From Bede's History III.12 (McClure and Collins, p. 129)

"It is related, for example, that every often he [King Oswald] would continue in prayer from matins to daybreak; and because of his frequent habit of prayer and thanksgiving, he was always accustomed, whenever he sat, to place his hands on his knees with the palms turned upwards. It is also a tradition which has become proverbial, that he died with a prayer on his lips. When he was beset by the weapons of his enemies and saw that he was about to perish he prayed for the souls of his army. So the proverb runs, 'May God have mercy on their souls, as Oswald said when he fell to the earth'"

This passage has attracted the most attention for his palms up posture. I've read here and there some odd talk about it reflecting pre-Christain postures. Nonsense... look around your local church and then look at ancient murals and art and you will see palms up postures throughout.

What has attracted my attention is the claim that he prayed continually from matins to daybreak. This is one sleep deprived king! Did he have insomnia? Matins is supposed to be the midnight office and daybreak is lauds. Obviously, matins can't be really midnight. In reality various monasteries and churches set matins at various times of the night. It is likely that each monastic system had a schedule set for daily prayer, and it was practiced by members of the house(s) where ever they were. It seems likely that Oswald followed the schedule from Lindisfarne, led by a personal priest. This also suggests that the hours of the office were done somewhere within Bamburgh's enclosure so that it was easily accessible to Oswald.

It is one of the mysteries of Oswald's reign that his personal priest is not mentioned. We know that his brother Oswiu had personal priests -- Utta, later Abbot of Gateshead, and Eadhead, later Bishop of Lindsey-- and his son Oethelwald had Caelin, brother of bishops Cedd and Chad, as his personal priest. All of these priests were from the Lindisfarne family, and as the founder of Lindisfarne it is almost certain that Oswald would have had an Irish priest by his side. There wouldn't have been any English priests trained until at the very earliest late in Oswald's reign. Given that Bede is promoting the close relationship between Oswald and Bishop Aidan I suppose its not surprising that his personal priest, who really couldn't be Aidan, isn't mentioned.

One of the things this calls to mind is that first of all, Oswald was surely, remarkably pious. After an evening in the hall with his court, getting up before dawn for prayer is impressive. It may also be the only time during the day when a king could quietly think. Once the rest of the court awakes, the day's business will begin and by evening his hall will be full of his retainers. It also occurs to me that this formal position, with palms turned up, indicates that Oswald was a rather impressive, kingly figure otherwise these odd details would not have been remembered.

This also brings up Oswald's understanding of Latin. How many kings would go daily to hear the office if they couldn't understand it. Granted, he may have just wanted to be present when what he considered to be sacred rites were preformed and to pray silently to himself. Still it all suggests quite a lot of formation on Oswald's behalf done by Iona before he returned and afterwards fostered by the monks of Lindisfarne.

Pre-Vatican II and through out the medieval period, the divine hours were:

1. Matins: night office usually prayed around midnight. Also called nocturns or a vigil.
2. Lauds: dawn.
3. Prime: first hour of prayer at about 6 am.
4. Terce: third hour of the day, about 9 am.
5. Sext: sixth hour prayer, about noon.
6. Nones: ninth hour prayer, about 3 pm.
7. Vespers: early evening prayer, about 6 pm or so.
8. Compline: upon retiring usually about 9 pm.

This organization was introduced to the western church by John Cassian (d. 435) and popularized by Benedict of Nursia. In Ireland, it appears that John Cassian had a more direct influence on monastic development long before the Benedictine rule came there. Bede describes Bishop Wilfrid and his Abbot Benedict Biscop being instrumental in introducing the Benedictine rule to England in the mid-seventh century. In a contemporary elegy, St Columba of Iona (d. 597) was said to have been a student of Cassian and Basil.

He ran the course that runs past hatred to right action. The teacher wove the word. By his wisdom he made glosses clear. He fixed the Psalms, he made the books of Law known, those books Cassian loved. He won battles with gluttony. The books of Solomon, he followed them. Seasons and calculations he set in motion. He separated the elements according to figures among the books of Law. He read mysteries and distributed Scriptures among the schools, and he put together harmony concerning the course of the moon, the course which it ran with the rayed sun, and the course of the sea. He could number the stars in heaven, the one who could tell all the rest which we have heard from Colum Cille.

Section V Elegy for Colum Cille

Dallan Forgaill (fl. 597), Clancy p. 104 (Gaelic)

This does not mean that Columba actually knew Cassian but that he had studied his writings. Fixing the psalms is establishing the order that the psalms are said in the monastic office. The psalms have always been the primary text of hourly prayer. Cassian was the vital link between east and west. He was a good friend of Patriarch John Chrysostom and transmitted the prayer routine he learned from the desert fathers in Egypt to the West. He established his monastic system at St Victor in Marseilles. His memory was harmed by his attempt to mediate, or find a third way, between Augustine of Hippo and the Pelagians. This led to his being labeled a semi-pelagian after his death. Irish adherence to Cassian's ways may be the root of many of the false claims that they were Pelagian.

Dallan Forgaill is a Gaelic secular poet, contemporary with Columba. Often a befriender of secular poets, Columba soon became their patron saint. This long elegy has ten sections. This elegy is one of the oldest surviving pieces of Gaelic (Old Irish) poetry. The language is so archaic that later copies of it are glossed so that later medieval Gaelic speakers could understand it.

