For me, Sue's Field is a romantic and almost magical place.  Being a keen amateur photographer I can wax lyrical about the light everytime I go.  Sue's Field is an island in the North Sea with not too many people around (despite the tourists), so the light always seems clear and bright, and the vast skies always seem so heavy and dramatic with clouds.  History hangs over every blade of wind-swept grass and pebble on its beach.  I cannot walk along the shore of its quiet bay without remembering the slaughter that took place there nearly one and a half thousand years ago - imagining the terror that the inhabitants must have felt, and wondering if the blood coloured the sea water. And two of its major buildings stand as icons on the island, photographed millions of times.  Because of its isolation, with access possible only when the tide is out, I have never stayed long enough to be there in early morning light to get the landscape photographer's original shots.

"Are we going to Sue's Field today?" my daughter asked nearly twenty years ago when she was six.  We had been the previous year.  We had been talking about going all week.  My wife and I looked at each other and knew exactly where my daughter meant.  There was an internal logic to it.  "Lindisfarne" was too strange a word for a six year old.  She had captured it as "Linda's Farm" and then forgotten it.  There was a woman involved.  And there was land.  It came out as "Sue's Field".

And in our family, it has stayed as "Sue's Field" ever since.

They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint and kind,
Till there was no bed in a monk's house, nor food that man could find...
~ G K Chesterton, The Secret People

I have no idea why I am disappointed that there are no wireless networks here, but I am.

Where is here, you ask? Snuggled into a scoop in the side of a rocky outcrop behind Lindisfarne Priory, looking back over the straits towards the mainland. There are swallows flitting around my head, bees buzzing in the grass, and I just saw a grebe diving for its dinner. But there is no wireless. Boo.

It has been a rather lovely day, all told. Not so much the carrying of stuff; we have both been Encumbered:Slowed most of the day due to exceeding our weight limits. Note to self: pack lighter. Two rucksacks each is two too many...
Otherwise, it's been lovely - alas, I missed most of the scenery from the train (searching for a wireless point, ironically enough - it'd died everywhere north of first class, so I hovered in the buffet car trying to look inconspicuous), but have more than made up for it since. We saw little enough of Berwick itself, alas, going as we did straight from train to bus, but what we saw was nice enough - a pretty railway station, a soaring viaduct, and some great sea views. And Lindisfarne itself is glorious - the town is a trifle twee, true, but the lonely castle, its sentinel face turned ever seaward, and the forlornly defiant arches of the ruined priory have a grandeur to them - even if curtains now hang where once archers stood ready, and pigeons nest where once the feet of those called holy trod. It's a reasonable walk to the castle, but entirely worth it for the views of the place.

After so long in Durham, the same place day after day, the same sights and smells, it's like my senses have come alive here. The smells of sea and clover, one heady, the other refreshing; the hissing of the grasses and the endless song of the waves; the shimmer of sunlight on the water and the lively colours of the wild flowers, pink sea-thyme and yellow prickly-stuff. (My mother'd know its proper name.) Unbidden, the rock pools on the shore remind me of Durham, and of leaving it - as though the tide's come in and broken through, to sweep me away from my little haven into the wider ocean.

The lady at the priory museum laughed at us, seeing us so weighed down - had we packed the kitchen sink?, she wanted to know. I played her off - middle-aged women like me, oddly enough; at least it's useful sometimes! - and we went to wander round the exhibition, which reminded
me even more of Durham, what with St Cuthbert and all. (Do you know the story of his otters? According to the Venomous Bede, he spent a whole night up to his waist in the sea, praying. Understandably a little chilly by the time dawn broke, he prayed to God for aid on reaching the beach - and God sent two sea otters to wipe his feet dry with their fur, and breathe on them to warm them. I tell you, Bede was on some good shit when he wrote his Histories.) The priory is an impressive pile, red sandstone weathered and sculpted into beautiful shapes never anticipated by its long-dead architects - some small irony in the hand of nature outdoing the hands which worked for God, perhaps. The church next door gives some idea of what its arches and walls might once have looked like.

I also discovered I've lost none of my childhood fascination with beaches. You'd think after fourteen years of Scottish islands and their beaches I'd have got over it, but no. I wandered, I poked in rockpools, I built sandcastles, I graffiti'd (that one was just too tempting), I marvelled at the clarity of the water. There's something immensely soothing about just picking up a handful of sand and letting it run between your fingers, and something very clean about a scramble over rocks - focused on nothing but where to find the next handhold, where to put the next foot.

Back in Berwick, we wandered the town a little, then bought pie and chips from a little family-run place (I wound up with steak and kidney rather than pure steak; the waitress was busy flirting with a customer) and took it up onto the city walls, which had the most fantastic view out over the town and sea and viaduct. Neither of us captured it too well, alas - just too much distance - but we did get this snap of the seagull which persistently tried to convince us that property was theft and that common ownership of our dinner was the best way forward. Then back to our bed and breakfast - unexpectedly opulent, all varnished pine and lush white bedspreads, thick curtains and Ferrero Rocher on the nightstands - to pack and sleep before morning took us north to Edinburgh.

