Aidan Lindisfarne

Friends called this afrter noon.

The grand small child is called Aidan. And I was impressed how little Aidan enjoyed the motions at the steering wheel.

It was only Vespers that I found that tomorrow is the Calendar Date of Saint Aidan. The feast of St. Aidan will be celebrated during the Night Vigil and the Day.

Blessings for young Aidan.

St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne August 31st. Aidan, a monk of Iona, became the first bishop and abbot of Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumberland, when he came to England in 635 A.D. Nothing is known of his early life except his Irish origin; Bede is virtually the only source. He died in 651 A.D. in Bamburgh and he was buried in the same year on Lindisfarne. Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, had been baptized when he was in banishment among the Scots" and when he was on the throne he sent to the elders of that nation for a Catholic Bishop. They sent him a man called Aidan, a monk of great meekness and godliness, from the monastery of St Columba on the island of Iona; and to him Oswald gave a Bishop's See on the island of Lindisfarne. Now Aidan could not speak English well, and when he was preaching the Gospel, there could often be seen the lovely spectacle of the king himself interpreting the heavenly word to his own officers and servants. Aidan had no thought of seeking or loving anything in this world. He went about everywhere on foot, and when he met any, if they were hea­thens, he entreated them to receive the sacraments of the faith; if they were faithful, he exhorted them to almsgiving and good works. It was from his example that the monks and nuns of that time took the custom of eating nothing until after three o'clock in the afternoon on all Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year except the fifty days of Paschaltime. In this man, said Bede, there are many things which I recommend for the imitation of my readers. He was a profound lover of peace and charity, of self-control, and of lowliness; his soul had risen above anger and avarice; he looked down upon pride and vainglory. He was very diligent in working and in teaching, firm as became a priest when it was his duty to rebuke the proud and mighty, very tender in comforting the sick and relieving the poor. In short, I may say, he never left anything undone which he knew from the Evangelists, or the Apostles, or the Prophets, that he ought to do. He died in the seventeenth year of his, episcopate, and was buried on the island of Lindisfarne on the right hand of the altar, as an honour due to such a Bishop. Sources: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Book Ill; cap. XVII. The Oxford Dict. of Saints by David Hugh Farmer.