LINDISFARNE. - A small island in the North Sea, today called Holy Island.

At the invitation of King Oswald, St. Aidan, a monk and later bishop of Iona, founded a monastery there around 655, which very soon became the religious center of Northumbria, from which went forth the founders of churches in the eastern regions of Anglia. From L. came St. Chad of Lichfield and his brother Cedd (Caelin Cynibill) and Sts. Edilhum, Egbert, Ethelwin, King Oswy, and the bishops Cellach, Diuma, Jaruman and Trumhere.

Sacked several times by the Danes (794, 866, 870, 875), it was a Benedictine priory of Durham in 1093. Aidan's successors were the Scots Finan (651), who built a wooden church «more Scottorum» dedicated to St. Peter (Bede, Hist. eccl., III, 10-15); Colman (661), who after the Synod of Whitby withdrew to Iona, where he died around 675. He was followed by Tuda (664), Eata (678), Cuthbert (685), Edbert (688), Eadfrith (698), Ethelwold (724), Cinewulf (740), Higbald (780), Egbert (803), Heathored (821), Ecgred (830), Eanbert (845), Eardulf (854).

The codex known under the names of the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Cuthbert Gospels, or the Book of Durham, is preserved in the British Museum (Cotton Mx. Nero d. IV). It was written around 700 at L. by Eadfrith in honor of St. Cuthbert. It consists of 258 folios containing the text in uncial of the four Gospels in St. Jerome's version, in double columns with interlinear gloss in Saxon. Each Gospel is preceded by a representation of the Evangelist, and every page is decorated. The table of feasts with special lessons betrays that it is a copy of Neapolitan liturgical books. In fact, in 668 Theodore of Tarsus and Hadrian, abbot of the monastery on the island of Nisida (between Pozzuoli and Naples), had come to L.; Theodore consecrated at L. the wooden church in honor of St. Peter. The miniatures that adorn the text are, on the other hand, the product of local schools (G. Baldwin Brown, The arts in early England, London 1921, pp. 329-396).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: C. Edmons, s. v. in Cath. Enc., IX, pp. 268-70; H. Leclercq, s. v. in DACL, IX, 1, coll. 1186-92; A. Graham, L. or Holy Island. Its Cathedral, Priory and Castle (635-1920), London 1920; E. Millar, The L. Gospels, ibid. 1923.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec7_lindisfarne, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Lindisfarne}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1368}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lindisfarne} }

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