More photos:
the glorious blue sky that day (we were both a fetching shade of salmon pink by day's end)
a bench up by the lighthouse - the inscription reads 'Mo Jowett, 1951-1999; one who left the city's crowds to find a place.'
a cache of cockleshells, left by a seabird
if only this car were x-registered!
unfortunate instructions on a toilet door - I was horribly tempted to write underneath 'if this is sex it sounds extremely boring'
and the rest

Comments:
1] There's something both funny and courageous about Shirley Bassey's name appearing amongst those other female singers!
2] OK, so I had to google the name "Jacqui McShee". Singer in Pentangle apparently. That'll be why I didn't know the name - some old 70's folk rubbish.
3] Hold on, Hold ON.... wooooaaaaah!...... Number 6 Best TV Show - Tom & bloody Jerry???
4] The fact that Lindisfarne's mournful "Lady Eleanor" was voted Best Single proves there were a LOT of drugs around in the seventies.
5] Those DJ and Radio show names have rekindled a LOT of fond personal memories.
6] Isn't funny that in 1972 David Bowie was considered a "Bright Hope"
7] I had to look up Jonathan Kelly too - again, folk nonsense
8] Aaaaaaaaah, Vinegar Joe.... featuring Elkie "Pearl's a Singer" Brooks and a certain Robert "Addicted to Love" Palmer...

I have a deep love for all things Celt. My personal library is full to bursting with books in the magic realism/historical fantasy/speculative fiction field. I think my love of these things is probably steeped in childhood memories of the church and our Irish priests and nuns brought a lot of the artwork with them here, illustrated gospels etc therefore seeds were sewn for my love of these forms of art in the future.

When we married in 1983 we went to Northumberland for our honeymoon and spent quite a few days exploring Lindisfarne, Holy Island. This is where the monks originally from Eireland first educated and then sent out missionaries into the then pagan Northumberland and where they translated the gospels into wonderful illustrated documents...the most well known being....The Lindisfarne Gospels which are currently housed in the British Library in London. Lindisfarne also suffered in AD793 the first Viking attack on British soil, an attack that many historians view as being the equivalent or worse than 9/11/2001.

Since discovering a form of fantasy that I could actually read and enjoy about ten years ago I have been a prodigious reader of all things to do or based in the times of the celts so I was really pleased to be able to buy these books recently. Some of the authors and books I have enjoyed immensely are Daughter of the Forest by Juliette Marillier...three part series...preferred the first as a one off and Black Trillium by Marion Bradley Julian May and Andre Norton then Blood Trillium and finally Sky Trillium by Julian May. These I read in old smelly softcovers from whatever source I could find ...and I cannot abide smelly books!!! Then over the last few years I was fortunate when the three hardcovers, all in immaculate condition, came into our local charity shop. The books were less than $4 each and are my previous spectacular buy for this week!

My husband found me a few of these and I found the rest. I love the artworks and have a great love of celtish inspired jewellery. Which might be why I love this crucifix so much...it is not so much celtish as medieval I feel and is from Australian designer of fashion and now jewellery...Peter Lang. I am not a crucifix wearing person as such and especially do not like the way it has been glamorised as a fashion statement but this speaks to me of my time on Holy island ...indeed I think one could imagine a nun or monk of the day wearing that as they went about their day of gruelling labour or penitence. The crucifix was $8 and I have seen his necklaces are $150 to $200 new. Heavenly....as Lindisfarne would be to visit for a retreat....check them out before you visit Europe. It would be an unforgettable experience.

1973:

Lindisfarne Live (LP)

Photography: Roy Carr

1978:

Back & Fourth (LP)

Art Direction & Concept: Alan Schmidt

Design & Artwork: Hothouse

Photography: Richard Haughton

Illustration: Chris Moore

1984:

Dance Your Life Away (CD)

Art Direction: Unknown

Holy Island

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

A perfect walk around Lindisfarne
This surely has to be one of the best walks in the country. A round of Holy Island. Check the tide tables before you go because you have to navigate a causeway that gets flooded at high tide. Otherwise its a beautiful drive across the sands to the island.
This walk is only about three miles distance but takes much longer than normal to walk because there are so many distractions on the way. You can extend the walk easily be taking diversions among the dunes.
Arriving on the Island across a causeway is an exciting start and you park in one of the large car parks and make your way through the town to the harbour. We did this walk in the afternoon and so we picked up some crab sandwiches from one of the cottages and some local prawns from a fish monger. Make sure you go for the local ones - they are smaller than the more attractive tiger prawns but who wants to eat something flown in from miles away when the smaller ones are the tastiest and haven’t travelled as far.
The harbour is the best place to sit down in the grass and contemplate the view. There are boats on the mudflats, the view of Lindisfarne on its rock in the distance and the overturned boats turned into huts, once used for the herring industry. They make stunning photos.
When you are have feasted, make your way to the left of Lindisfarne and follow the track which was once used to market limestone to the kilns.
Opposite Lindisfarne there are the walled gardens. Then a few hundred yards you reach the shoreline where it is worth scanning the horizon for birds and maybe some beach combing. Turn left and follow the coastline along and you reach the lough which is a fresh water pool supposedly dug by the monks to supply fish to the abbey. There is a hide and it is worth spending some time looking out over the reeds. We saw Little Grebes amongst the reeds.
From here the path heads behind the dunes and you can extend your walk by crossing the dunes to the shoreline. Be careful here, there are peri-peri burs from New Zealand growing. You should check your clothes so that you don’t spread the burs outside the region.
From the dunes, the path goes inland back to the carpark.
This is perhaps one of the finest and most interesting short walks in the country. The afternoon would have perfect if there had been somewhere open for tea but typically, come 5.00pm, all the tea shops shut even though it was a lovely afternoon. Bring a thermos!

