Aidan

ON ST. AIDAN, BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE,

IN ENGLAND,

In the year DCLI.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne in England (St.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The Saint's name in the calendars, and his ancient cult: his deeds described by the venerable Bede.

Although St. Aidan, the first bishop of Lindisfarne in England, enjoys a very ancient veneration, The Saint's memory not indeed in the most ancient calendars, yet his memory is not found among the more ancient martyrologists, namely Bede, Ado, Usuard, and others nearly contemporary with these. Various Usuardine codices, both manuscript and printed, contain the name of this Saint at the XXXI of August, but those announcements were afterwards added to Usuard's Martyrology, and are therefore of uncertain date. Receive from those additions a twofold eulogy: for the rest may be seen in our Sollier's Usuard on the aforesaid day. The Anchin codex has it thus: On the same day, of St. Aidan the bishop, whose soul St. Cuthbert saw borne into heaven by angels. But Greven published this: In England, of St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne

and confessor. He, as Bede testifies in book III, illustrious in life and miracles, took care to omit nothing of all those things which he had learned were to be done in the writings of the Evangelists or of the Apostles or of the Prophets, but to fulfill all according to his strength.

[2] The Florarium of the Saints, in manuscript among us, commends the Saint's memory on the same day in words of this kind: [yet he is celebrated in others sufficiently ancient; and his veneration is most ancient;] Likewise, of St. Aidan, bishop and confessor. He, a disciple of St. Columba the abbot, coming from Stochia , shone among the English in holiness and doctrine. He died in the year of salvation DCLI. There come in besides the more recent martyrologists, whom it is not necessary to enumerate, and the Roman Martyrology, in which the Saint is announced in these words: In England, of St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, whose soul, when St. Cuthbert the shepherd of sheep had seen it borne into heaven, he left his sheep and became a monk. Moreover, from the translation of his relics we gather that the Saint was held in veneration in the very century in which he died. For Bede, book 3 of the History, chapter 26, relates that part of the relics of St. Aidan was translated by St. Colman, and part left in the church of Lindisfarne. Receive his words: But Colman, going home, took with him part of the bones of the most reverend father Aidan; but part he left in the church over which he presided, and ordered to be laid up in its sacristy.* That withdrawal of Colman from England happened after the famous disputation about Easter, which was held in the year 664, as writers everywhere affirm.

[3] as is proved from the translations of his relics: Moreover those relics of St. Aidan which were left in the church of Lindisfarne seem afterwards to have been carried to Durham, whither the episcopal see itself was translated from the town of Lindisfarne, as we shall say. Certainly in the History of the translation of St. Cuthbert, likewise bishop of Lindisfarne, volume III of March, page 139, it is related that at Durham, together with the body of St. Cuthbert and other sacred bones, the relics of St. Aidan also were found, which happened in the year 1104, as is set forth there more fully. The same is narrated of the bones of St. Aidan in the History of Durham, published in the first place among the Ten Writers of England, page 67, where it is read thus: There were found also, with the body of that holy father (Cuthbert), the bones of St. Aidan, etc. In Capgrave, in the account of St. Patrick, folio 264, the relics of St. Aidan are said to have been carried also to Glastonbury by Abbot Ticca, who governed that church by the right of abbot in the year of the Lord seven hundred and fifty-four. And the Monasticon Anglicanum, enumerating the relics of the church of Glastonbury in volume 1, page 4, reckons among them the sacred bones of St. Aidan in these words: There rest the bones of St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, whose soul blessed Cuthbert saw carried into heaven. These things concerning his lawful veneration and his sacred relics being briefly set forth, I proceed to the notice of his Acts.

[4] Bede wrote the Saint's deeds, from whom others have drawn. The deeds of St. Aidan the venerable and holy Bede committed to the memory of posterity and consigned to writing, a writer indeed most worthy of all credit, and nearly contemporary with our Saint. Yet Bede did not write our Saint's Life separately, but inserted his chief deeds in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, according as each was connected with that History. From Bede the English writers of the Middle Ages drew what they recorded of St. Aidan in their writings. From the same is taken a twofold Life of St. Aidan: the one printed in Capgrave's New Legend of England, folio 4 and following; the other in manuscript, sent to us long ago by the Rev. Fr. Johann Gamans, who copied it in the monastery of Böddeken of the Canons Regular of the diocese of Paderborn, from a notable manuscript parchment Passional for the month of August, folio CXXVI, as he noted above. Each of these Lives is written throughout in Bede's own words: neither adds anything to Bede; nay, neither includes all that he recorded. Leaving these streamlets, then, we shall go to the fountain, and from Bede's own History, with aids added from elsewhere, we shall weave a historical Commentary on the life of St. Aidan.

