01 — Foundations
The Irish and Ionan ground on which St. Colmán of Lindisfarne (d. 676) stands: the mission sent from Iona to Northumbria, the succession of three Irish bishops — Aidan, Finan, Colmán — over the island church of Lindisfarne, and Colmán’s own accession in 661 at the height of the Celtic mission under King Oswiu. Bede tells us almost nothing of Colmán before 661, so these files establish what can securely be said of his formation and his episcopate on the eve of the Synod of Whitby, reserving the paschal controversy itself for section 02.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic; defender of the Celtic Pascha)
Colmán belongs to the world of the early Insular Church, the undivided Church of the seventh century in which the Christianity of Ireland and Iona met the Christianity of Rome and Canterbury on English soil. He was the third of three Irish monks sent in succession from the monastery of Iona — Columba’s foundation — to hold the see of Lindisfarne, and under him the Ionan mission to Northumbria reached both its greatest extent and its decisive crisis. This section sets that context: the Columban mission and the Aidan → Finan → Colmán succession, the Irish monastic formation Colmán carried with him, and the character of the Lindisfarne community he inherited in 661, when the question of the two Easters was already a live tension in the household of King Oswiu but had not yet come to council.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Iona and the Lindisfarne Succession | The Ionan mission to Northumbria invited by Oswald; the succession of three Irish bishops sent from Iona — Aidan (635), Finan (651), Colmán (661); Colmán’s formation in the monastic tradition of Columba; and the near-total silence of Bede on his life before 661 (Bede, HE III.3–5, III.25–26). |
| Bishop of Lindisfarne (661) | Colmán’s accession as third bishop of Lindisfarne in 661 on the death of Finan; the island community he led; the height of the Ionan mission under King Oswiu; the frugal, Ionan character of Lindisfarne monastic life; and the ecclesial situation on the eve of Whitby (Bede, HE III.17, III.25–26, IV.4). |
See Also
- The Two Easters — the technical heart of the dispute Colmán defended, reserved from this section
- The Gathering of 664 — the council to which the situation described here leads
- St. Aidan of Lindisfarne — the first of the three Irish bishops, founder of the Lindisfarne mission
- St. Columba of Iona — founder of Iona, source of the monastic tradition Colmán carried
- Pre-Schism Church — the undivided Church within which Celtic and Roman customs coexisted
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People (HE). Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. (Cited by book.chapter; III.3–5, III.17, III.25–26, IV.4.)
- Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
- Corning, Caitlin. The Celtic and Roman Traditions: Conflict and Consensus in the Early Medieval Church. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- Charles-Edwards, T. M. Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Stancliffe, Clare. “The British Church and the Mission of Augustine.” In St Augustine and the Conversion of England, ed. Richard Gameson, 107–151. Stroud: Sutton, 1999.