"The monks of Iona accepted the catholic way of life under the teaching of Egbert, while Dunchad was abbot [707-717], about eighty years after they had sent Bishop Aidan to preach to the English. The man of God, Egbert, remained for thirteen years on the island which he had consecrated to Christ, lighting once more, as it were with the gracious light of ecclesiastical fellowship and peace. In the year of our Lord 729, when Easter fell on 24 April, after he had celebrated a solemn mass in memory of the Lord's resurrection, he departed to be with the Lord on the same day. ... It was a wonderful dispensation of the divine providence that the venerable man not only passed from this world to the Father on Easter Day, but also when Easter was being celebrated on a date on which it had never been kept in those places." (Bede, HE V. 22, McClure and Collins, p. 287)

It is interesting that Bede notes that Egbert had been on Iona 13 years, placing his arrival in 716 the very year that the monks had been driven out of Pictland and the same year that King Cenred, brother of Bede's King Ceolwulf became King of Northumbria. Given that Bede credits Columba as the missionary (apostle?) to the Picts in his chronological summary (HE V.24), their expulsion from Pictland 52 years after their similiar expulsion from Northumbria is significant. Here Bede couldn't help himself but to note that Egbert consecrated the island for Christ - meaning that St. Columba's consecration of Iona had to be repeated.

I believe I have noted elsewhere that Bede is a bit loose on this date, manipulating it to suit his purposes. Here he wants to show Egbert's coming to Iona with the explusion from Pictland. In HE III.4 he claims that the Columban calculations of Easter lasted until 715, 150 years after the coming of Columba to Iona. If he allows these dates to slide a little, then the 52 years since Whitby should be considered about 50 as well.

So Bede's chronology in the summary of HE V.24 goes like this:

• 449: English arrive in Britain
• 565: St Columba founds Iona.
• 597: Augustine arrives in Britain, noting its roughly 150 years after the English arrive. [In III.4 he notes Columba dies about 32 years after arriving on Iona, ie. 597! - expressly not noted in the summary even though the summary notes he was the missionary to the Picts]
• 716: Egbert converts Iona to Roman Easter calculations (and reconsecrates the island!) about 80 years after Aidan arrives in Northumbria. [Therefore, Egbert converts Iona 150 years after Columba comes to Iona; Augustine converts the English 150 years after their arrival in Britain. Aidan's arrival about 80 years earlier nearly splits that time in half...]

Makes me wonder what kind of symbolism Bede saw in those 150 year intervals. It seems that it took both Iona and 'the English' 150 years to fully mature for Iona to come into the Roman fold and for the English church to produce missionaries, correcting the primary source of their own missionaries. The only symbolism I can think of that is 150 is the 150 psalms, but I may just have psalms on the brain. Given that the Irish divided their pslater into thirds of 50 pslams each; 50 years from Whibty to explusion from Pictland would also fit the symbolism.

Egbert is one of the few fellow Englishmen that Bede specifically called a saint in his History. The entry in the chronological summary actually calls him "St. Egbert"; he is the only one so designated in the summary. To me, the entry in the Greater Chronicle is the most remarkable considering how few Anglo-Saxons Bede records there. Bede is a little odd in which Englishmen (and women) who he includes in the Greater Chronicle: Kings Aethelfrith and Aelle, Aethelberht and Edwin, and saints Aethelthryth (with K. Ecgfrith), Egbert, Willibrord, Cuthbert, and his abbot Coelfrith. Many of these references are pretty slight, but Bishop Egbert's entry is every bit as elaborate as Cuthbert or Willibrord. A further study of Egbert and his importance to Bede seems merited.

On the last track we edited I decided to add a one note organ to the end of the song. After doing that I realised I was on a track with the amazing Rod Clements from Lindisfarne. Now I can add Rod to the superstar artists I have played with :-)

Its obscurity could justify bypassing the manuscript, but a recent article with all the necessary textual material makes it hard to ignore its sole, but particularly fascinating miniature.  ‘"Know who and what he is’: the context and inscriptions of the Durham Gospels Crucifixion image," by Jennifer O’Reilly in Making and Meaning in Insular Art fully translates the tituli and also identifies the Gospel chapter and verses on the preceding page.

The image of the Crucifixion on folio 38v compares nicely with same scene in the center panel on the interior of the painted lid of the reliquary of the Sancta Santorum, and finding the sponge and the tip of the spear will train the eye to find these objects in any Crucifixion scene. 

But the text around the frame and its direct address of the beholder make for a most interesting discussion of the devotional power of Crucifixion imagery, as well as the function of images more generally.

Wikimedia has a relatively clear image of Folio 38v.

Bede wrote multiple accounts of his life, but I chose passages from the briefest, which Bede embedded within his Ecclesiastic History of the English People (Book 4, Chapter 30).  Although Cuthbert died in 687, not unil eleven years later in 698 did the monks of Lindisfarne place his body in the wood coffin that survives today in pieces at Durham Cathedral. 

Of its 6,000 fragments, about 169 show engraved lines.  The reconstructed program of the coffin includes Christ and the Evangelist Symbols on the lid, apostles and archangels on the sides and one end, and the Virgin and Child on another end.  Runic inscriptions identify the figures and link the coffin to the Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket. 