\ Perhaps Scotia*.

§ II. The Saint's monastic life in the monastery of Iona; on what occasion he was consecrated bishop and sent into Northumbria; the erection of the bishopric of Lindisfarne and of the monastery.

St. Aidan was a monk in the island of Iona, Of what birth, or in what city or province, St. Aidan was given to the world, or what he did in boyhood, I find nowhere set forth. But that he led the monastic life in the famous monastery of Iona, and thence was drawn to the episcopate, St. Bede teaches, book 3 of the History, chapter 3, at the same time commending the said monastery in these words: Bishop Aidan was himself a monk, being sent from the island which is called Hy , whose monastery for no small time held the chief place among almost all the monasteries of the northern Scots and of all the Picts, and presided over the governing of their peoples. Which island indeed belongs to the jurisdiction of Britain, being divided from it by no great strait, but by the gift of the Picts, who inhabit those parts of Britain, was long ago handed over to the monks of the Scots, because it was by their preaching that they received the faith of Christ. That island, which Bede called Hy (as is read in the manuscript, on the testimony of Alford in the Ecclesiastical Annals of Britain* at the year 565, number 2, where he further proves that it should be so read) — Hy, I say, or Hu, is a small island of present-day Scotland lying to its west, sufficiently remote to the north from England and Ireland, distinguished of old by many names, but now everywhere called Iona, and commonly Columbkil.

[6] St. Columba received that island, and founded in it the monastery of Iona, various things are noted about it, as Bede testifies, chapter 4. Hence our Baert, in volume 2 of June, in the Preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Columba, set forth many things about the island itself and the monastery of Iona, from which I transfer a few here: The island of Iona, he says at page 180, lying next to Mull, which is one of the Ebudae or Hebrides, called Hii by the venerable Bede, by others Hya, Hu, Hoia, Ithe, I, Eo, etc., is now commonly named from its holy inhabitant and apostle Columba, Columbkil, that is, the Cell of Columba: because, namely, in it that same Saint built a cell or monastery, which became the most celebrated among all the monasteries of present-day Scotland, on account of the severity of its monastic discipline and the holiness of its monks. The venerable Bede adds the following, chapter 4: And that island is wont to have always as its ruler an abbot who is a priest, to whose jurisdiction both the whole province and even the bishops themselves must, by an unusual order, be subject, after the example of its first teacher (Columba), who was not a bishop, but a priest and a monk … This we hold as certain about him, that he left successors distinguished by great continence and divine love and regular discipline. To these he subjoins certain things about the manner of celebrating Easter, of which we shall treat afterwards, and teaches that Aidan was sent from the aforesaid monastery to preach the Gospel to the English.

[7] when St. Oswald, king of Northumbria, was asking for a preacher; The occasion of the mission was the piety of St. Oswald, king of Northumbria, of whom we have treated in volume 2 of August, from page 83. Nevertheless Aidan was not sent at once upon Oswald's request, but first some other man, whom some have called Corman, as Alford has it at the year 635, number 14. Hear Bede, book 3, chapter 3: That same Oswald, therefore, as soon as he received the kingdom, desiring that the whole nation over which he had begun to preside should be imbued with the grace of the Christian faith, of which he had already received the greatest proofs in overcoming the barbarians, sent to the elders of the Scots, among whom, while in exile, he himself with the soldiers who were with him had obtained the sacraments of baptism, asking that a bishop might be sent him, by whose teaching and ministry the nation of the English which he ruled might learn the gifts of the Lord's faith and receive its sacraments. Nor did he obtain what he asked any long time after: for he received Bishop Aidan, a man of the utmost gentleness and piety and moderation, having a zeal of God, though not fully according to knowledge. This last he says on account of the different rite of celebrating Easter, about which he adds some things to be set forth below.

