02 — The Founding of Lindisfarne
The act that made Aidan’s mission permanent: the grant of the tidal island of Lindisfarne as his episcopal seat, chosen in the eremitic, sea-girt style of his mother-house Iona, and the close partnership of bishop and king that sustained it — most memorably the scene in which Oswald, fluent in Irish from his exile, stood and interpreted Aidan’s preaching for his English ealdormen and thegns. These files follow the founding of the see and the friendship that founded it.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic; apostle of Northumbria)
When Aidan came to Northumbria he did not take the old Roman see at York where Paulinus had baptized Edwin. He chose instead a small tidal island close to the royal fortress of Bamburgh — an island cut off from the mainland twice a day by the sea, in the manner of Iona itself. The choice was deliberate and characteristically Ionan: a monastery-bishopric set apart for prayer yet within reach of the king and the road. This section examines that choice and its meaning, and then the partnership between Aidan and Oswald that made the see viable — a partnership in which the king was not merely patron but, for a time, the bishop’s own interpreter to his people.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Island See (635) | The grant of Lindisfarne as Aidan’s seat; the tidal island chosen in the eremitic Ionan style; what it meant to set the bishopric on a monastic island near Bamburgh rather than in a Roman city. |
| Oswald and the Bishop | The partnership of king and bishop; Oswald interpreting Aidan’s Irish for his thegns (Bede III.3); the king’s generosity and humility, and Bede’s use of the friendship as a model of Christian kingship. |
See Also
- The Sending from Iona — how Aidan came to be sent
- The Mission on Foot — what Aidan did from his island base
- The Line of Bishops — the Irish succession that held the island see
- St. Columba of Iona — Iona, the island model for Lindisfarne
- Monasticism — the eremitic island tradition behind the choice
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People III.3, III.5–6. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
- Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
- Stancliffe, Clare, and Eric Cambridge, eds. Oswald: Northumbrian King to European Saint. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995.