Various objects have come from the tomb of Cuthbert, including the Stonyhurst Gospels and his pectoral cross.  I could not find good photos of these objects on the internet, but the catalogue, The Making of England, has nice color photos.

Images of the Coffin of Saint Cuthbert prove even more elusive.  I found some great color slides in the visual collection at FSU, and Ernst Kitzinger's small booklet on the Coffin offers line drawings of each side.  Here you may find a photographic reconstruction.  Sacred Destinations has some photos taken through the vitrine.  Otherwise, I would welcome any hints on where to find more images. 

Through the texts and objects of the re-burial of Cuthbert, we gain great insight into the development of the cult of one saint.  In my next post, I will look at yet one more object associated with the early cult of Saint Cuthbert, the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Here be the peace
of those who do Thy will.
Here be the peace
of brother serving man.
Here be the peace
of holy monks obeying.
Here be the peace
of praise by dark and day.
Be this Island Thy Holy Island.
I, Lord, Thy servant, Aidan,
make this prayer.
Be it Thy care.
Amen.

via

This meditation about a place, Lindisfarne,  can also be directed at a life, our life, if we surrender it to God. If we become as children, simply living our day to day in a way pleasing to our maker, we can be a holy island in a dark world. If we chose to allow the grace of God to flow to those around us, being the hands of Christ out stretched, we can be a holy island. If we have solid foundations, firm in the midst of storms, we can be a holy island to those shipwrecked on the shoals.

Lindisfarne's Century refers to their short period of dominance or high influence from about 635 to 750. Lindisfarne continued, of course, into at least the ninth century but after the 750s their influence significantly fell. In 750, King Aldfrith's son Offa was forcefully removed from Lindisfarne and executed. Interestingly, abdicated king Ceolwulf was in Lindisfarne when Offa was dragged out of the monastery and killed. It is possible that Offa went to Lindisfarne hoping to get protection from Ceolwulf (who was the hand picked successor of his reputed brother Osric). The recording of King Ceolwulf's death in the Irish annals under the name Eochaid also suggests that Ceolwulf and by extension Lindisfarne did keep contacts with the Irish. After Offa's death and the later obit of Ceolwulf little is heard from Lindisfarne until the Norse raid it in 793. Eventually they abandoned the island and began their exodus to Durham. They wandered in their wilderness for much longer than 40 years but the community of St Cuthbert stayed together. The wandering community of St Cuthbert and the Prince Bishops of Durham are fascinating but beyond my scope. By then they have moved from innovation to preservation.

So anyway, there is now a page to collect posts on Lindisfarne and sphere of influence (Whibty, Lastingham, Melrose, etc).

For a long time ago, in the era of your young manhood, when your talented Sagacity was equipped with the septiform munificence of spiritual gifts by the hand of a venerable bishop, I recall that I acquired the name of 'father' and that you received the appellations of your adoptive station together with the privilege of heavenly grace. (Episola ad Acircium, Aldhelm: The Prose Works, Lapidge and Herren, trans, 1979).

How does an abbot of Malmesbury in Wessex become the godfather of a half-Irish Northumbrian prince in his "young manhood"? There is no reason to think that Aldhelm had ever been to Northumbria. It is possible that Aldhelm became his godfather while Aldhelm was studying in Canterbury, but that would put a young half-Irish Northumbrian prince in Canterbury. Alternatively, Malmesbury was founded by an Irish monk so that the half-Irish Aldfrith could have visited Malmesbury as part of youthful travels.

The first big problem is why was he baptized as a young man. Infant baptism was practiced at this time, and the Irish and King Oswiu were both Christians. Could it be that there were re-baptisms of those who had been baptized by followers of Iona? In his discussion of the causes of the Synod of Whitby in 664 is because they feared that their baptisms were invalid. The actual re-baptism of all or some of the Lindisfarne-baptized clergy and at least nobles is something that the Lindisfarne-friendly Bede might not want to advertise.

If this is the case, then Aldfrith was a young man soon after 664. He must have been born no earlier than 640, so late in King Oswald's reign. This would rule out that he was born before Oswald and Oswiu returned to Northumbria. It also means that he was of similar age to his brother Alchfrith, who was apparently not considered a bastard like Aldfrith.

It is possible that Aldfrith had consented at the encouragement of Aldhelm to be re-baptized before 664. We know his brother Alchfrith was certainly favorable to the Roman church before 664. Yet, I think this is unlikely. We know that he was also a very good friend of Adomnan of Iona, and Bede claims that Aldfrith was actually present on Iona when his brother King Ecgfrith was killed in Scotland. Adomnan traveled to visit Aldfrith in Northumbria at least twice, and probably three times during Aldfrith's reign.

Another possibility is that Aldhelm is actually referring to sponsorship of confirmation. I don't know much about confirmation in this period though. Perhaps Aldhelm's stress on the bishop's hand rather than waters of baptism does suggest that this is confirmation. This would be easier to reconcile with his "young manhood".

Aldfrith's relationship with Wessex is a very interesting topic that really hasn't been fully explored. In addition to his relationship with Aldhelm, he also married the sister of King Ine of Wessex, who was a kinsman of Aldhelm. Aldfrith separated from her during their lifetimes and she entered a convent. In fact, she is one of the nuns that Aldhelm's On Virginity is addressed to. This makes them a very special couple to Anglo-Saxonists -- to him was dedicated the beloved riddles of Aldhelm and to her, On Virginity was sent. What does this tell us about Aldhelm's relationship to this couple?