[8] when some other man sent into Northumbria profited nothing, Aidan is chosen, The same author in chapter 5 has this concerning the other man sent before Aidan: And there were those who said that, when King Oswald had asked from the province of the Scots a bishop who might minister the word of faith to himself and his nation, there was first sent another man of a more austere spirit; who, when he had preached for some time to the nation of the English and had profited nothing, nor was willingly heard by the people, returned to his own country, and reported in the assembly of the elders that he had been able to profit nothing by teaching the nation to which he had been sent, because they were untamable men, and of a hard and barbarous mind. But they, as they report, began to hold a great discussion in council as to what should be done: desiring indeed that salvation should come to the nation which sought it, but grieving that the preacher whom they had sent had not been received. Then Aidan (for he too was present at the council) said to the priest of whom the matter was being treated: It seems to me, brother, that you were harder than is just toward untaught hearers, and did not, according to the apostolic discipline, first offer them the milk of a gentler teaching, until, being little by little nourished by the word of God, they might be able to take in the more perfect things and to fulfill the loftier precepts of God. Which being heard, the faces and eyes of all who sat there were turned to him, and they diligently weighed what he said, and decree that he is worthy of the episcopate, and that he ought to be sent to instruct the unbelieving and unlearned: who was proved to be imbued above all with the grace of discretion, which is the mother of virtues; and so, ordaining him, they sent him to preach. And he, when he had received an opportunity, appeared adorned afterwards with the other virtues also, as he had before been with the moderation of discretion.

[9] who is consecrated bishop in the year 634 or 635, Concerning the year in which St. Aidan was consecrated bishop and sent into Northumbria, writers do not altogether agree. Alford refers everything to the year 635, which likewise Edward Mayhew fixes in the Trophies of the Benedictine Order in England at the XXXI of August, or in his account of Aidan, page 1412. Baillet at the XXXI of August notes in the margin the year 636, which is contrary to the authority of Bede, as we shall presently see. Mabillon, in the Annals of his Order, volume 1, page 365, writes that Aidan was ordained bishop in the year 634. But to me it appears sufficiently certain that he was made bishop either in the year 634 or in 635, but uncertain which of these two. I set forth the matter in few words. All agree that the Saint died on the XXXI of August in the year 651. But Bede, book 3, chapter 17, has it thus: And he died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, on the day before the Kalends of September. If therefore he was ordained bishop toward the end of the year, that is, after the XXXI of August, that ordination happened in the year 634; but if he was consecrated before the aforesaid day, the consecration was made in the year 635.

Baillet, however, objects against the reason adduced I know not what conjecture, resting certainly on no authority. It seems, he says, that Bede numbers the years of St. Aidan's episcopate from the withdrawal of St. Paulinus, bishop of York. And that withdrawal, of which Bede treats in book 2, chapter 20, happened in the year 634 or the preceding; and from thence he thinks it follows that Aidan was first for three years bishop of York, and then for 14 years of Lindisfarne. But this conjecture lacks all foundation whatever, and will fall of itself from what is to be said, since nowhere is Aidan called bishop of York, but he at once placed his see in the island of Lindisfarne.

[10] Bede, book 3, chapter 3, speaks thus of the see erected: and he places his see in the island of Lindisfarne, When therefore the Bishop came to him, the king granted him a place for his episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne, where he himself asked it (which place indeed, as the tide comes in and goes out, is twice daily washed round by the waves of the sea like an island, and twice, the shore being laid bare again, is restored contiguous to the land); and, humbly and gladly hearkening to his admonitions in all things, he took care most diligently to build up and enlarge the Church of Christ in his kingdom. The writer of Westminster, book 3 On the Deeds of the Bishops of the English, page 275, writes thus of these matters: Of all those who were once set in bishoprics in Northumbria and looked up to the primacy of York, that one alone remained which was at Lindisfarne. Lindisfarne is a small island, which is now called by the provincials Halieland (now Holy-island, that is, the holy island), which the most holy Aidan, a seeker of silence and of holy poverty, chose as the see of his bishopric, despising that pomp of the concourse of York. His successors followed the man's slenderness of means and modesty: namely until, on account of the incursions of the Danes, to which the island of Lindisfarne was especially exposed, the bishopric was translated to Durham. Concerning the bishops of Lindisfarne and Durham the aforesaid writer of Westminster may be consulted. More also about the island and diocese of Lindisfarne in the account of St. Cuthbert, volume III of March, page 93.

[11] Moreover, even though Aidan was not bishop of York, although he was otherwise bishop of all Northumbria. he nevertheless undertook the cultivating of all Northumbria and its imbuing with the Christian faith, since the church of York had no bishop. Hear Simeon of Durham in the Epistle On the archbishops of York, published among the Ten Writers of English History, column 77: When Paulinus withdrew (in the year 633, as he premises), the church of York for thirty years had no bishop of its own, but the prelates of the church of Lindisfarne — Aidan, Finan, Colman, and Tuda — administered the pontificate of the province of the Northumbrians. But now, as soon as Aidan had received that church to govern, in order that he might attach to himself more fellow workers, he established a monastery, King Oswald approving and lending aid.

