St. Aidan of Lindisfarne

Aidan brought the Gospel to Northumbria with a gentleness strong enough to change a kingdom. When King Oswald asked the monks of Iona to send a bishop, the first missionary returned discouraged and blamed the people as unteachable. Aidan answered that they should first be given the milk of gentler doctrine before being asked to bear stronger food. The monks recognized in that answer the prudence the mission required and sent Aidan instead.

Established at Lindisfarne, Aidan traveled on foot, spent his free hours in Scripture and psalmody, and gave to the poor what kings and nobles pressed upon him. He preached, visited the sick, trained clergy, redeemed captives, and educated children for the service of God. Bede records how villages gathered to hear the word of life and how Lindisfarne became a nursery of saints. Aidan could rebuke the proud, but he did not despise those he taught. By joining poverty, patience, discipline, and fatherly mercy, he became one of the great builders of Christian Northumbria.