The Book of Common Prayer recognizes four hours for prayer: morning prayer (a combination of matins and lauds), mid-day prayer, evening prayer (vespers) and compline.

~~~

Thomas Owen Clancy, ed The Triumph Tree: Scotland's Earliest Poetry AD 550-1350. Canongate, 1998.

"Of one Lugne, surnamed Tudida, a Pilot, who lived on the Rechrean island (either Rathlin or Lambay), and whom, as being deformed, his wife hated.

ANOTHER time, when the saint was living on the Rechrean island, a certain man of humble birth came to him and complained of his wife, who, as he said, so hated him, that she would on no account allow him to come near her for marriage rights. The saint on hearing this, sent for the wife, and, so far as he could, began to reprove her on that account, saying: "Why, O woman, dost thou endeavour to withdraw thy flesh from thyself, while the Lord says, 'They shall be two in one flesh'? Wherefore the flesh of thy husband is thy flesh." She answered and said, "Whatever thou shalt require of me I am ready to do, however hard it may be, with this single exception, that thou dost not urge me in any way to sleep in one bed with Lugne. I do not refuse to perform every duty at home, or, if thou dost.command me, even to pass over the seas, or to live in some monastery for women." The saint then said, "What thou dost propose cannot be lawfully done, for thou art bound by the law of the husband as long as thy husband liveth, for it would be impious to separate those whom God has lawfully joined together." Immediately after these words he added: "This day let us three, namely, the husband and his wife and myself, join in prayer to the Lord and in fasting." But the woman replied: "I know it is not impossible for thee to obtain from God, when thou askest them, those things that seem to us either difficult, or even impossible." It is unnecessary to say more. The husband and wife agreed to fast with the saint that day, and the following night the saint spent sleepless in prayer for them. Next day he thus addressed the wife in presence of her husband, and said to her: "O woman, art thou still ready to-day, as thou saidst yesterday, to go away to a convent of women?" "I know now," she answered, "that thy prayer to God for me hath been heard; for that man whom I hated yesterday, I love today; for my heart hath been changed last night in some unknown way--from hatred to love." Why need we linger over it? From that day to the hour of death, the soul of the wife was firmly cemented in affection to her husband, so that she no longer refused those mutual matrimonial rights which she was formerly unwilling to allow."

This episode seems to be aimed at Northumbria because when Adomnan wrote in c. 700-704, the current and previous king of Northumbria had allowed their wives to leave their marriages and enter convents. Adomnan's good friend and pupil King Aldfrith of Norhtumbria had allowed his wife Cuthburgh (sister of King Ine of Wessex and kinswoman of Abbot Aldhelm of Malmesbury) to leave their marriage and enter a convent. The previous Northumbrian king, Ecgfrith, had also dissolved his marriage to Aethelthryth after 12 years of marriage.

If we go back 12 years from her vows in 672, Aethelthryth would have been married in c. 660 by Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne who died in 661. Just as importantly though, she would have been living under bishops from Lindisfarne until 669, first Bishop Colman and then Bishop Chad. Neither of them are likely to have been sympathetic to her desire to leave her marriage. It seems likely that dissolving the marriage wasn't possible while her father-in-law King Oswiu lived. We might even wonder if Ecgfrith would have wanted his father or the wider kingdom to know of his marriage difficulties until he was securely on the throne. Either way for 9 out of the 12 years of Aethelthryth's marriage separation from Ecgfrith would have been impossible. By 672 Aethelthryth recognized the right confluence of events: Ecgfrith was securely on the throne, and Wilfrid was securely set at York and, unlike the Irish trained bishops, could be talked into indulging her piety.

We don't really know enough about the marraige of Aldfrith and Cuthburgh to say much. We know that they had separated during their lifetimes and we have plenty of evidence to back this up. She was already in Barking Abbey when Aldhelm wrote his works On Virginity and mention her in the preface. This might suggest that like his brother, Aldfrith separated from his first wife. This might explain how Aldfrith's oldest son was only 8 years old when he died after 19 years on the throne.

Returning to Adomnan, it is interesting that the saint who is most directly associated with protecting women was not only be the author of the Columban story above but also of a canon law that takes this sentiment one step further. Among the Canons of Adomnan (not to be confused with Cain Adomnan), the 16th canon is that a man whose wife is a 'harlot' and leaves him for another man (or two or three), still can't divorce her and take another wife. It makes some reference to the questions of Romans turning on a legal point over witnesses. Recall that Adomnan was a lawyer for whom a question of witnesses (and the quality thereof) are vital. Adomnan's views on women are more complex that simply protecting them from violence. The stress he places on women as wives and mothers may be a reflection of his growing devotion to the Virgin Mary.

On the canons of Adomnan, see Medieval Handbooks on Penance, p. 133.

St Willibrord is the patron saint of ecumenical relationships between Anglicans and Old Catholics, manifest in the Willibrord Society, for good reason. An Englishman raised at Ripon in Deira, matured in Ireland, and Apostle to Frisia (Low Countries/ Netherlands) in his maturity. Today he is the patron saint of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, where his main monastery, Echternach, is located.

Our knowledge of Willibrord's mission is limited. The only writings to have survived from his own hand are one or two entries in a liturgical calendar. Bede wrote about his exact contemporary in his History; Willibrord was still alive when Bede died. The Life of Wilfrid is the only source to claim that Willibrord had been raised at Wilfrid's monastery of Ripon, and the Life tries to claim that Willibrord is continuing a mission started by Wilfrid. Alcuin wrote a hagiographical account of Willibrord in verse and prose. I will come back to Alcuin's account on another day.

Willibrord spent about 40 years on his Frisian mission, but he remembered home on a regular basis. There are two ways to trace his contacts with England and Ireland: trace the insular manuscripts at Willibrord's monastery at Echternach and by examining the insular figures in a liturgical calendar from his mission. Tracing manuscripts is quite a chore, fraught with highly technical arguments (that make my head just hurt), so I'll look at the calendar here.

The calendar was written in about 702 from an Irish influenced exemplar, near the time that Echternach was founded, and then glossed over about a 50 year period. We know that Willibrord was at least one of the glossers from the language of a notation on his consecration.

The feast days for people from Britain and Ireland in the primary hand make quite a collection:

