswin heard of this, he was furious that Aidan had given his gift away to a beggar. Aidan replied: “Is the son of a mare more precious to the king than a son of God?”

Aidan was also known for fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays and when a feast was set before him, he often gave it to the hungry. The gifts he received were given to the poor or used to buy freedom for slaves, some of who became monks at Lindisfarne. During Lent each year, Aidan would retire to the small island of Farne off of Lindisfarne for prayer, penance, and solitude.

Aidan’s Resurrection Day. After serving sixteen years working for the conversion of Northumbria to Christianity, Aidan was heartbroken when King Oswin was killed by the kings’ cousin Oswy (Oswiu), King of Bernicia in 651. Aidan died less than two weeks later  on the last day of August in a shelter he had erected against the buttress of his church at Bamburgh.  Some of Aidan’s bones were later taken to Ireland with Bishop Colman (see day 25 of Celts to the Crèche) when he left Lindisfarne after his bitter disappointment when the Celtic way of life lost out to the Roman Catholic way at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664 AD.

12th c. Bamburgh Church built over the site of Aidan’s 635 AD wooden church. There is a wooden beam in the church that is believed to be the beam that Aidan laid against as he died. photo from Aidan’s Church in Bamburgh website

Through Aidan’s service to God, Lindisfarne became not only a community of monks, but also a center for the spiritual life of Northumbria. The magnificently beautiful Lindisfarne Gospels was produced at the scriptorium at Lindisfarne about 715 AD after Aidan’s tenure, but the Irish/Celtic influence he brought to Lindisfarne was a precursor to this treasure. We mainly know about St. Aidan from The Venerable Bede’s biography of  St. Aidan that he included in his  Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

           Lindisfarne Gospels produced at Lindisfarne about 715 AD, likely in honor of St. Cuthbert. Now housed at the  British Library. photo from eadrith.tumblr

Aidan Still Touches Our Lives Today: In the 21st century, the international ecumenical and dispersed Community of Aidan and Hilda is headquartered on  Lindisfarne that honors the memory of these two great early Celtic leaders.  Ray Simpson, a Celtic author and speaker is the Founder  and Guardian of this community.

               Pilgrims to Lindisfarne walk barefoot across the mudflats. photo from the journal.co.uk

People from all over the world pilgrimage to Lindisfarne. This tidal isle is only accessible twice a day when the tide is out. The tide can come in quickly and pilgrims must be able to get across the mudflats in a timely manner.

 A safe house on the road to Lindisfarne in case one has to scramble quickly to higher ground as the tide come in quickly. photo from pic fair

One can also drive over a narrow road with little shacks on stilts in case the tide begins to come in too quickly.

Excavations began through Dig Ventures  on Lindisfarne in 2015 and in June of 2017, the stone foundations of a church were discovered by archaeologists on a rocky promontory on Lindisfarne. This foundation is likely resting on the original foundation of either Aidan’s or Cuthbert’s wooden church. Excavations have continued through 2021.

Ancient stone foundation on earlier wooden church of either Aidan or Cuthbert discovered on Lindisfarne in an archaeological excavation in June, 2017. photo from archaeology.org

Archaeologists and volunteers working on the stone church foundation excavation on Lindisfarne, June 2017. After an earlier pilgrimage to Lindisfarne in 2012,  I saw this excavation site in early October 2017 that had recently been covered up. Work was resumed in this area in the summer of 2018. The Celtic Pilgrimage group I led also viewed this site in October 2019. photo from churchtimes.co.uk

Map of Northumbria. Notice Lindisfarne, Monkwearmouth/Jarrow where Bede lived and wrote his history of the English people, and Hartlepool and Whitby where St. Hilda was Abbess of double monasteries

MEDITATION

Feast Day of St. Aidan is August 31

Basil Hume was the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and a monk at Ampleforth Abbey in England. In his book, Footprints of the Northern Saints, he refers to the lives of Paulinus, an earlier monk who evangelized Northumbria and also of Aidan: “There was such a continuity between what they believed and what they preached, and between what they preached and what they lived, that people immediately saw and felt the living presence of God in their midst.”

St. Francis said something very similar, “preach the gospel at all times and use words if necessary.” Even though St. Aidan struggled with the language of the Northumbrians, the Anglo-Saxons saw Aidan’s life of simplicity, good works, and faith in God and they knew that they could trust what this man was telling them about God’s love and care.

May we daily “walk the talk.” As clergy and a follower of Christ, I often have to ask myself, “am I walking the talk or am I a fraud, am I bearing Christ or being a stumbling block, is my life a sermon or a script?” At one of my former churches, I always ended each worship service with these words, “And remember you may be the only Jesus someone sees this week, so make sure they get the right impression.”

