Lindisfarne, the Holy Island

St. Cutherbert's Island, off the coast of the Holy Island

Made holy by two of the greatest celtic saints, Aidan and Cuthbert, the Holy Island Lindisfarne has been a site of Christian pilgrimage since the late 600s.

Lindisfarne's Norman priory stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery founded by St Aidan in A.D 635, on land granted by Oswald, King and Saint of Northumbria. Aidan is believed to have chosen the island site both because of its isolation and because of its proximity to the Northumbrian capital at Bamburgh.

Aidan, the first Bishop of Lindisfarne, was a Scots-Celtic monk from the isle of Iona. With King Oswald as interpreter, he travelled widely throughout Northumbria and began the conversion of the pagan Northumbrians to Chrisatianity. That cannot have been an easy task. The Northumbrians were the descendants of a heathen race of people who were in many ways no more civilised than the Scandinavian Vikings, who invaded Britain centuries later.

In 651 A.D., according to legend, Cuthbert, living in the hills somewhere near the River Tweed, saw a vision of St Aidan's death. The vision convinced Cuthbert that he should take up the life of a monk and at the age of sixteen, he entered the Northumbrian monastery of Melrose in Tweeddale (now in the southern borders of Scotland).

In 654 Cuthbert came to Lindisfarne, where his reputed gift of healing and legendary ability to work miracles, achieved far reaching fame for the island. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham in 684 A.D but exchanged the see for Lindisfarne, to become the fifth successor to Bishop Aidan. When Cuthbert died in 687 A.D, he was burried in accordance with his wishes on the island of Lindisfarne, but eleven years after his death, his body was found to be in an incorrupt state by the astonished monks of the island. The monks were now convinced that Cuthbert was a saint and pilgrims continued to flock to Lindisfarne in numbers as great as during Cuthbert's lifetime.

Lindisfarne was the site of the first Viking raid to the British Isles. Fearing the Vikings, the monks took Cuthbert's body and fled to the mainland, looking for a suitable burial place. After a storied journey, lasting more than 100 years, Cutherbert body was interred in Durham. The great cathedral there grew out of Cuthbert's cult and was a major pilgrimage destination until the Reformation.

Please take the time to visit Dr. Deborah Vess' site on Celtic Monasticism: History and Spirituality . It is a direct outgrowth of previous Celtic Pilgrimages with Esther de Waal, Marcus Losack and Therese Elias, OSB. It provides a wealth of information about Celtic Spirituality - as well as virtual tours of the sites we will visit.

Also, see the Links and Readings pages for more information about all of the saints and sites and ideas we will encounter on our sacred journey.

Find your roots. Find yourself.