Footprints of the Northern Saints
En route to the North we made the short diversion to visit Holy Island, Lindisfarne.
Returning by the Great North Road, the A1, after our visit to from Mt. St. Bernard Abbey, we paid our respects to St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert the great Saints of Holy Island, Lindisfarne.
It was a first time experience for our Brothers from Africa, Dom Charles and Br. Celestine whose has experience has been of the Young Churches. For them it was as much a time-voyage as of visiting a holy place. The dates alone impressed them; Cuthbert was born in North Northumbria in about the year 635 - the same year in which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne.
The doors were open to the Catholic Church of St. Aidan. To the rear the SVDP Summer Camp for the children was closed for the winter. That gave no warning as to the large numbers on the island, a crowded car park before walking to the village, buses and cars for the disabled nearer the centre.
Coming to the Priory, the famous statue of St. Aidan looking out to sea. He carries the torch of faith.
English Heritage has care of Lindisfarne Priory. Entrance begins with the Museum presentation of the detailed history. Its bookshop is well stocked. I had been searching for Bede’s life of St. Cuthbert. On the shelves I found a Penguin Classic, “The Age of Bede”, and only on a closer look I found it contained the Life of Cuthbert.
The island is extremely well provided with other heritage and religious centres. Admission to the ruins is for a fee but access to the Church Yard and the Anglican 
Church is free. The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin is reputed to stand on the site of the original monastery founded by Aidan.
I was attracted by the reredos behind the altar showing Icons of the ‘northern saints’, Aidan, Cuthbert, Oswald, Columcille, Wilfred, . . . eight of them I think although I could not get close enough to see the names, nor could I get a postcard of that attractive reredos. Can anyone give me the 3 missing names?
The thought reminded me of the book, “Footprints of the Northern Saints”, by Basil Hume, and I was fortunate enough to get a copy of that book at the Lindisfarne Electronic Bookshop. Cardinal Hume was the anchor man in the Channel 4 series entitled “Return of the Saints”.
This was at the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre which also has 4 interactive exhibits the main one being the Lindisfarne Gospels in electronic interactive turning-pages form.
This was the eve of St. Francis of Assisi so there was morning healing service. In the evening there was to be Vespers of the Transitus. As the lady in charge of the United Reformed Church, the St Cuthbert's Centre said, “We are awash with prayer”.
In more ways than one Holy Island, Melrose and Nunraw are linked. Historically Aidan and Cuthbert stared their training in Melrose, centuries later to become a Cistercian monastery. The distances separating the three location is roughly the same thus forming a equilateral triangle.
The associations are many in this summary.
Born in 635, Cuthbert’s life as a shepherd in the hills around Melrose was uneventful until the age of 16. Bede in his Life And Miracles of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne describes an amazing vision that came to him while he was out with his sheep:
“On a sudden he saw a long stream of light break through the darkness of the night, and in the midst of it a compa
ny of the heavenly host descended to the earth, and having received among them a spirit of surpassing brightness, returned without delay to their heavenly home.”
Holy Island, is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England, which is connected to the mainland of Northumberland by a causeway and is cut off twice a day by tides — something well described by Sir Walter Scott:
For with the flow and ebb, its style
Varies from continent to isle;
Dry shood o'er sands, twice every day,
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandelled feet the trace.
EDIT Posrscipt 19 Jan 2008.
In the post of 4 Oct 2007 I asked, if anyone could give me the 3 missing names in the Reredos Panel of St. Mary the Virgin. Holy Island?
Happily, Sr. M.C., has been so good to supply the information and the picture. She writes,
"I noticed that you were asking if anyone could give you the names of the Saints depicted on the reredos in the church of Si Mary the Virgin, and I also noted that you were unable to get a postcard. Please find enclosed a copy of a photograph of the reredos, plus a diagram to identify the Saints thereon, and I hope this will be of help.
As I am under the patronage of Si Cuthbert and have made many visits to the island, and indeed go every year for a retreat, I could not let your plea for help go unanswered."
Thank you, Sister. for your help and for the photograph which I am pleased to add.
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