St. Aidan was authentic and humble. His life spoke volumes concerning God’s character and love. He had a pastor’s heart in that he knew how to nurture people in their trust of God instead of banging it over their heads. Aidan must have been a very special person of integrity and trust for St. Hilda to change her plans from joining her sister in  France as a nun to following his request to stay in Northumbria and to help him convert her people to Christ and to be head of a large Celtic double monastery of men and women. 

Prayer: O God, Three in One, help us to be people of authenticity and compassion, people who walk the talk, people whose lives are a sermon. Help us sense the encircling and empowering presence of the Spirit and the great Communion of Saints as we begin this Celts to the Creche Advent pilgrimage towards Bethlehem, that place where Christ is born anew in our lives this sacred season. Amen.

 Back view of the Open Gate, owned by the Community of Aidan and Hilda on Lindisfarne, where my husband and I stayed for a few nights while in Northumbria in June 2007. I visited Lindisfarne again in October 2017 and in October 2019. photo by Harvey Warren

© Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org, 2018-2029. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org (Celts to the Crèche) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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A Few Resources:

Adam, Rev. David. Flame in My Heart: St. Aidan for Today. Triangle Publishing, 1997.

____________. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Moorehouse, 2009.

“Aidan” by Richard Sharpe. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Lapidge, Blair, Keynes, Scragg, eds. Oxford, Blackwell, 1999.

Bamburgh Bones. St. Aidan’s Remarkable Journey in Death. 

Bede, The Venerable. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. iii.

Blair, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Bradley, Ian. “Wanted, a New Patron Saint for Britain,” The Guardian, August 25, 2002.

Brown, Michelle P. How Christianity Came to Britain and Ireland. Lion, Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2006.

_____________. The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality, & the Scribe. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2003.

Dales, Douglas. Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1997.

D’Arcy, Mary Ryan. The Saints of Ireland. St. Paul, MN: The Irish American Cultural Institute, 1974.

Deansley, Margaret. A History of the Medieval Church, 590-1500. London: Routledge Press, 1925, 2002 reprint.

Dig Ventures. The Monk, the Midden, and the Missing Monastery. Youtube video of an archaeological dig on Lindisfarne.

Dig Ventures. New Archaeological Discoveries on Lindisfarne | Virtual Dig Tour | 2021. September 21, 2021.

Dig Ventures website. 

Earle, Mary C. and Sylvia Maddox. Holy Companions: Spiritual Practices from the Celtic Saints. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2004.

Foot, Sarah. Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England, c.600-900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Higham, Nicholas J. and Martin J. Ryan. The Anglo-Saxon World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.

Historic UK. Lindisfarne Gospels.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne. 

Hume, Basil. Footprints of the Northern Saints. London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1996, 2006 reprint.

Jones, Andrew. Every Pilgrim’s Guide to Celtic Britain and Ireland. Ligouri, Missouri: Ligouri Publications, 2002.

Jones, Kathleen. Who are the Celtic Saints? Norwich, UK: Canterbury Press, 2002.

Leyser, Henrietta. Beda: A Journey Through the Seven Kingdoms in the Age of Bede. London: Head of Zeus, 2015.

McDonald, Iain, ed. Saints of Northumbria. Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1997.

Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1991, 3rd ed.

Rees, Elizabeth. An Essential Guide to Celtic Sites and Their Saints. London: Burns & Oates, 2003.

___________. Celtic Saints in Their Landscape. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing, 2011.

 ___________. Celtic Saints: Passionate Wanderers. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

Rollason, David. Early Medieval Europe 300-1050. Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2012.

Sawyers, June Skinner. Praying with Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets. Franklin, WI: Sheed & Ward, 2001.

Sellner, Edward C. Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, rev. and expanded. St. Paul, MN: Bog Walk Press, 2006.

Simpson, Ray.  Aidan of Lindisfarne: Irish Flames Warms a New World.. Resource Publications. 2014.

_________. A Holy Island Prayer Book. Morehouse Publishing, 2002.

_________ and Brent Lyons-Lee. Aidan’s Way of Mission:Celtic insights for a post-Christian World. The Bible Reading Fellowship. 2016.

Spears, Emma. Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Youtube. August 19, 2021.

Spirit in Stone. St. Aidan. Youtube. October 31, 2017. video.

Surtees Society. Vol. 8. Raine, James. Vita Oswinus, Rex Northumbriæ. 1838. Available at Google Play.

Tristram, Kate. Aidan of Lindisfarne.

__________.  The Story of Holy Island: An illustrated history. Norwich, UK: Canterbury Press, 2009.

Undiscovered Scotland. Holy Island of Lindisfarne. 2022.

Wallace, Martin. Celtic Saints. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995.

Warren, Brenda G. St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. August 31, 2021. Godspacelight.com

Webb, Simon. Aidan of Lindisfarne. Langley Press, 2022.

Woods, Richard J. The Spirituality of the Celtic Saints. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.

Yorke, Barbara. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge, 1990, 1992 reprint.