January 30: Abbot Wilgisl (Willibrord's father)
February 1: Brigit the Virgin
February 9: Aeuda the priest (mission member?)
February 17: Wilfrid the priest (mission member?)
February 19: Swithred the priest (mission member?)
March 12: Saint Gregory in Rome
March 17: Saint Patrick the Bishop in Scotia
March 20: Saint Cuthbert the Bishop
April 29: Oethelwald the Monk
June 9: Saint Columba
August 5: King Oswald
October 4: Martyrdom of Saint Hewald
October 14: Bishop Paulinus in Kent

Four are intimately tied to the mission; three members who all died in February and then Willibrord's father. The Hewalds (2) were English missionaries martyred in Germany. Althougth they were not with Willibrord's mission, they would have been of interest to them.

Willibrord's time in Ireland is also represented. Three main Irish saints -- Brigit, Patrick, and Columba-- are present, but note that there are no minor or local Irish saints. Nor are any Englishmen known to be in Ireland listed. Willibrord's father Wilgils is the only insular figure (excepting fellow Frisian missionaries) that is now otherwise known, so we would not necessarily expect local Irish commemorations. Excluding those associated with his mission, the Irish represent one third (3/9) of insular figures in the original hand. The inclusion of Columba is in stark contrast to the opinions of Columba and Iona expressed by Bishop Wilfrid in both Stephan's Life of Wilfrid and Bede's History.

The English saints are odd. Cuthbert and Oethelwald were very newly translated when the calendar was written, so their appearance is most unusual. Knowledge of their translations and Cuthbert's growing cult probably came from a priest of Willibrord's who visited Lindisfarne before 705. He would have also brought news of Oethelwald's recent death and commemoration inside the church at Lindisfarne. According to Bede, Oethelwald had spent many years as a priest at Ripon, so Willibrord or fellow missionaries may have had a personal connection to him. We know that Willibrord had a personal devotion to St. Oswald and carried a relic from his martyrdom with him to Ireland and Frisia. Then we are left with Gregory the Great and Paulinus of York, co-Apostles to Deira. We know from Whitby's Life of Gregory the Great and Bede's History that Northumbrians in particular saw Gregory the Great as their Apostle. This sentiment is likely to have been greater in Deira where Paulinus mission had been focused. Note the Deiran influence here and equally importantly who is missing. Neither Aidan of Lindisfarne nor Augustine of Canterbury are listed in the original hand. This is a very Deiran-centric calendar.

The glosses over the next few decades add a few more Englishmen, but the Deiran influence continues.

Glosses:

Saint Servantius.Sueafgild (mission members?), King Ecgfrith, Cynefrith (mission member?), King Edwin, King Oswine, Bishop Swithberht (mission member), Chad, Aidan, Archbishop Theodore, Abbess Eadburg, and Abbess Hild.

All of the kings listed in the calendar had been king of Deira and more importantly were relatives of Edwin, greatest king of Deira. Not all of Edwin's kin are listed, though the deaths of several more must have been known in Deira. It should be noted that St-King Oswald is the only one metioned in the original draft. Just to summarize, here are the Christian kings of Deira, bold kings are listed in Willibrord's calendar.

• Edwin
• Oswald - nephew of Edwin (sister's son)
• Osric - first cousin of Edwin (apostatized)
• Oswine - son of Osric, cousin of Edwin
• Oethelwald - son of Oswald, great nephew of Edwin
• Alhfrith son of Oswiu (not related to Deiran royal family at all, patron of Bishop Wilfrid)
• Oswiu - (husband of Eanflaed daughter of Edwin, not otherwise related to Deirans)
• Aelfwine - son of Eanflaed daughter of Edwin
• Ecgfrith - son of Eanflaed daughter of Edwin
• Aldfrith - bastard of Oswiu
• Osred - son of Aldfrith
• (new Bernician lineages take over with no known links to Deira)

Paulinus and Chad are also the only Bishops of York listed in the original and glosses. Eventually Aidan, Chad and Hild were glossed into the calendar, but note that Chad and Hild were Aidan's disciples who had been active in Deira. Its unclear who exactly Abbess Eadburgh is, but a couple southern English abbesses were active in supplying missionaries in Frisia and Germany, so she may be one of them. While maintaining a Deiran focus, the glosses do turn the calendar more toward the Lindisfarne allied churchmen who cooperated with Archbishop Theodore (who was usually at odds with Bishop Wilfrid).

Also missing from the calendar are both of Willibrord's supposed mentors, Wilfrid of York (d. 709) and Egbert of Iona (d. 729). Even though Wilfrid had visited with Willibrord in c. 704, contact was not kept between them and Wilfrid was not added to this calendar. Needless to say, Willibrord did not remain in contact with either of these supposed mentors. There really is no evidence that either of them sent supplies to Frisia.

Willibrord's calendar served as a constant reminder of home as insular dates came up during the calendar year. The calendar reveals a strong Deiran bias, not only of Willibrord, but also of his team members. The glosses are added in a variety of hands. The Calendar is the collective memory of his community remembering home in prayer.

Tomb of St. Willibrord at Echternach

"O Lord our God, you call whom you will and send them where you choose: We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for the service of false gods and idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Episcopal Church, Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2003, p. 431.

"My prayer for us who have gathered here is that...we will be such a threat to the present order that we will be found worth killing, if only Columba's white martyrdom, but, if it be so, let it be the red martyrdom," Duncan said, contrasting the "martyrdom" of asceticism with that of death. Episcopal Life, 28 Sept 2007

So what he is referring to is a Irish homily that provides for three types of martyrdom, not that any necessarily fit the current situation.

From the Cambrai homily, 7-8th century (contemporary with Bede):

"There is not...the holy Apostle has said from his great love; everyone's sickness was his own, everyone's offense was his own, everyone's weakness was his own. In these wise words of the wise man we see that fellow-suffering is a kind of Cross. Now there are three kinds of martyrdom that are counted as a cross to us, namely, white, blue and red martyrdom.

[It is white martyrdom for a man when he separates from everything that he loves for God, although he does not endure fasting and labor thereby. (1)]

The blue martyrdom is when through fasting and hard work they control their desires or struggle in penance and repentance.

The red martyrdom is when they endure a cross or destruction for Christ's sake, as happened to the Apostles when they were persecuted the wicked and taught the law of God.

These three kinds of martyrdom take place in those people who repent well [blue], who control their desires [white], and who shed their blood [red] in fasting and labor for Christ's sake." (Celtic Spirituality, ed. by O. Davis, T. O'Loughlin, Paulist Press, 1999, p. 370)