[12] Turgot narrates this in the History of Durham, book 1, He erects a monastery, the king helping, chapter 2, in these words: In the year, then, of our Lord's Incarnation DCXXXV, … the most pious king Oswald, in the second year of his reign, appointed for Aidan, when he came to him, an episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne, where the Bishop himself also, at the king's bidding, with his support and cooperation, established a dwelling for the monks who had come with him; the king and the Bishop providing this for them, that both the new faith might be strengthened by pontifical authority, and the observance of religion might, by the monastic institution, ever after receive increase: whence, as we read and have learned from the tradition of our elders, monks were wont to be chosen for the prelacy of that church, after the example indeed of the first bishop Aidan, who was both a monk and was wont to lead the monastic life with all his own. Which was observed from the year of our Lord's Incarnation DCXXXV to the year of the same Incarnation MLXXII.

[13] and leads the monastic life with his clergy Of these matters the venerable Bede, book 4 of the History, chapter 27, treats thus: For from ancient times there (in the island of Lindisfarne) both a bishop with his clergy and an abbot with his monks was wont to dwell, who nevertheless themselves also belonged in a familiar way to the bishop's care. Because indeed Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, coming thither with monks and himself a monk, established in it the monastic manner of life. And in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 16: Nor let anyone marvel that in that same island of Lindisfarne, small though it is, we have said there is place both for a bishop above and now for an abbot and monks: for in truth it is so. For one and the same dwelling of the servants of God holds both together, nay holds all as monks. For Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, was a monk, and was wont ever to lead the monastic life with all his own. Whence from him all the bishops of that place until this day so exercise the episcopal office that, an abbot governing the monastery whom they themselves have chosen with the counsel of the Brethren, all the priests, deacons, singers, readers, and the other ecclesiastical grades keep in all things the monastic Rule together with the bishop himself. Mabillon, volume 1 of the Annals, page 416, narrating the erection of this monastery, has this concerning the Rule: The monks of Lindisfarne at first followed the Rule of the monks of Iona; but after the aforesaid council (of Whitby, celebrated in the year 664) they received the Benedictine.

[14] and one very austere. How austere a manner of life St. Aidan kept with his own, gather from Simeon of Durham, who in the History of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, at the year 864, having related the entry of St. Ceolwulf the king into the monastery of Lindisfarne, subjoins: By the doing of this king, now made a monk, license was given to the monks of the church of Lindisfarne to drink wine or ale: before that time they were wont to drink nothing but milk or water, according to the ancient tradition of St. Aidan, the first bishop and monk of that same church, who with those who came with him from Scotland had received a dwelling there by the gift of King Oswald, and rejoiced to live with great strictness, serving the life to come. The Bishop himself went before all, as Turgot, already praised, testifies, chapter 2: Aidan, the first both prelate and monk of that church, showed himself to be followed by all who should succeed him, both bishops and monks, in the way of the Lord in which he had gone before. These things being set forth, we proceed to record more fully the virtues of the Saint and his apostolic works.

\ Faultily in the printed editions, Hydestinatus*.

\* That is, the sea's flow.

\* That is, Northumbria.

§ III. The virtues of the holy Bishop and his apostolic works: his predictions concerning kings Oswald and Oswin.

The Saint's excellent Bede, book 3, chapter 5, enumerates the Saint's chief virtues, at the same time hinting that they had sprung from the famous monastery of Iona, when he writes this: From this island, therefore, from the college of these monks, Aidan was sent in Christ, having received the degree of the episcopate, to instruct the province of the English, at which time Segenius, abbot and priest, presided over that same monastery. Whence, among other lessons of living, he left to the clergy a most wholesome example of abstinence or continence: and this above all commended his teaching to all, that he himself taught no otherwise than he lived with his own. For he took care to seek nothing of this world, to love nothing. All things which were given him by kings or by the rich of the world he rejoiced to bestow at once upon the poor whom he met. He was wont to travel through all places both of town and country, borne not on horseback but on foot, unless perchance some greater necessity compelled him. So that wherever, as he went, he saw any, whether rich or poor, at once turning aside to them, he would either invite them, if they were unbelievers, to receive the sacrament of the faith; or, if they were believers, would strengthen them in that faith, and stir them up both by words and by deeds to almsgiving and to the performance of good works. And so far did his life differ from the sloth of our time that all who walked with him, whether tonsured or lay, had to meditate: that is, either to give their labor to the reading of the Scriptures or to the learning of psalms. This was the daily work of him and of all the brethren who were with him, wherever they came.

