Aidan of Lindisfarne
Irish monk and missionary
600 CE to 651 CE
Aidan of Lindisfarne (died 31 August 651), known as the Apostle of Northumbria, is an Irish monk and missionary credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria.
He founds a monastic cathedral on the island of Lindisfarne, serves as its first bishop, and travesl ceaselessly throughout the countryside, spreading the gospel to both the Anglo-Saxon nobility and to the socially disenfranchised (including children and enslaved people).
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The Atlantic Lands
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King Oswald, owing to his historical connection to Iona's monastic community, had requested that missionaries be sent from that monastery instead of the Roman-sponsored monasteries of Southern England.
They had at first sent him a bishop named Cormán, but he returned in abject failure to Iona and reported that the Northumbrians were too stubborn to be converted.
Aidan of Lindisfarne, an Irish missionary, had criticized Cormán's methods and is soon sent in 635 as his replacement.
Anglo-Saxon paganism in the years prior to Aidan's mission, was argely displacing by Christianity, which had been propagated throughout Britain (but not Ireland) by the Roman Empire.
Bastions of Christian thought continue to thrive, though it seems a foregone conclusion that the region is returning to its indigenous religion.
Aidan establishes a bishopric on the holy island of Lindisfarne and works successfully to reestablish Christianity in Northumbria.