At the invitation of King Osvaldo, St. Aidan, a monk and later bishop of Iona, founded a monastery there in 655, which soon became the religious center of Northumbria, from which missionaries set out to establish churches in the eastern regions of Anglia. From Lindisfarne came St. Ceadda of Lichfield and his brother Cedd (Caelin Cynibill), as well as Sts. Edilhum, Egbert, Ethelwin, King Oswy, and the bishops Cellach, Diuma, Jaruman, and Trumbert.
Frequently sacked by the Danes (794, 866, 870, 875), it became a Benedictine priory of Durham in 1093. Successors of Aidan were the Scotsman 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 retired to Iona where he died in 675. Following him were Uda (664), Eata (678), Cuthbert (685), Edbert (688), Eadfrith (688), Ethelwold (724), Cynewulf (740), Ithild (780), Egbert (803), Heathored (821), Eegred (830), Eanbert (845), and Eardulf (854).
The manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Cuthbert Gospel, or the Durham Book, is preserved in the British Museum (Cotton M.S. Nero D. IV). It was written around 700 at Lindisfarne by Eadfrith in honor of St. Cuthbert. It consists of 258 leaves containing the text of the four Gospels in uncial script according to the version of St. Jerome, in double columns with interlinear Old English glosses. Each Gospel is preceded by a representation of its Evangelist, and every page is decorated. The table of feast days with special lessons reveals that it is a copy of Neapolitan liturgical books. Indeed, in 668, Theodore of Tarsus and Abbot Adrian had come to Lindisfarne from the monastery on the island of Nisida (between Pozzuoli and Naples); Theodore consecrated the wooden church at Lindisfarne in honor of St. Peter. The miniatures that adorn the text, however, are the work of local schools (G. Baldwin Brown, The arts in early England, London 1921, pp. 329-396).