[16] And if it happened by chance (which yet rarely happened) that he was invited to the king's banquet, virtues, he entered with one cleric or two; and when he had refreshed himself a little, he hastened away quickly to read with his own, or went out to pray. Formed by his examples, all religious men and women at that time made it their custom, throughout the whole year, except in the relaxation of the fifty days of Easter, to prolong the fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week until the ninth hour. Never for the sake of honor or of fear did he keep silence to the rich if they had transgressed in anything; but he corrected them with sharp rebuke. He never was wont to give any money to the powerful of the world, but only food, if he had received any into his hospitality: but rather those gifts of money which were bestowed upon him by the rich he either scattered (as we have said) to the uses of the poor, or spent for the redemption of those who had been unjustly sold. In short, many whom he had redeemed at a price he afterwards made his own disciples, and by teaching and instructing them advanced them even to the priestly grade.

[17] That the Christian faith was greatly extended in the kingdom of Northumbria, the faith is spread in Northumbria by his care, and with the king's cooperation, St. Aidan preaching and King Oswald piously cooperating, the words of Bede in chapter 3 suggest: Where, he says, it often happened, in a most beautiful spectacle, that while the bishop preached the Gospel, not knowing the language of the English perfectly, the king himself was the interpreter of the heavenly word to his own commanders and ministers: because indeed in the long time of his exile he had already fully learned the language of the Scots. From that time more and more began daily to come from the region of the Scots into Britain, and to preach the word of faith with great devotion to those provinces of the English over which King Oswald reigned, and, as many as were endowed with the priestly grade, to minister the grace of baptism to those who believed. Churches therefore were built in various places, the peoples flocked together rejoicing to hear the word of God, possessions and territories were given by the royal bounty for the founding of monasteries, the little ones of the English were imbued by Scottish teachers, together with their elders, with studies and with the observance of the regular discipline.

[18] who profits much from the holy Bishop's pious instruction: How much the king himself profited from the pious instruction of the holy Prelate, the same Bede teaches at chapter 6 in these words: By the teaching, therefore, of this most reverend Bishop, King Oswald, being instructed together with the nation of the English over which he presided, not only learned to hope for the kingdoms of heaven unknown to his forefathers, but also obtained kingdoms of earth more than any of his ancestors from that same one almighty God, who made heaven and earth. In short, he received under his dominion all the nations and provinces of Britain, which are divided into four languages (that is, of the Britons, the Picts, the Scots, and the English). And exalted to this summit of kingship, nevertheless — which is wonderful to say — he was ever humble, kind, and generous to the poor and to strangers.

[19] and whose hand he foretells shall not decay. Finally it is reported that at a certain time, when on the holy day of Easter he had sat down to dine with the aforesaid Bishop, and there had been set on the table before him a silver dish full of royal dainties,

and they were about to put forth their hands to bless the bread, there suddenly entered his servant, to whom the care of receiving the poor had been committed, and told the king that a very great multitude of poor, coming from every quarter, was sitting through the streets, asking some alms of the king. He at once ordered the dishes set before him to be carried to the poor, and the dish to be broken up and divided among them in small pieces. Seeing which, the Bishop, who sat beside him, delighted by such a deed of piety, took hold of his right hand and said: May this hand never grow old. And so it came to pass according to the desire of his blessing. For when, after he had been slain in battle, his hand with the arm was cut off from the rest of the body, it has happened that they remain uncorrupted to this day.

[20] The Saint gives to a poor man the horse he had received from King Oswin: When in the year 642 St. Oswald had been slain in battle, St. Oswin began to rule part of Northumbria, that is, the province of the Deirans, of whom we have treated in volume IV of August, page 57 and following. What our Saint did with that pious king, whose death also he foretold, Bede narrates thus, book 3, chapter 14: He had given an excellent horse to Bishop Aidan, upon which he, though accustomed to walk, might either cross the streams of rivers, or, if any other necessity pressed, accomplish his journey: and when after a short interval a certain poor man met him, asking alms, he leaped down and ordered the horse, just as it was royally caparisoned, to be given to the poor man: for he was very merciful and a cherisher of the poor, and as it were a father of the wretched.

[21] and rebukes the king, who took it ill, so that he humbly asks pardon: When this had been reported to the king, he said to the Bishop, as they were about to go in to dinner: Why did you wish, my lord bishop, to give to a poor man the royal horse, which it was fitting that you should have as your own? Have we not many cheaper horses, and other kinds of property, which would suffice for gifts to the poor, without your giving them that horse which I chose for you to possess especially? To whom the Bishop at once said: What do you say, O king? Is that son of a mare dearer to you than that son of God? And when these words had been said, they went in to dine, and the Bishop indeed sat down in his place. But the king had come from the hunt, and, standing at the fire, began to warm himself with his servants. And suddenly, while warming himself, remembering the word which the Bishop had spoken to him, he ungirded himself of his sword and gave it to a servant, and hastening forward fell down before the Bishop's feet, asking that he would be appeased toward him: For never, he said, henceforth will I speak anything of this, nor judge what or how much of our money you bestow upon the sons of God. Seeing which, the Bishop was greatly afraid, and rising at once he lifts him up, promising that he was much appeased toward him, provided that he would sit down to the feast and lay aside his sadness.

