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Sunst on Holy Island
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The Irish mission to Northumbria |
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Oswald, Iona, and the coming of the Irish
Aethelfrith died at the hands of Edwin, a prince whose father he had killed and whose kingdom of Deira (approximately Yorkishire) he had seized some years earlier. In time, the kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira came to be welded together to form the nucleus of the kingdom of Northumbria, which stretched from the Humber to the Forth. While Aethelfrith remained a pagan, Edwin married a Christian bride from Kent and eventually accepted Christianity at the hands of a Roman missionary named Paulinus. However, when Edwin was overthrown by the Britons in 633 the nascent church collapsed, and Paulinus fled back to Kent.
Meanwhile after Edwin had killed their father, Aethelfrith's sons fled into exile: to the Picts in eastern Scotland, and the Irish ("Scoti" in Latin) in Argyll. There they adopted the religion of their Irish hosts, and were baptized on Iona. So when Oswald, one of Aethelfrith's sons, returned to Northumbria to 
Cross on Holy Island
© Courtesy of Ian Britton, freefoto.com |
try to win back his father's kingdom, he fought as a Christian (634). Today the site is marked by the little church of St Oswald in Lee just north of the Roman Wall, on an escarpment east of Chesters.
After his victory, one of Oswald's first acts was to turn to the monastery of Iona for a bishop to preach to his people. The Irish mission to Northumbria was thus a direct response to Oswald's invitation. After a false start with rather too strict a missionary, Iona sent a monk called Aidan. Presumably he came with a group of monks to help him. As soon as Aidan arrived he established a monastery on Lindisfarne, or Holy Island as it later became known. Holy Island is a tidal island, which meant that it was within reach of the royal stronghold of Bamburgh, while at the same time being removed from it.
Statue of St Cuthbert on Lindisfarne |
This illustrates the way in which Aidan worked. In many ways he was dependent on the support of the king: he would go out on preaching tours, staying in royal centres. In the early stages, before he had mastered English, King Oswald would even act as his interpreter. At the same time, however, Aidan was careful not to identify himself just with the king and his nobles. He insisted on travelling on foot rather than horseback so that he could meet and talk with ordinary people as he walked, and when the king gave him a fine horse, Aidan gave it away to the first beggar that he met - much to the king's exasperation!
Words: Dr Clare Stancliffe
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