A few comments on these forms of martyrdom. First they are not a major theme in Irish literature. They occur in only two sermons and are not mentioned in hagiography. In other words, no hagiographer (ie. religious biographer) claimed that his favorite saint was a white or blue martyr. Specifically, Adomnan never calls Columba a white martyr or any other type of martyr.

Stress on the three types of martyrdom and identification of Columba as one is a completely modern phenomenon, as far as I know. If there is an early example of white martyrdom in the early literature, the best I can think of is Bede's description of Egbert of Iona, who takes on a rigorous ascetic regime and voluntary exile from home in thanksgiving for surviving the plague of 664. Note that this was undertaken as a personal thanksgiving, he was not excommunicated or forced from his homeland and Bede doesn't call him a white martyr. We really have no idea why Columba left Ireland. Adomnan briefly mentions a temporary excommunication that I have previously discussed (here and here), but Adomnan does not link this to Columba's relocation to Scotland. Adomnan does claim that Columba did return to Ireland several times after his establishment of Iona and he was in communion with other Irish churches.

I should also point out that the Celts, both Welsh and Irish, had a fondness for groupings in threes. Their triads as memory aids are well known. (We can even see some triads embedded in Bede's History.) So, it doesn't seem unusual at all that they would develop the concept of three types of martyrdom, another type of triad.

After reading these descriptions I will leave it to you to decide if you think the bishops meeting in Pittsburgh last week meet these criteria.

~

Translation notes:

(1) Section in brackets is an amended translation by Proinseas Ni Chathain (Celtica 1990, 21:417) that makes sense. If white martyrdom's included fasting and labor, then it wouldn't be sufficiently different than a blue martyrdom.

You may have heard of green martyrdoms... the Irish word glas is best translate as blue, as both Davis (1999) and NiChathain (1990) translate it. I suspect the urge to call this type of martyrdom 'green' is related to the reputed eco-friendliness of the Celtic saints. Yet, when I visited Lindisfarne a few years ago, it was the blue of the sea and sky that nearly overwhelmed me.

(discussing the origins of Muirchu, first hagiographer of Patrick) "However all these arguments -- including those which see the vita [of Patrick] as somehow connected with a reforming programme of romanitas being spearheaded by Adomnan and those at Birr in favour of Roman dating of Easter -- are built only on a slim base of solid evidence." (p 89)

Whoa... what romanitas agenda of Adomnan at Birr? O'Loughlin refers the reader back to his chapter on Adomnan, where a Roman agenda at the Synod of Birr is not discussed at all. If anything, Adomnan was defending Iona's position in not accepting Rome yet.

Adomnan's two intact surviving works, the Life of Columba and On the Holy Places (De Locis Sanctus), are notable for the absence of any reference to Rome. The Life of Columba would have been the perfect place to address Columba's practices and Iona's stance, but he chose not to do so. Probably a good thing that he didn't because if he had addressed such a political hot potato, it may have put survival of the Life in jeopardy with one faction or another.

Adomnan certainly had an agenda at Birr, that of passing his Law of the Innocents, and protecting Iona's interests. What text we have on this law makes no mention of Roman or any Roman agenda at Birr. So what does Bede actually say (HE V.15)...

"The priest Adomnan, abbot of the monks on the island of Iona, was sent by his people on a mission to Aldfrith, king of the Angles, and stayed for some time in his kingdom to see the canonical rites of the church. ...He altered his opinion so greatly that he readily preferred the customs which he saw and heard in the English churches to those of himself and his followers... On his return home he sought to bring his own people in Iona and those who were in houses subject to his monastery, into the way of the truth...but he was unable to do so. So he sailed to Ireland and preached to the people there, modestly explaining to them the true date of Easter. He corrected their traditional error and restored nearly all who where not under the dominion of Iona to catholic unity...After he celebrated Easter in Ireland canonically, he returned to this own island and earnestly put before his own monastery the catholic observance of the date of Easter, but he was unable to achieve his end; and it happened that before the year was over he had departed from the world. Thus by the interposition of divine grace, it came about that a man who greatly loved unity and peace was called to life eternal so that he was not compelled, when Eastertime returned, to have a graver controversy with those who would not follow him in the truth." (McClure and Collins, ed, Colgrave trans. p. 262-263)

Ok, so first of all we know the date of Adomnan's death -- 23 September 704. He had spent the previous Easter in Ireland, so that is spring 704 and he would have been in Northumbria in about 702-703. This is six years after the Synod of Birr in 697. Further we know that Adomnan made three trips to Northumbria during the reign of his friend and former pupil Aldfrith (r. 685-704); the previous two trips were in the late 680s. During one of those trips, he gives Aldfrith a copy of De Locis Sanctus, and he has it copied and distributed in Northumbria.

As O'Loughlin notes, Bede discusses Adomnan's work De Locis Sanctus, and that Bede's account of how Arculf, Adomnan's informant, arrives at Iona is odd to say the least. According to Bede, the only way that Arculf arrived in Iona was to be blown off course in route home to Gaul. As O'Loughlin notes, that is one heck of storm that would blow Arculf off course so badly that Iona was their first safe port! Perhaps Bede doesn't want to admit that Arculf intentionally went to visit Iona, even though they were outside of Roman. Given that Arculf is reputed to have visited as far as Jerusalem and Constantinople, it looks like he is visiting the 'ends of the earth' -- south to Jerusalem, east to Constantinople, north to Iona and the west was his home. We really should suspect that Arculf would have also visited Rome. Its just too odd that a Gaulish bishop would visit Jerusalem and Constantinople, but not go to Rome, even if only en route home from Constantinople. In fact, Adomnan says nothing about Arculf's travels after Constantinople, in other words, his route toward home or Iona. I think it is significant that De Locis Sanctus does not mention Rome.

As O'Loughlin discusses, Adomnan's work is not a mere travelogue. He discusses many scriptural geography issues that Augustine of Hippo specifically pointed out needed to be addressed. His work begins with an extremely detailed description of Jerusalem and Palestine, then moves to Alexandria, Egypt, and on to Constantinople. He ends with a description of the island of Volcano near Sicily, which following Gregory the Great he identifies as the gateway to hell. Adomnan discusses a world map important to scriptural study and pointedly omits any reference to Rome and highlights the East.