[22] And while the king, at the Bishop's bidding and request, resumed his cheerfulness, He foretells the death of St. Oswin. the Bishop on the contrary began to grow sad even to the shedding of tears. And when his priest asked him in his native tongue, which the king and his household did not know, why he wept: I know, he said, that the king will not live a long time: for never before have I seen a humble king: whence I perceive that he will speedily be snatched from this life. For this nation is not worthy to have such a ruler. And not long after, the Bishop's dire presages were fulfilled in the sad death of the king, of which we spoke above. But the bishop Aidan himself also, not more than twelve days after the slaying of the king whom he loved — that is, on the day before the Kalends of September — being taken from the world, received from the Lord the everlasting rewards of his labors. But of his death we shall treat more fully below.

§ IV. Certain miracles and the death of the Saint: his virtues, and his error in celebrating Easter.

He foretells a storm, and gives consecrated oil, That St. Aidan was renowned for the spirit of prophecy and the glory of miracles, Bede afterwards shows more fully, relating this in chapter 15: And what his merit was, the inward Judge taught also by the signs of miracles: of which let it suffice to set down three for memory's sake. A certain priest by the name of Utta, a man of much gravity and truth, and on that account honorable to all, even to the very princes of the world, when he was being sent into Kent to bring back a wife for King Oswy , namely Eanfled, daughter of King Edwin, who after her father's death had been carried thither — and he purposed indeed to go thither by a land journey, but to return by ship with the maiden — came to Bishop Aidan, beseeching him to entreat the Lord for himself and his companions, who were then about to set out on the journey. And he, blessing them and commending them to the Lord, gave them also consecrated oil: I know, he said, that when you shall have gone aboard the ship a storm and a contrary wind will come upon you: but do you remember to cast into the sea this oil which I give you, and at once, the winds ceasing, a calm of the sea shall attend you joyfully, and shall send you home by the journey you desire. All which things were fulfilled in order as the Bishop had foretold.*

[24] For indeed at first, while the waves of the deep raged, the sailors tried to hold the ship by casting anchors into the sea, and doing this profited nothing. And when, with the waves plunging in on every side and beginning to fill the ship, by which it is calmed: all saw that death threatened them and was even now at hand, at last the priest, remembering the Bishop's words, took the flask and cast some of the oil upon the sea, and at once, as had been foretold, it ceased from its raging. And so it came to pass that the Man of God through the spirit of prophecy foretold the storm that was to come, and through the power of the same spirit lulled it when it had arisen, though bodily absent. The order of which miracle no doubtful reporter, but a most trustworthy priest of our church, Cynimund by name, narrated to me, who declared that he had heard it from that very priest Utta, in whom and through whom it was fulfilled.

[25] [Being absent, he turns back upon the enemy by his prayers the flames cast upon the town.] Another prodigy he subjoins in chapter 16 in this manner: Another memorable miracle of the same Father many report who could know of it. For when in the time of his episcopate the hostile army of the Mercians, under the leadership of Penda, laying waste far and wide the regions of the Northumbrians with impious slaughter, came even to the royal town which is named from the appellation of Bebba, formerly queen; and when he could take it neither by arms nor by siege, he attempted to consume it with flames; and, breaking up the villages which he found in the neighborhood of the town, he brought thither a great heap of beams, of rafters, of wattled walls, and of other things. And with these he surrounded the town to a great height on that side which is contiguous to the land. And when he saw a favorable wind, he strove, fire being applied, to burn the town. At which time the most reverend bishop Aidan was staying in the island of Farne, which is nearly two miles distant from the town. For thither he was wont often to withdraw for the sake of secret prayer and silence. Indeed, to this day they are wont to show the place of his solitary seat in that island. And he, when with the raging winds he beheld balls of fire and smoke breathing out above the walls of the town, is reported to have lifted his eyes and hands to heaven and said with tears: See, Lord, how great evils Penda does. Which being said, at once the winds were changed from the town, and turned back the burning of the flames upon those who had kindled them, so that some being hurt, and all terrified, they ceased to assail further the town which they had learned was divinely aided.

