08 — East and West
Aidan belongs to the one undivided Church of the pre-Schism centuries, and his place in it has two aspects worth drawing out. First, the spirituality he carried — the Ionan, Columban, ultimately Irish monasticism that formed him — descends from the asceticism of the Eastern desert, mediated to the West through figures like John Cassian, so that the apostle of Northumbria stands in a tradition reaching back to Egypt and Syria. Second, Aidan is venerated across the whole Church, East and West, as a saint of the undivided communion, his feast kept on 31 August. These files set Aidan in that double frame.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic; apostle of Northumbria)
A figure like Aidan invites two questions that this section answers in turn. The first is genealogical: where did the spirituality of the Ionan mission come from, and how does it connect to the wider, and especially the Eastern, monastic tradition of the Church? The answer leads back through Iona and Irish monasticism to the desert fathers of Egypt and the Christian East, by way of the Latin transmitters of that tradition. The second question is ecclesial: how is Aidan received in the Church, given that he lived before the Great Schism and kept customs (the Celtic Easter) later set aside? The answer is that he is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured East and West, whose feast the Orthodox calendar keeps on 31 August.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Irish Monastic Mission and the East | The Eastern-desert ascetic spirit of the Ionan mission; Irish monasticism’s descent from the desert fathers through Cassian and the Latin West; the eremitic island ideal as a Western echo of the desert (cross-link St. Columba, St. John Cassian). |
| The Orthodox Reception | Aidan as a pre-Schism saint of the undivided Church, honoured East and West; the feast of 31 August; the basis of his veneration and the Orthodox revival of the Celtic and English saints. |
See Also
- Monastic Evangelism — the monastic model whose roots this section traces
- Holiness Across the Divide — Aidan’s sanctity received despite the Easter question
- Relics and the Cult — the cult and feast through which he is venerated
- St. Columba of Iona — the Irish monastic tradition Aidan carried
- St. John Cassian — the transmitter of Eastern monasticism to the West
- Monasticism — the ascetic tradition uniting East and West
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People III.3–4, III.17. 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.
- Chadwick, Owen. John Cassian. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.