The first shot is of Lindisfarne (AKA Holy Island), where we spent last weekend, and I was a bit chuffed to see that it had been named Photo of the Day on Gadling yesterday.

The second is from Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which was the previous Saturday's entertainment.  I'd struggle to think of a more engaging walk (and decent Cafe too).

Lindisfarne set here. YSP here.

After a lot of thought, I don't think that Œthelwald was anyone's puppet. I don't think he was 'placed' there by anyone. I do think that he was a compromise candidate whom both the Deiran nobles and Oswiu of Bernicia could live with. This suggests that the Deiran nobles had likewise accepted Oswald as King of Deira, as the nephew of Edwin. Oswald and his son Œthelwald were the grandson and great grandson of King Aelle, Edwin's father. Oswiu on the other hand, had no Deiran blood that we know of; I have argued against his being the son of Acha sister of Edwin elsewhere. Oswiu shows every indication of taking direct control when he could, as he did in Mercia after Penda's death and probably in Lothian early in his reign. The fact that he faced 'rebellion' by three successive kings of Deira-- Oswine, Œthelwald and his own son Alchfrith-- really suggests to me that the nobles/ealdormen of Deira really never accepted Oswiu has their king. After his son's rebellion, Oswiu appears to have taken direct control over Deira for about only the last five years of his 28 year reign.

There have been some speculations about Œthelwald's age and mother. If he was the son of Cynegils' daughter then he would have only been about 17 when he became king in about 651, but I have argued elsewhere that it is quite possible that he was born during Oswald's exile. Oswald was about 30 years old when he came home to Bernicia and could have easily had several children, as his brother Eanfrith already did and as Edwin had during his exile.

The one thing we do know for sure about Œthelwald is that he had close ties to the church of Lindisfarne, as we would expect for Oswald's son. We know that the four brothers, Cedd, Cælin, Cynebill, and Chad were all closely tied to the church in Deira. Cælin was the personal priest of Œthelwald and his family and he mediated the donation of Lastingham to his brother Bishop Cedd. It is interesting that Bede claims that Œthelwald mainly came to know Cedd through his brother Caelin, since as a pupil of Aidan's you would think that Œthelwald would have known him. Yet, Cedd had long been a missionary away from Bernicia and Deira, so it is possible that Oethelwald and Cedd had not known each other well before 651. I do think that is likely that the church of Lindisfarne helped Œthelwald come to the throne of Deira. They certainly could have helped the Deiran nobles contact Œthelwald if he was not in Deira before Oswine's death (and I think it is unlikely he would have been an ally of Oswine, unless he had a major falling out with his uncle before 651). After Oswine's murder and Aidan's death heartbroken over Oswine, Lindisfarne would not have been very high on Oswiu or his sons, and supporting a son of Oswald would have seemed like the best option.

Anyway, Œthelwald is remembered diplomatically as the patron of Lastingham where he intended for himself and his family to be buried. The brothers of Lastingham must have stressed this to Bede for it to be included in the History. Bede doesn't tell us where Œthelwald was buried but it is possible that some of his family was indeed buried at Lastingham. The stress on Œthelwald's family does suggest that he was old enough to have a family. Alternatively it could just be Lastingham's way of stressing that they would have been a major monastery for this king, as York was for Edwin, Whitby was Oswiu & Edwin, Wearmouth-Jarrow was for Ecgfrith, and probably Lindisfarne for Oswald (and Aldfrith?).

The last we hear of Œthelwald is during Penda's last campaign into Bernicia in the fall of 655. Bede tells us that Œthelwald had acted a guide for Penda's army into Bernicia and later refused to take part in the battle of Winwæd on November 15th, 655. For this Bede branded him a traitor, a claim surely influenced by Bede's desire to project a united Northumbria. Accompanying Penda's army into Bernicia would likely have been enough for a Bernician patriot to consider him a traitor, though it is perhaps hard to see how he could have refused Penda. It would have been suicide for a single king to have stood in the way of Penda's army. We already knew from Oswine's encounter with Oswiu that Deira did not have an imposing enough army to stand up to Oswiu's forces, so it is unlikely that they could have faired better against Penda's massive Southumbrian-British coalition. His decision to pull his army out of the fray at Winwæd may speak as much to the the shock of Oswiu's attack as anything else. Was it a moment of indecision or had Penda's alliance begun to fray enough that he would not side with him? Penda's army must have still been very formidable for Œthelwald not to try to switch sides and fight for his uncle. It also tells us that Œthelwald may have been unwilling to fight against his own kinsmen (as Æthelhere of East Anglia probably did against his brother Anna). Bede tells us that the river in flood was a major factor in Oswiu's victory as Mercians and their allies drowned trying to escape and we might also guess that an early death of Penda may have contributed to the loss. If the dominant king of a grand army was killed early, then military discipline probably would have fell as each unit would only then be concerned about its escape.

Œthelwald's fate is left unknown. We don't hear that he was executed, as Lastingham might have remembered. I doubt they would have been ashamed of another Deiran king who died for not fighting like Oswine. Indeed, it would have further vilified Oswiu in line with Deiran sympathies. It seems likely to me that Iona would have recorded Œthelwald's death if it had occurred at Winwæd, as they recorded Penda's death (Annals of Ulster). I tend to think that not hearing anything about his fate may mean that he was exiled. The mysterious fates of King Oswiu's nephew Oethelwald and his son Alchfrith, who also disappears after a rebellion, are certainly two on my list of 'things I would like to know'!