[26] the Saint's pious death: Finally, in chapter 17, he relates the Saint's death, which he had already touched upon above, in these words: When the day of death compelled him to go forth from the body, the seventeen years of his episcopate being completed, he was in a royal village not far from the town of which we spoke before. For, having in it a church and a chamber, he was wont often to turn aside and stay there, and thence to go forth to preach round about, which he was accustomed to do in other royal villages also, since he had nothing of his own possession except his church and the little fields adjoining. They pitched, therefore, for him in his sickness a tent at the western side of the church, so that the tent itself clung to the wall of the church. Whence it came to pass that, leaning against a buttress which had been set on the outside of the church for its support, he breathed forth his last breath of life. And he died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, on the day before the Kalends of September. That the Saint died in the year 651, all agree; and Bede testifies to it in the Epitome at that same year 651.

[27] St. Cuthbert sees his soul carried to heaven: Into this place must be inserted what the aforesaid Bede narrated in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 4, in this manner: But when the grace of Christ, which is the guide of the life of the faithful, willed that his servant (Cuthbert) should take upon him the strength of a stricter purpose, and merit the glory of a loftier reward, it happened that he was keeping the flocks committed to him in the remote mountains. And when on a certain night, his companions being asleep, he himself, according to his custom, continued watching in prayer, he suddenly saw a light poured from heaven break the midst of the long night's darkness, in which choirs of the heavenly hosts came down to earth, and without delay, snatching away with them a soul of exceeding brightness, returned to the country above. Much moved by this vision was the youth beloved of God, to take upon him the grace of spiritual exercise and to earn among glorious men eternal life and happiness; and forthwith rendering praises and thanksgivings to God, and moreover stirring up his companions by brotherly exhortation to praise the Lord: Alas, wretched men that we are, he said, who, given to sleep and sloth, do not deserve to see the light of the ministers of Christ who ever keep watch! Behold, while I myself kept vigil and prayed for a short space of the night, I beheld such great works of God: the gate of heaven was opened, and there was led in, with an angelic escort, the spirit of a certain Saint, who now, while we dwell in the lowest darkness, beholds for ever in blessedness the glory of the mansion above and Christ its king. And indeed I judge that he whom I saw borne to the heavens in the splendor of so great a light, and with so many choirs of angels leading him, was either some holy bishop or some excellent man from the number of the faithful. Saying this, the man of the Lord Cuthbert kindled not a little the hearts of the shepherds to the reverence of divine praise; and when morning came he learned that Aidan, bishop of the church of Lindisfarne, a man assuredly of great virtue, had at that time in which he saw the vision been snatched from the body and gone to the heavenly kingdoms; and at once, commending to their owners the flocks which he was feeding, he resolved to seek a monastery.

[28] Let us return to Bede's History, who in the aforesaid chapter 17, after the above, continues thus: [his body buried in the cemetery of the monks: then translated to the church of St. Peter:] His body was soon thence translated to the island of the men of Lindisfarne, and buried in the cemetery of the brethren. But after some time had passed, when a greater basilica had been built there and dedicated in honor of the most blessed Prince of the Apostles, his bones were translated thither and laid at the right of the altar, with the veneration worthy of so great a Bishop. And there succeeded him in the bishopric

Sinan , he too being sent thither from Hy, the island and monastery of the Scots, and he remained no small time in the bishopric. Of St. Finan, St. Aidan's successor, our predecessors treated on the XVII of February, that is, in volume III of that month, where at page 22 it is related that that church of Lindisfarne was built by Finan. It seems, therefore, that the body of Aidan was brought into it by the same Finan, although the church was later dedicated to St. Peter by St. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, as is added in the same place. For Bede did not, I think, mean to suggest that the bringing in of St. Aidan's body was later than the dedication.

[29] After the foregoing Bede subjoins such a miracle as this: [the buttress of the church, upon which the dying Saint had leaned, unharmed by the fire.] And it happened after some years that Penda, king of the Mercians, coming with a hostile army into these parts, when he was destroying with sword and flame all that he could, that village too, in which the Bishop died, was consumed by the flames together with the aforesaid church. But in a wondrous manner that buttress alone, upon which he leaned when he died, could not be consumed, though encircled by the devouring fires. And this miracle being made known, the church was soon restored there, and this same buttress was set on the outside for the support of the wall, as it had been before. And again, after some time had passed, it came about through the fault of carelessness that that same village and the church likewise were consumed by fire; but not even then could the flame touch that same buttress: and although, by a great miracle indeed, it entered the very holes by which it was fastened to the building and destroyed them, yet it was by no means suffered to harm the buttress itself. Whence, when a third church had been built there, they did not, as before, set that buttress outside for the support of the house, but placed it within the church itself in memory of the miracle, where those who entered might bend the knee and beseech the heavenly mercy. And it is established that many from that time have obtained the grace of healing in that place; nay, more, that many, cutting chips from that very buttress and putting them into water, have gained for themselves and their own remedies for their sicknesses.