The Cain Adomnan enacted at Birr in 697, preserved in a text written long after Ireland and Iona accepted Rome, has only one reference to Rome -- among a list of saints called upon are the apostles, evangelists and Stephen, Ambrose, Gregory of Rome, Martin, 'old Paul', and interestingly George. The treatise as we have it now references Gregory the Great (para. 32) but makes no other reference to Rome. Interesting that Gregory the Great and George both figure in to Adomnan De Locis Scantus and Cain Adomnan; George being specifically discussed while using Gregory's identification of Volcano as being the gateway to hell in De Locis Sanctus.

We have to recall that Adomnan's supposed conversion to Rome while in Northumbria only a year before his death was used as evidence in Northumbria's efforts to convert the Picts (Eastern Scotland) to Rome (HE V.21). It is a measure of the weight of Adomnan's opinion that his reputed conversion was so important in Pictland. I find it very odd that Adomnan would be converting other churches to Rome, while his own monastery of Iona, over which he was abbot, refused to accept Rome. It is possible that Adomnan finally accepted that coming to Rome was inevitable and necessary for Iona's future, but the monks may have seen this as weakness in their old and probably ill abbot. They could have easily chalked up his conversion to fatigue after his rigorous trips in his last two years. It is a remarkable testament to Adomnan's will power that he began these journeys over the mountains and the sea at about age 75, finally making it home to Iona to die at age 77. However, as yet, I see no evidence that Adomnan had a Roman agenda at the Synod of Birr in 697.

I understand there will be a new book (or two) out on Adomnan in the next year, so I'll be looking forward to new developments on Adomnan's Roman conversion.

All insular peoples, including the Irish, were always thirsty for knowledge from the continent. Recall that one of the works of Adomnan of Iona was De Locis Sanctus (On the Holy Places) where he describes the Holy Land and part of the Eastern Empire (including probably the first description of St. George in Britain). Bede’s abbreviation of it, his 'On the Holy Places', was one of his earliest works, and he discusses it in his History. Unfortunately, most people only know it through Bede’s summaries. Adomnan’s Life of Columba uses Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, Constantanius’ Life of Germanus of Auxerre, the Life of Anthony and the Life of Martin, sometimes explicitly and sometimes as role models. Famously for Oengus the Culdee, Germanus of Auxerre, the anti-Pelagian champion, was the ‘Sun of our elders, the tutor of Patrick of Armagh’. Adomnan draws a direct parallel between Germanus and Columba (book II chapter 35 ).

Celtic Christianity to me, in my present context, is filtered through the lens of the local theology of the Anglo-Celtic church of Northumbria as it crystallized around the life and legacy of St. Cuthbert and the works of Bede. Even in the time of Bede, Columba, Oswald, and Aidan were constructs – part history, part theology, and part legend. I call this local theology Anglo-Celtic or Hiberno-Roman because it is a blending of the legacy of Iona with the rules of Rome. In my usage, Anglo-Celtic most specifically refers to the first and second generation after the synod of Whitby. In the broad scope of history, the Anglo-Celtic period was short, roughly from 634/664-793, but its legacy lasts until today. We have to look no further than the greatest Anglican treasures (ex. Lindisfarne Gospels), artistic motifs (Celtic cross), and theological impact (Bede’s works) to see its legacy.

I absolutely believe that Bede was Anglo-Celtic. He was surely a devout Roman and Benedictine, but we need only look at his ecclesiastical heroes in his History to see where his heart lies.

• Aidan, his model bishop, who brings Irish theology and its monastic practice to England.
• Cuthbert who makes Aidan’s lifestyle acceptable to Rome.
• Boisil who teaches Cuthbert and prods Egbert (via a vision to an associate) to begin his mission to Iona. (perhaps Bede’s personal role model)
• Egbert who converts Iona to Rome. With this accomplishment Bede brings his History to a climatic conclusion. It is worth noting that Egbert provides evidence that Bede was in contact, directly or indirectly, with Iona within his last 5-6 years. In his Greater Chronicle of 725, Bede records Egbert’s mission without calling him a saint, as he does in the summary of his History written in 731. Bede seems to know of Egbert’s recent translation (ie like canonization) in the intervening years.

To be sure, Bede also had Roman heroes: Gregory the Great and Theodore being the most significant; this blending of Roman and Irish was a hallmark of Northumbrian theology. Bede’s world was full of such blended influence. The Rule at Wearmouth-Jarrow seems to have been primarily Benedictine, but not completely. In his History of the Abbots, Bede tells us that Benedict Biscop compiled their Rule from the 17 monasteries he had lived in and that Biscop spent his formative years at Lérins in southern Gaul. He had also been abbot of the monastery of St. Peter and St Paul in Canterbury (later renamed St. Augustine’s) for two years, before founding St Peters at Wearmouth and St Pauls at Jarrow.

Northumbria had its own local theology, specific to a time and place. I can study it, I can appreciate it, I can inform my own theology by it, but I can’t be a practitioner of it, my knowledge is too incomplete and always will be. We are fortunate to have a wealth of Northumbrian material. In addition to the works of Bede, we have anonymous Life of Cuthbert (Lindisfarne), Anon Life of Gregory the Great (Whitby), Anon Life of Coelfrith (Jarrow), Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid (Romanist Ripon), Miracles of Nynia (Whithorn), Calendar of Willibrord, and potentially the works of Alcuin. If we want to study and appreciate Northumbrian local theology and history, we must begin with these primary sources. Most of the Northumbrian works are available in translation; many of them are online at least in part. The Age of Bede contains translations of a wide variety of Northumbrian material for a reasonable price. There are also reasonably priced editions of Bede’s History and Adomnan’s Life of Columba.

[Note: If you are not familiar with the geography of early medieval Northumbria, it is essentially co-extent with the territory of the modern Anglican Archbishop of York.]

I wonder how many people outside of England really know very much about the Synod of Whitby? Not many in my part of the US... so I'll give a little summary of the synod and its back story here.