Bishop Aethelwald of Lindisfarne first enters the historical record in Bede's Life of Cuthbert, where is said to have been one of Cuthbert's retinue and currently Abbot of Melrose. Later when Bede writes the Ecclesiastical History, he refers to Aethelwald, former Abbot of Melrose, as the current Bishop of Lindisfarne. So he appears to have been marked for leadership in the Lindisfarne-Melrose community as early as the 680s. Aethelwald would have been present in the community during the entire period from Cuthbert's episcopate to the establishment of his veneration, compilation of his lives, the Lindisfarne Gospels to honor St Cuthbert, and last but not least the establishment of Boisil as the saint of Melrose.

In the Life of Cuthbert, Bede cites Aethelwald as a witness to a miracle of St Cuthbert.

"Cuthbert was making his usual preaching mission through the villages and had come to one where there were a few nuns. They had fled their own monastery for fear of the barbarian army shortly before, and hand been lodged in the village by Cuthbert. One of them, a relation of Aethelwald, was seriously ill, seized with pains in her head and all down one side, so that doctors had given her up. Cuthbert's companions pointed her out to him and begged him to heal her. Full of pity for her wretchedness he anointed her with holy oil. She began to improve from that very moment an din a few days completely recovered." (Farmer ed, p. 84)

This all suggests that Aethelwald's family was from northern Bernicia or even Lothian. Northumbrian monasteries in Lothian (near Abercorn) were abandoned for fear of the Picts after Ecgfrith's death at the battle of Dunnichen in May 685. Bishop Cuthbert must have been very active in relocating the monastics and other English settlers who had moved into Lothian and southern Pictland during Ecgfrith's reign.

In the Ecclesiastical History, Bede refers to King Aldfrith's visits to Melrose during Æthelwald's tenure as abbot. The hermit Dryhelm was active at Melrose during that time and King Aldfrith could come to visit with Dryhelm, who had after all previously been a noble. We don't know which monasteries King Aldfrith favored, but Lindisfarne and its daughter house Melrose are likely.

Æthelwald becomes Bishops of Lindisfarne in 724, during the tenure of King Osric son of Aldfrith. He is the only Northumbrian bishop to come through the turbulent 730s without being deposed. During his tenure, King Osric was died on 9 May 729 appointing Ceolwulf as his successor. Bede makes it clear that it was not a smooth succession. The Moore MS of Bede's History continues the chronology with the note: 731: "King Coelwulf was captured as tonsured and then restored to his kingdom; Bishop Acca was driven from his see" (McClure and Collins 1994: 296). It is unknown where he was tonsured, but it may be related to the expulsion of Bishop Acca of Hexham. King Ceolwulf returned to the throne, but he did not allow Bishop Acca to return, suggesting to me that Acca was probably in league with Ceolwulf's enemies. When Ceolwulf did voluntarily enter a monastery, it was Lindisfarne during the time of Bishop Æthelwald. Ceolwulf's death was recorded in Irish sources as under the name Eochaid. It is possible that like King Aldfrith that may imply an Irish mother, or that he took the name after he entered the Irish-influenced monastery, although others at Lindisfarne were not known for taking Irish names. It seems likely that Ceolwulf may have been born during Aldfrith's reign when relations with Dalriada were the best since before the synod of Whitby. So anyway, it is significant that King Coelwulf chose to take the tonsure from Bishop Æthelwald, rather than Bishop Egbert of York, whose brother he named as his successor. It was Bishop Æthelwulf's successor Cynwulf who gave King Aldfrith's son Offa refuge from King Eadbert and paid a heavy price for it. It is worth noting that King Ceolwulf was still a monk at Lindisfarne when Offa took refuge there in 750. Coelwulf did not die until 764-765, so he must have been quite young when he abdicated.

Aside from politics, pious Bishop Æthelwald was involved in the production of several manuscripts. According to a 10th century note in the Lindisfarne Gospels (left), Æthelwald had his predecessors work bound into the gospel book and commissioned its jeweled covers. Symeon of Durham claimed that Æthelwald continued to build up St Cuthbert's veneration by commissioning a stone cross in memory of St. Cuthbert. A hymnal from Fulda called the Ympnarius Edilwaldi may have belonged to him. It has since been lost but it may have been the source from some hymns from Bede in Germany. It has also been suggested that the 'Prayer book of Æthelwald' bound in the Book of Cerne belonged to him. This book contains a number of Irish influnced prayers and an abbreviated psalter using the Old Latin Psalter (unlike Bede's use of the Hebraicum).

