Aidan – The Man Who Brought Christianity to England
Aidan – The Man Who Brought Christianity to England
August 31st is the feast of St Aidan, who brought Christianity to northern England. He is a strong contender for the title of the first English bishop. Not that honours meant a great deal to this austere but captivating character.
In 635 he came to Northumbria at the invitation of the local ruler, Oswald. Oswald had spent several years of his childhood on Iona, and when he succeeded to the throne of his northern kingdom he was shrewd enough to realise that the Christian faith would be an ideal unifying force to pacify rival tribes of warlords.
Oswald’s invitation was not immediately successful. The first missionary from Iona returned in despair, claiming that the barbarity of the Northumbrians made them unconvertible. But as Aidan listened, he felt the unmistakable call of God to try again. “Perhaps you were too harsh on them,” he found himself suggesting to the travel-stained missionary. Shortly afterwards, Aidan found himself at the head of a party of brothers heading for Northumbria. He was never to see his beloved Iona again.
The monks made the long journey to Northumbria on foot, singing psalms as they went. Their need to ward off the powers of evil with prayer was genuine, for these were dangerous times to travel through remote country unarmed. They arrived safely at Oswald’s castle in Bamburgh, where he offered them lavish hospitality and assumed that they would found their community there. However, the brothers realised that to live under the king’ s protection would make it difficult to avoid the world’s temptations and establish a rapport with the local people. They saw the tidal island of Lindisfarne on the horizon and chose it as their base. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Aidan was much loved as a teacher and evangelist; though stern in his own self-discipline, he was prepared to travel to the most inaccessible villages, where he cared for the local people with compassion and gentleness. In time his influence grew and noble people joined the stream of visitors to Lindisfarne. After Oswald’s death in 642, his brother Oswin succeeded him as king. Oswin was concerned about Aidan’s habit of walking everywhere. The saint was ageing rapidly, his body weakened by years of harsh fasting and exposure to the elements. Oswin wondered what would happen to him one day on the road, and also he felt that such a lowly means of travel was not appropriate for a bishop. So he gave Aidan one of his finest horses, complete with a beautifully worked saddle and bridle.
Aidan did not feel able to risk offending the king by spurning his generosity, but he rode out of the palace with a heavy heart. He knew that people would relate to him differently now that he had the trappings of affluence, and that it would be dangerous to stop and rest with such valuable belongings beside him. The king had intended to give him comfort, but his gesture had had the opposite effect. Aidan had learnt that possessions, and the need to protect them, make it more difficult to follow God with an undivided heart. The story goes that he gave the horse, complete with saddle, to the first beggar he met outside the palace gates.
A more pragmatic Christian might have reasoned that keeping on the right side of Oswin would lead to opportunities that were too valuable to risk. Indeed, the king was angry when he heard what Aidan had done. “That horse was fit for a king, not for some vagabond,” he protested. “I could have found you an old nag if you wanted to give it away.” Aidan’s reply was simply, “What do you think, O King? Is the son of a mare worth more in your eyes than that son of God?”
There was an awkward silence; then the King removed his sword, knelt at Aidan’s feet and asked his forgiveness. When he returned to the banqueting table, it was with a beaming smile. Sadly, he too was to perish in battle shortly afterwards; these were violent times. Yet Oswin, whose culture demanded that he should appear all-powerful in the eyes of his followers, had been publicly humbled by the integrity of a simple monk who had challenged his values.
What would it be like if contemporary leaders were equally open to God’s influence, and if there were more Christian leaders of Aidan’s strength of character? Today, we read that Governments are eager to work alongside churches in welfare initiatives, and that the cash-strapped Church of England is considering the unthinkable indignity of asking its bishops to sacrifice their chauffeur-driven cars. Will such stories stand the test of time? Over a thousand years after his death, a statue of Aidan stands in the churchyard of St Mary’s on Lindisfarne, visited by pilgrims the world over.
The rector of that church is David Adam, who has brought Aidan to public attention through his excellent biography, “Flame in my Heart”, and his well-known books of Celtic prayers. It seems that, for once, obedience to God has brought a rich and lasting harvest.