England was primarily converted by two missions coming from opposite directions. Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to England in 596 and his mission field was limited to Kent, Essex, and East Anglia. They temporarily extended their mission to York but this fell apart when King Edwin of Deira (Yorkshire) was slain by a British Christian, King Cadwallon of Gwynedd (North Wales). From then on, Canterbury's missionary field remained south of the River Thames and its estuary. After Edwin's death, Oswald left his exile in Scotland (Dalriada) and took the northern kingdom, Northumbria, back from Cadwallon at the battle of Denisesburna (the morning after events at Heavenfield). Oswald then invited Iona, where he had been baptized, to send a missionary to his kingdom. Iona, like many of the Irish (and Scots and Welsh) did not recognize the authority of Rome. Aidan arrived by about 635 and Oswald gave him Lindisfarne (Holy Isle) for a monastery and missionary base. From Lindisfarne, Irish missionaries fanned out over England. When the synod of Whitby was called in 664, the church of Iona via Lindisfarne controlled all of England north of the Thames and had expanded to at least three bishops -- Lindisfarne (for Northumbria), Litchfield (for Mercia), and one for Essex.

The cause of the Synod of Whitby was three fold:

1. Iona and Rome used different Easter calculations, so they occasionally celebrated Easter on different days.
2. Tonsure and baptismal rites differed.
3. Iona refused to recognize the authority of Rome.

Ironically, it is known as the Easter controversy because all parties claimed that the calculation of Easter was the most important point. How the Irish came by their calendar is unclear but they at least believed that it was based on the teachings of John the Evangelist and the Eastern Fathers.

The great controversy came to a head at the Synod of Whitby where King Oswiu would decide for his kingdom and his hegemony who would lead his church, Iona or Rome. It is not accurate to say that it was only a Northumbrian affair because the Bishop of Lindisfarne functioned as a Archbishop for Mercia, Lindsey, Middle Anglia and Essex as well. Abbess Hild was the hostess (ie. administrator) of the synod and Irish trained Bishop Cedd of Essex acted as interpreter.

The accounts we have of the synod, from Bede's History and Life of Bishop Wilfrid, both present a slanted version of the outcome that basically came down to who was a greater saint, St. Columba of Iona or St. Peter of Rome. Supposedly, King Oswiu was too afraid to side against St. Peter because he held the keys of heaven. Ultimately, the simplicity and poverty of the Irish lifestyle did not compare well with all that Rome could offer. Like so many Germanic nobles before them, Oswiu (and Wilfrid) saw Rome as the road to civilization, glory and wealth. By deciding for Rome, King Oswiu united all of the English church under the Archbishop of Canterbury.

What followed the synod ripped society apart probably in ways that no one anticipated, including King Oswiu. Bishop Colman refused to accept Oswiu's decision. Colman, all of the Irish clergy, and 30 English men they trained left England for Iona and ultimately Ireland. (For this early in the conversion period, this was a large percentage of the total clergy in northern England.) This tore the heart and soul out of the northern church. At Colman's suggestion, the Irishman Tuda was chosen as the next Archbishop of Lindisfarne and Eata was chosen as the next Abbot of Lindisfarne. King Alhfrith pushed his father to allow Abbot Wilfrid, the Roman spokesman at the synod, to be ordained Bishop of York. Wilfrid was sent to Gaul, because they claimed there were no worthy bishops in England to ordain him. The bishops of England had been ordained by the Irish and were therefore contaminated. The Romanists went so far as to insist that all Irish ordained clergy be intensely re-examined and re-ordained, at their discretion. Imagine being a bishop and being told that you have to be re-ordained as a deacon, then a priest and maybe a bishop -- that happened to St. Chad, Bishop of Litchfield (brother of Bishop Cedd). Former Episcopal priests still go through this process today when they join the Roman Catholic Church. However, the actions of the Synod of Whitby didn't give individual priests and monks a choice. If they were to remain in their homeland, they had to convert.

As the effects of the synod rolled across England, so did another equally grim crisis. The plague had reached Kent early in the year. It killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King of Kent first (probably before the synod) and then rolled north where it killed Bishop Cedd as he visited his monastery of Lastingham in Yorkshire and then claimed Tuda, the new Irish Bishop of Lindisfarne. The loss of Tuda and Cedd meant that there were no sympathetic bishops left in England to protect the lifestyle of the Irish trained clergy. At some point within the next two years, King Alhfrith rebelled against his father and is not heard from again. Wilfrid conveniently came home after the plague and his patron Alhfrith were both gone. The conflict continued for the rest of this generation and Wilfrid was a problematic prelate for the next 40 years.

I hope this has given you a taste of what the Synod of Whitby was like, but I don't think I've really captured the passion. Keep in mind that most churchmen of the time lived in monasteries, and this profoundly changed the Rule of every monastery. Men and women who lived very ordered lives where forced to change and remembered this period as a very brutal time. It also submitted abbots to the authority of bishops, where under the Irish the abbots and monasteries had been independent of bishops.

Changing to a new calendar and accepting the authority of bishops may not seem very earth-shaking. There were other changes in various rites and changes in monastic rules that were stiffly resisted as well. Consider some of the tension now about adopting the Revised Common Lectionary when you think of the calendar adjustments (my diocese still doesn't use it), or arguments over a new prayer book. Part of our controversy today is over increasing authority of the primates (and accepting the decisions of synods and current primates!). The change this brought in 7th century England would be like forcing today's Presbyterians to accept bishops again (or turning the Archbishop of Canterbury into a Pope).

It is instructive for today that most of the harm after Whitby occurred because the Irish clergy and so many Irish trained Englishmen abandoned their churches and returned to Iona when they lost their case. To be fair, Colman left Tuda and Cedd as sympathetic bishops, but the plague carried them away. The protection they left behind was too thin to protect the lifestyle of those who would not abandon their homeland. The rest of Ireland (outside of Iona's network) accepted Rome with much less hassle and pain because their basic lifestyle remained intact. Meanwhile, Iona had to be stripped of all its missions and the loss of most of its prestige within Ireland before they were eventually converted to Rome in c. 716 by Egbert, a missionary English bishop. By then its network was in tatters, they had been reduced to a network barely larger than when St. Columba died in 597.

So much changes and yet so much remains the same. Today again, bishops who refuse to accept the will of their national synod/convention are tearing the heart out of the church. They could draw some lessons from Iona's fate.

This has made me wonder about the coincidence of Adomnan getting ratification of his 'Law of the Innocents' at the Synod of Birr in 697 and Brendan of Birr giving counsel not to confirm Columba's excommunication (Life of Columba III: 3).