Update (1/22): I forgot to mention that Æthelwald is considered the last saint of Lindisfarne. When the community left Lindisfarne they placed some of his bones in the coffin of St Cuthbert for their long migration eventually to Durham. He was also an informant for the Anonymous Life of Cuthbert written in c. 704.

~~~~

Farmer, David. Ed. Age of Bede, Penguin.

Judith McClure and Roger Collins, eds. 1994. Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford UP.

Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, ed. 1999. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell.

There is an Abbreviated Psalter in the Book of Cerne, which dates to the 8th century. The psalter is found in one of the three codexes bound in the Book of Cerne, called 'The Book of Æthelwald the Bishop". The Prayerbook of Æthelwald has been traced to northern England in the 8th century and linked to Æthelwald, Bishop of Lindisfarne 724-740. So he was the bishop of Lindisfarne for the last decade of Bede's life.

The contents of the Prayer book of Æthelwald are given as the passion and resurrection of Christ accounts from all four gospels, a collection of 74 prayers, then followed by the abbreviated psalter, and ended (in its current truncated form) with an apocryphal dialogue between Adam, Eve, and Christ in limbo patrum.

McNamara describes the abbreviated psalter as:

"composed of verses from consecutive psalms, strung together so as to form a continuous prayer (e.g. Pss. 1.1, 2; 2.1; 3.4; 5.2 etc). We have another early example of such an abbreviation of the Psalter in the Collectio Psalterii Bedae found in Migne's edition of Alcuin's works (PL 101, cols 569-79).... The abbreviated psalter of the Book of Cerne, like most other times in the Prayer Book of Aedueluald, was most probably intended for private devotion." (p. 41)

McNamara notes that the text is that of the Romanum, not the Gallican psalter. This, he suggests, indicates that it was originally compiled in England rather than Ireland.

Well, this is all very exciting...my early 8th century texts of the abbreviated psalter just doubled. Two distinctive abbreviated psalters within a single subkingdom, within one generation. Could it be that Bede saw an abbreviated psalter from Lindisfarne and decided to make his own with the Hebraicum? Looks like I will be hunting for more information on the Book of Cerne!

~~~

Martin McNamara. (2000) The Psalms in the Early Irish Church. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series 165. Sheffield Academic Press.

thone geongan sceapweard

thurh sweotolung geswac

ofteah him his sceapa

ond naefre his anflogena

 -

ond in ieglande innefarne

at ende

mid thaem oflet hine

the naefdon in godspelle riptiman

beneothan heofonwelum

beutan geleafan

swa swa aerest se cnapa

--

whatever

seduced the little shepherd

with a vision

took him from his sheep

but not his birds

-

and on the inner farne

at last

left him to the company of those

his preaching could not profit

beneath glory

beyond faith

like the boy he once was

--

by david lisle crane

The feast of John has been set for December 27 from the early days of the church. It was originally reserved for both John and his brother James the Greater, but soon it was for John alone. According to the Online Catholic Encyclopedia the only death date (assumption) ever given for John is September 26th. The feast of John and Paul on June 26 refer to two Gaullic men who were martyred under Julian the Apostate.

Bede wrote two homilies on St John. The first is as expected his homily for today, the feast of St John the Apostle and Evangelist. The second is the homily on the feast of "St Paul and St John (or St James)". Although this feast is supposed to be on two Roman martyrs in the time of Julian, thanks to the lectionary choice (Matt 20:20-23) Bede really wrote about John and his brother James.

Bede on the Feast of St John (Homily 1.9; John 21:19-24)

Bede's homily on John is focuses on the contrast between Peter and John, unusually between an active and contemplative life. Bede acknowledges that John was quite active as an Apostle, but sees him primarily as an example of the contemplative life. If Bede is reflecting a common belief about John, it may also explain why John was so honored at Lindisfarne and among the Anglo-Celtic party in Northumbria.

Bede reviews John's activities in the Gospels, defends the tradition that John is the beloved disciple, and focuses on the tradition of his chastity.

"This disciple's leaning upon the master's breast was not only a sign of present love, but also of future mystery. Already at that time it was prefigured that the gospel which this same disciple was going to write would include the hidden mysteries of divine majesty more copiously and profoundly than the rest of the pages of sacred scripture.... Indeed we know that the rest of the evangelists spoke more about the Savior's miracles and less about his divinity. John, however, wrote very little about [Christ's] human acts, and instead applied himself of explaining the hidden mysteries of his divine nature, unmistakably suggesting [by this] what great matters of heavenly teaching he had imbibed from Jesus' breast, from which he was pouring forth for us." (p. 88)

Bede then tackles what John means by saying that the beloved disciple will 'remain until I come'.

"[Christ's] saying about John, 'I wish him to remain thus until I come,' suggests the state of contemplative virtue, which is not to be ended through death, as the active life is, but after death is to be more perfectly completed with the coming of the Lord. Now active labor, when it comes to an end with death, will receive an eternal reward after death. For who gives bread to the hungry in that life where no one hungers? Who gives water to the thirsty where no one thirsts? Who buries the dead where it is the land of the living? Who carries out the rest of the works of mercy where no is found to be in need of mercy? And so no laborious action will be there, but only the everlasting fruit of past action. Contemplative happiness, however, which commences here, will be made perfect without end when the presence of the heavenly citizens and of the Lord himself will be seen, not through a mirror and in a dark manner as now, but face to face. Hence about this [life], Jesus properly said under the image of the disciple whom he loved and whom he made to lean on his breast, 'I wish him to remain thus until I come'. It is as if he were clearly saying, 'I do not want the taste of contemplative delight, which I especially love in my saints, who are hoping in the protection of my wings, inebriated by the abundance of my house, and who have been made to drink from the torrent of my refreshment -- I do not want this to be ended by dying, as [happens after] laborious action, but [I wish it] to be more sublimely perfected after death, when I will appear and lead them into the sight of my majesty.'