[30] Bede, while praising the Saint's virtues, Finally Bede adds certain things, lest in praising the person he should seem to praise the rite of the Scots of that time in celebrating Easter: I have written these things, he says, concerning the person and works of the aforesaid Man, by no means praising or choosing in him this, that he thought less than perfectly concerning the observance of Easter: nay, greatly detesting this, as I have most plainly proved in the book which I composed On the Times. But as a truthful historian, simply describing those things which were done concerning him or through him, and praising in his acts those things which are worthy of praise, and commending them to memory for the profit of readers — namely his zeal for peace and charity, for continence and humility, a mind that conquered anger and avarice, a despiser at once of pride and of vainglory; his diligence both in doing and in teaching the heavenly commandments, his assiduity in reading and in vigils, an authority worthy of a priest in rebuking the proud and the powerful, and likewise his clemency in consoling the weak and in refreshing or defending the poor. Who (to comprehend many things briefly), so far as we have learned from those who knew him, took care to omit nothing of all those things which he had learned were to be done in the writings of the Evangelists or of the Apostles or of the Prophets, but to fulfill all in works according to his strength. These things in the aforesaid Bishop I greatly embrace and love, since indeed I do not doubt that they were pleasing to God.

[31] [does not, however, approve the Scottish rite in celebrating Easter, which he followed:] But that he did not observe Easter at its proper time, either being ignorant of its canonical time, or overcome by the authority of his own nation so as not to follow what he knew, I neither approve nor praise. Yet in this I approve of him, that in the celebration of his Easter he held in his heart, venerated, and preached no other thing than we do: that is, the redemption of the human race through the passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven of the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Whence also he kept it, not, as some falsely suppose, on the fourteenth moon on whatever weekday with the Jews, but always on the Lord's day, from the fourteenth moon to the twentieth, on account, namely, of the faith of the Lord's resurrection, which the holy Church believed had taken place on the first day of the week, and, on account of the hope of our own resurrection, that this would truly come to pass on that same first day of the week, which is now called the Lord's day. The Church indeed disapproved of the rite of the Scots, yet tolerated it kindly, until they should be more rightly instructed. So formerly it had long tolerated the rite of the Quartodecimans, whose error was at last condemned in the Council of Nicaea. Hence Bede distinguishes St. Aidan and the other Scots of that time from the said heretics, who were called Tessarescaedecatitae or Quartodecimans; yet he observes that they departed from the common rite of the Church, and so reproves it that he at the same time excuses our Saint.

[32] Now the Scots differed from the Quartodecimans in this, that they always celebrated Easter on the Lord's day, [in what that rite differed from the rite of the Catholics, and how the Scots fell into that error.] whereas those celebrated it on the fourteenth moon, upon whatever day it fell. But from the Catholic rite the Scots differed in this, that they sometimes kept the Paschal feast on another Sunday. Of the cause, progress, and end of this Scottish error our Baert treated in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Columba, §2, that is, in volume 2 of July from page 190, where he also assigns others who have treated the same matter. For me, therefore, lest I do what has been done, it will suffice to observe a few things. The Scots followed, for investigating the time of Easter, a cycle of 84 years, as Bede testifies, book 2, chapter 2. But this cycle little by little ran ahead, which the Scots did not know, since they did not correct that cycle. Hence Bede says of the Scots, book 3, chapter 4: In the time indeed of the highest festival following doubtful cycles, inasmuch as, being placed far beyond the world, no one had brought them the synodal decrees of the Paschal observance. They thought no doubt that the cycle handed down to them by their first Apostles was good, and therefore clung to it altogether, being ignorant of a safer method of finding Easter. For which cause Bede thus excuses them at chapter 4: For they knew (as Christians) that the Lord's Resurrection, which took place on the first day of the week, was always to be celebrated on the first day of the week: but, as barbarians and country folk, they had by no means learned when that same first day of the week, which is now named the Lord's day, came round. But because they had not ceased to burn with the grace of charity, they deserved also to receive perfectly the knowledge of this matter. See more of these things in the aforesaid Baert, and in the writers assigned by him.

\ Oswino.*

\ Perhaps acclinis*.

\* That is, a support or column.

\ Read Finan*.