The gist of this passage is as follows: Columba is coming to a synod "convoked against him". Brendan of Birr sees Columba coming and rises to warmly greet him. The others rebuke Brendan for welcoming an excommunicate.

"If you" replied Brendan, 'had seen what the Lord deigned to disclose to me today, concerning this chosen one whom you refuse to honour, you would never have excommunicated him. For in no sense does God excommunicate him in accordance with your wrong judgement, but rather glorifies him more and more." (Sharpe trans, p. 207)

They challenge why he believes this, he explains a heavenly vision, and "the elders dropped their charge, for they dared not continue with their excommunication."

This is the only time Adomnan mentions Columba's reputed excommunication. It is mentioned in no previous sources. Such an important event should have been recorded somewhere, the annals or elsewhere in Iona's literature, or Bede's history, or some other saints' life. Bede and Iona's opponents in Northumbria surely would have seized on an excommunication of Columba as further fodder for their case against Iona in the long and drawn out dispute over Iona's recognition of Rome's primacy (and the Easter question) that was settled for England at Whitby. That Columba's reputed excommunication comes up no where among the writings of Iona or her opponents is very strange indeed.

Could it be that the excommunication in question was really of the family of Iona in c.697? Adomnan's triumph occurred on the 100th anniversary of Columba's death; this is not likely to be a coincidence. Did Adomnan, along with allies at Birr, call the great counsel to respond to Iona's critics? Could the 'Law of the Innocents' be a statement of where Iona's heart was, to prove to the rest of Ireland that they were not heretics? Given Columba's reputation as a patron saint of war, the Law of the Innocents' protection of women, children and clerics from war could be seen as an extension of Columba's martial protective sphere. St. Columba mediates victory for his friends and protects the innocent. Perhaps Adomnan's triumph at Birr forestalled Iona's excommuncation from the other churches of Ireland.

[Note that the text of Cain Adomnan (Law/Cannon of Adomnan) as we have it today is not the original of the law. The surviving law treatise calls on Adomnan, now considered a saint in his own right, to enforce the law. Given that Cain Adomnan was proclaimed on the 100th anniversary of Columba's death makes it very likely that the origianl law by the Abbot of Iona, considered co-abbot with St. Columba, referred to Columba.]

How can Adomnan address Iona's current peril in the Life of Columba? He does it by the same way he has addressed other current issues, by working a meeting of Columba with the symbolic representation of Birr (Brendan of Birr) into the Life. If we see this episode as representing anything in the Adomnan's present, then the impending confirmation of Columba's excommunication must refer to Iona's perilous position realitve to the other churches that had already accepted Rome's authority. Brendan of Birr saves Columba, just as the synod of Birr may have temporarily spared Iona. Later in the Life, Columba returns the favor and sees of vision of Brendan of Birr entering heaven. You honor my saint, I'll honor yours...

The multiple late stories of Columba's excommunication then are all likely fictional to give a back story to Adomnan's remarkable oversight on the cause of Columba's reputed excommunication and exile. Given that Columba's most important relic in the later middle ages is a psalter in a book shrine that was carried before the armies of Scotland for centuries, it is not surprising that at least one story of the excommunication involved Columba's copying of this psalter, and a more elaborate version includes a battle over the book. It wasn't Columba's excommunication that made the book special, it was the book that created the copyright story to explain the reputed excommunication. Columba's unusual association as a patron saint of war has given rise to elaborate modern scenerios for his excommunication as well. I find it more likely that Adomnan is once again working out his current problems in the text of the Life of Columba, and that Columba had never been really excommunicated.

1. Oswald, King and Martyr, who raised the cross at Heavenfield during the summer of 634 is, of course, the primary saint of this site.
2. Columba of Iona: Columba died before Oswald was born. According to Adomnan, Oswald had a dream of St. Columba on a night before the battle of Denisesburna (ie at Heavenfield). There should be no doubt that as a convert of Iona who looked to Iona for his missionaries, Oswald would have considered St. Columba to be the primary local saint of his kingdom. Oswald's vision is one of the (relatively) few posthumous miracles/visions in Adomnan's Life of Columba.
3. Audrey of Ely (Æthelthryth), Queen of Northumbria was married to Oswald's nephew from c. 660 to 672, and queen of Northumbria only from 670-672. We know that Hexham (with Heavenfield) was given to her as a wedding gift and from Bede, that she maintained her own separate household run by staff from East Anglia. It is therefore possible that Audrey lived at Hexham for the first ten years of her marriage. Her refusal to consummate their marriage only became a problem when Ecgfrith became king and his need for a heir became dire. Audrey may have only come to live with Ecgfrith when she was required to take on the responsibility of being queen. When she was allowed to leave her marriage to enter the church, she gave the estate of Hexham (with Heavenfield) to Bishop Wilfrid to found a monastery.
4. Wilfrid, Bishop of York: When Wilfrid won the debate at the Synod of Whitby, he ended Lindisfarne's control of the Northumbrian church and put it and the rest of England under the authority of Rome. This officially undid the last of King Oswald's political legacy. In 672-3 Bishop Wilfrid gave Queen Audrey the veil of a nun and took the estate of Hexham for a monastery. Wilfrid built the Church of St. Andrew at Hexham as a glory of the North. Wilfrid's attitude to Oswald and Heavenfield probably waxed and wained based on his relationship with Oswald's nephews Ecgfrith (r. 670-685) and Aldfrith (r. 685-705). At the very least, Wilfrid did not repress the site. Given Wilfrid's role in ending Lindisfarne's dominance, he may have relished controlling such an important Oswaldian site. Bede's account of Heavenfield, relaying the official position of Hexham, is definitely more Romanized than Adomnan's account. After his second exile from Northumbria, he returned as Bishop of Hexham from c. 705 to his death in 709.
5. Eata of Hexham: He was probably Aidan's oldest and most trusted English pupil, one of his original twelve English disciples. He was the first known Abbot of Melrose, seemingly while Aidan was alive. He later founded the monastery of Ripon, but was forced to hand it over to the young Romanist Wilfrid. After the Synod of Whitby, Eata became the first English Abbot of Lindisfarne. He was the first bishop of the diocese of Lindisfane and Hexham combined (c. 679-685) and then Hexham alone (685-c.687). As Eata seized the monastery of Hexham when Wilfrid was (first) exiled, his reception at Hexham may have been chilly.
