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Aidan (died 651) was the founder and first bishop of the Lindisfarne island monastery in England. He is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the Anglicised form of the original Old Irish Aedán, Modern Irish Aodhán (meaning ' little fiery one ').
- Monk holding a flaming torch, stag
- 31 August 651, Parish Churchyard, Bamburgh, Northumberland
- c. 590, Ireland
Aidan of Lindisfarne, Enlightener of Northumbria (+ 651) Commemorated August 31. Saint Aidan, a steadfast defender of Celtic practices against the imposition of Roman usage, was born in Ireland (then called Scotland) in the seventh century.
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Why did Aidan go to Lindisfarne?
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- Called By a Saintly King. St. Aidan began his life of service on the Isle of Iona, just off the coast of Scotland. The monastery at Iona was established by Irish monks under St. Columba, another great Celtic missionary during the so-called “dark ages.”
- He Wasn’t the First Missionary to Northumbria. Sometimes, missions don’t work out. In the case of Northumbria, the Abbott of Iona responded to Oswald’s request by sending a monk who was known to be harsh and severe.
- The Asceticism of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne. According to Bede, St. Aidan’s “course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our times.” When you consider that Bede was an 8th century monk, we can begin to imagine the great monastic discipline of Aidan.
- Patron Saint of Firefighters. Along with St. Florian, Aidan of Lindisfarne is the patron saint of firefighters. You’re not alone if that surprises you, but there is a story behind this.
Saint Aidan ; feast day August 31) was an apostle of Northumbria, monastic founder, and the first bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. Aidan was a monk at Iona, an island of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland, when King Oswald of Northumbria requested that he be made.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Saint Aidan was well-travelled, and something of a pioneer. He journeyed from his native Ireland to Iona on the west coast of Scotland before he famously accepted king Oswald of Northumbria’s invitation to convert the pagan English to the new faith. But the Irishman’s journey in death was every bit as remarkable as the one he made in life.
Up here in the north the kingdom of Northumbria was largely created by the English warrior-leader Aethelfrith but when he was killed in battle (616AD) his children fled into exile and some of these children found their way to what is now South-West Scotland.
At the request of King Oswald of Northumbria, Aidan went to Lindisfarne as bishop and was known throughout the kingdom for his knowledge of the Bible, his learning, his eloquent preaching, his holiness, his distaste for pomp, his kindness to the poor, and the miracles attributed to him.
