LINDISFARNE. – Islet in the North Sea, today called Holy Island (Santa Island).
At the invitation of King Oswald, St. Aidano, a monk and later bishop of Jona, founded a monastery there around 655, which soon became the religious centre of Northumbria, from which the founders of churches in the eastern regions of Anglia set out. From L. came St. Ceadda of Lichfield and his brother Cedd (Caelin Cynibill), as well as SS. Edilhum, Egberto, Ethelvino, King Oswy, and the bishops Cellach, Diuma, Jaruman, and Trumhere.
Plundered several times by the Danes (794, 866, 870, 875), it became a Benedictine priory of Durham in 1093. Aidano’s successors were the Scots Finano (651), who built a wooden church «more Scottorum» dedicated to St. Peter (Beda, Hist. eccl., III, 10-15); Colman (661), who, after the Synod of Whitby, withdrew to Jona, where he died around 675. He was followed by Tuda (664), Eata (678), Cutberto (685), Edberto (688), Eadfrido (698), Ethelwold (724), Cinewulfo (740), Igbaldo (780), Egberto (803), Heathored (821), Ecgred (830), Eanbert (845), and Eardulfo (854).
The codex known as the Evangelary of L. or of Cutberto, or the Durham Book, is preserved in the British Museum (Cotton Mx. Nero d. IV). It was written around 700 at L. by Esfrid in honour of St. Cutberto. It consists of 258 leaves containing the uncial text of the four Gospels in St. Jerome’s version, in double columns with interlinear glosses in Saxon. Each Gospel is preceded by a representation of the Evangelist, and each page is decorated. The table of feasts with special readings reveals that it is a copy of Neapolitan liturgical books. In fact, in 668 Theodore of Tarsus and Adrian, 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 honour of St. Peter. The miniatures adorning the text, however, are the product of the local schools (G. Baldwin Brown, The arts in early England, London 1921, pp. 329-396).