AIDAN (Aedán, Aidanus), Saint. - Irish monk, founder and first abbot-bishop of Lindisfarne. We know nothing of his youth. We find him as a monk at Iona in 635, when the pious king of Northumbria, Oswald, eager to restore Christianity in his kingdom, requested missionaries from that monastery where he had stayed as an exile. After a first unsuccessful attempt at evangelization carried out by the monk Corman, A. was chosen. Consecrated bishop, he was sent with some companions in the work to Northumbria in the same year 635.

Trained in the school of the great missionary of his people, St. Columba, he imitated him by choosing, in order to found his monastery, a barren little island, Lindisfarne, which, situated opposite the royal residence of Bamborough, became the Iona of the Anglo-Saxons, the religious and cultural center of northern England. From here he directed all the Celtic missionary activity in the Northumbrian kingdom, founding churches, monasteries and schools. For this he had the constant help of the king, who, besides being a friend, became his interpreter, until A. became proficient in the Anglo-Saxon language. Despite his strong attachment to Celtic customs, he loved the teaching of Roman chant.

After the killing of Oswald (642) and the division of the kingdom, A. continued his apostolate throughout all Northumbria, favored by King Oswin. He died on 31 August 651, eleven days after the killing of his august friend, and was buried at Lindisfarne. Immediately his tomb became an object of veneration. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 31 August, attributing to him the merit of the religious vocation of St. Cuthbert (cf. Vita s. Cuthbert, 4).

Tanner (Bibl. Britann. Hibern., London 1748, p. 15) attributes to him some Commentarii in S. Scripturam and Homiliae et Cantiones, but with little foundation. Of A. there remain to us only a few sayings religiously preserved by Bede.

A. can be considered the apostle of England properly so called, while St. Augustine, sent by St. Gregory the Great, was so especially for the Saxon region of Kent. Bede devotes various chapters of his Historia ecclesiastica to him (III, 3. 5. 14-17. 25-26; IV, 27). Although he reproaches him for his Celtic particularism as regards the tonsure and the celebration of Easter - for which he says he was « habentem zelum Dei, quamvis non plene secundum scientiam » (ibid., III, 3: PL 95, 119) - nevertheless he cannot help praising his apostolic zeal, his charity toward the poor and the austerity of his life, joined to the utmost gentleness. Cf. Alcuin, De Sanctis Eccl. Eborac. 692.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Augusti, VI, Antwerp 1743, pp. 688-94; C. (Forbes of Tyron) count of Montalembert, I monaci d'Occidente, Italian trans. by A. Carraresi, II, Siena 1895, I, XIII, ch. 1, pp. 413-33; C. Deedes, s. v. in Dict. of Christ. Biogr., I, London 1877, pp. 65-67; A. C. Fryer, Aidan, the Apostle of the North, London 1884; J. B. Lightfoot, Leaders in the Northern Church, London 1890; J. Dowden, Celtic Church of Scotland, London 1894; F. Cabrol, L'Angleterre chrétienne avant les Normands, Paris 1909, pp. 102-105.

Igino Cecchetti

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Aidan (Aedán, Aidanus), Saint

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