6. Acca of Hexham: Bishop of Hexham after Bishop Wilfrid's death from about 710-731. The pilgrimages to Heavenfield that Bede describes in his History clearly occurred during Acca's tenure and the chapel recently built there must have been built by Acca. He was also a major informant of Bede's on other miracles credited to Oswald. Acca's material had a clear role in making Oswald acceptable to Romanists and reporting early international veneration in Ireland and Frisia.
7. Adomnan, Abbot of Iona: First person to write about the events of Heavenfield and therefore the first to give the site textual importance. His representation of Oswald as a New Joshua is major step in influencing Oswald's memory. Adomnan was also the author of the Law of the Innocents enacted at the Synod of Birr in 695 that protected women, children and clerics from the violence of war and women from domestic abuse. Thus, Adomnan's law was one of the most important ecclesiastical contribution to civilizing early medieval Britain and Ireland, even if the laws enforcement was lackluster.
8. Bede of Jarrow: primary author of all we know on King Oswald and the second account of Heavenfield with the raising of the miracle working cross that he claimed still stood in his day a hundred years later. Bede's portrayal of King Oswald has had the greatest influence on the development of Oswald's veneration (as Bede intended).

Honorary saints of Heavenfield:

1. Aidan Bishop of Lindisfarne: Leader of King Oswald's evangelistic efforts. Although Bede does not credit him with a single convert, Aidan's mission can be credited with converting over half of England. He is an honorary saint of Heavenfield because he does not have direct association with the site. Of his students, only Eata was stationed at Hexham.
2. Willibrord, Archbishop of Frisia: He was a child of Deira (Yorkshire) and raised at Bishop Wilfrid's monastery of Ripon. When he left to study in Ireland he took with him a fragment of the stake that held Oswald's head at Maeserfelth (as Bede reported). He carried the relic to his pagan missionary field in Frisia (Netherlands) and started interest in St. Oswald in Frisia/Flanders and Germany.

Its quite a collection here. Leaving aside the honorary Heavenfield saints, we are still left with shall we say three international saints: Oswald, Columba and Bede. Bede only really making international status in the last century or two, just as Oswald seems to be fading internationally. Pan-English saints Audrey of Ely and Wilfrid of York are remembered in much of the Anglican Communion, if not in the United States. Others are more local Hexham saints: Eata and Acca; while Adomnan is remembered primarily as a scholar with limited local remembrance in Ireland and Scotland. Both honorary saints are recognized internationally by Anglicans and Catholics. Willibrord is the patron saint of ecumenical relationships between Anglican and Old Catholics in Europe.

Today we remember the Apostle to Scotland. An involuntary exile from Ireland, Columba arrived in the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada in the 560s and founded a small monastery on the island of Iona, on the then northern border of Dalriada and Pictland, a likely frontier region between the relatively new Scottish dynasty and the Picts. Columba was politically astute, accepted his potentially perilous location and obtained a royal grant from both the Dalriadan king and the dominant Pictish king of the day. Using his political skills, he becomes a kingmaker advancing Aedan mac Gabran to the Dalriadan throne and then using all his skills to advance Aedan's career for about twenty years, fostering strong ties between his Irish kin, the Ui Neill, and Dalriada and meanwhile evangelizing Pictland perhaps enforced by Aedan's military successes in eastern Scotland. It is impossible to ignore that Aedan's military career begins declining with Columba's death.

Columba's political skills are undeniable, but they can not be the main focus of his legacy. Columba built an empire to the glory of God. He instilled in his hundreds, if not thousands, of disciples an unwavering commitment to piety, poverty, study, and evangelism. They were the forerunners of the Franciscans, except that they developed their monastic style as a pure adaption of the monastic fathers Martin and Anthony of Egypt; while the Franciscans reached the same spirit as a reforming reaction to the excesses of their day. Francis had to travel to Egypt to find Muslims to attempt to convert. Columba was surrounded by pagans, his mission field was all around him. Columba also took a more sensible attitude toward poverty; his monasteries would be simple and poor, but self-supporting, relying on the staple of Irish income, cattle alone.

Unfortunately, Columba's disciples were not as politically astute as he had been. By comparison, Columba must have been a political prodigy. His disciples were unswervingly loyal to his memory and directions to follow his rule. They stubbornly resisted the growing influence and authority of Rome for about 80 years and in the process lost control of at least 75% of their churches and monasteries beginning with their loss at the Synod of Whitby in 664. In the post-Reformation world, this often appears to be a virtue but that is not how Bede or their other contemporaries saw it. Adomnan understood the price they were paying better than most, and wrote the Life of Columba to attempt to shore up Columba's reputation, but even he couldn't convince the wider church of Iona that it was time to accept change and save what they could. Writing some thirty years later, Bede made Columba a scapegoat for Lindisfarne's fall from political power. He understood that his culture would have viewed their loyalty to Columba as a virtue, so their failures must be Columba's fault. Too often we forget that being a patron saint can cut both ways, praise while his disciples prosper but criticism -- even questioning his sanctity -- when they fail, particularly for following their master's directions. Today, of course, we recognize that Columba can not possibly he held responsible for his disciples response to an issue that didn't even occur during his lifetime. Interestingly Bede takes pains to separate Columba's death from Augustine's arrival at Canturbury in the chronological summary of his History. Its almost as if he must prove that the Roman mission began before Columba's death, even if they didn't actually arrive in Britain until afterwards. Could Iona have claimed that Columba's physical presence in Britain had prevented Rome's arrival? Clearly Columba's legacy was still an active issue over 130 years after his death. The legacy of this astutely political abbot has always been tied to politics and rose and fell accordingly.

Today, Columba's popularity is on the rise again making him co-patron saint of Ireland (with Patrick and Bridget) and one of the most popular saints in Scotland with St Andrew and Margaret. The Episcopal Church remembers Columba with the following collect:

O God, by the preaching of your blessed servant Columba you caused the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, having his life and labors in remembrance, we may show our thankfulness to you by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.