He then mentions that John waited so long to write his gospel after the death of Domitian because he was answering critics who questioned Jesus' divinity before his incarnation in the Virgin Mary.

Feast of John and Paul (or James) (Homily 2.21; Matt 20:20-23)

This is the 'sons of thunder' episode. First Bede feels he must explain why either of them wanted to sit on Christ's left hand in heaven because in the final separation, those on his left are damned. He also careful to explain Jesus' deference to the Father and how Jesus speaks of a distinct separation between himself and the Father. Lastly he writes about John's death:

"Concerning John, trustworthy histories tell that when he was aware that the day of his death was near, he called his disciples together at Ephesus. Declaring Christ by many proofs and signs, he let himself down into the place that had been hallowed out for his burial, and when he had made his prayer he was gathered to his fathers, as free from the sorrow of death as he was a stranger to the corruption of the flesh. How, then, is he said to have drunk from the Lord's chalice, since it is sure that he did not depart this body by a death caused by suffering? Is it not because this chalice is drunk in two ways: one when death is inflicted by a persecutor is patiently endured, the other when the mind is held ready for suffering, when a life is led that is worthy of martyrdom?

John himself taught how he was prepared to drink of the chalice of death for the Lord's sake when he bore prison and beating with the rest of the apostles with a joyful mind, as we read in their acts; when he was exiled to the island of Patmos on account of [his speaking] the word of God and on account of [his bearing] witness to Jesus; when, as Church history tells us, he was cast into a pot of boiling oil by the emperor Domitian: by the Lord's favor he emerged from it as unscathed and clean as he had been chaste in mind and body -- just as when he was in exile, by [the Lord's] favorable disposition, the more he seemed to be deprived of human solace, the more abundantly did he merit to be consoled by the company of citizens from on high. Hence he too is truly understood to have drunk the Lord's chalice, along with his brother James who was killed by the sword, for one who underwent great [torments] for the sake of the truth showed how ready he was to accept even death, if it were offered to him.

But we too, dearly beloved brothers, even if we endure nothing of his sort... nevertheless we are capable of receiving the Savior's chalice and obtaining the psalm of martyrdom if we take care to chastise our bodies and subdue them; if we accustom ourselves to supplicating the Lord in the spirit of humility and with a contrite heart, if we attempt to accept with a calm mind insults inflicted by our neighbors; if we rejoice in loving even those who hate us, who inflict injustice upon us, and in doing good to them and praying earnestly with the virtue of patience and also with the fruits of good works. If we live our lives in this way, and in according to the Apostle's words, display our bodies as a living heavenly condenscension deign to see to it that we are rewarded with the same glory as those who have given their bodies up to death for the Lord's sake. Just as their death is precious in the sight of the Lord, so will our lives become precious [in his sight], and once the chains of the flesh have been broken, we too will be worthy to enter into the courts of the city on high, and, together with the chorus of the blessed martyrs, to render our prayers of thanksgiving to our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with the Father in unity with the Holy Spirit, God throughout all the ages. Amen.

Homily 2.9, p. 218-219.

~~~

Bede the Venerable. Homilies on the Gospels. Two volumes. L. Martin and D. Hurst, trans. Kalamazoo,MI: Cistercian Publications, 1991.

• Book One: Advent to Lent
• Book Two: Lent to the Dedication of the Church.

Anyhow, the reason that I mention it is because I keep taking the east coast line, even though it's longer, because the views between Berwick and Durham (ish) are so lovely, and I don't get to spend enough time looking at the sea, in general. I really should spend some time in that part of the world - I've only ever been to Newcastle to catch a ferry to Hamburg, and have never been to any of the coastal areas between there and Whitby (which is lovely), and I have a hankering to visit Lindisfarne and Durham. So, yes.

And then last weekend I was off to Aviemore and Grantown-on-Spey for a friend's birthday celebrations. It is possible that December is not the best time to visit the Highlands, but the scenery in the area was very impressive, all snowy and frosted, and there was a nice xmas market in Aviemore, complete with Ubiquitous Samba Band. Tragically I missed the part of the weekend that involved visiting the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre, but perhaps I will go back in the summer, possibly on my way to taking the ferry to Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes. (NB: this is not a trip that is more vaguely considered than planned, though it may happen if finances/timings make next summers' travel extravaganza impossible.) We stayed in the Ben Mhor hotel, which was perfect for our needs, even down to its xmas disco on the Saturday night. Also, Grantown-on-Spey offers excellent Bangladeshi food. Who knew?

"The difference between Aidan and Cuthbert, on the one hand, and Wilfrid on the other can be traced to their different scripts. Aidan and Cuthbert received their scripts exclusively through the Celtic Christian meliu of northern Britain. In that melieu, sanctity has long been bound up in the ideal of martyrdom that centered on ascetic self-control. Wilfrid had taken more of his script, however, from the Latin-Mediterranean cities of Rome and Lyon ... both... had been drenched with the blood of Christian martyrs who stood firm against persecution from secular authorities. ...In both places, Wilfrid encountered through legend and witnessed in person this ancient ideal which understood martyrdom as the holy person's struggle against the secular ruler who is hostile to God's people and purposes. ...the Hexham church's dedication to Andrew is owing to more than simply some general devotion that Wilfrid had for the Roman Gregorian tradition which Andrew supposedly symbolized; it can be traced more specifically to Wilfrid's recognition that Andrew's story was also his own. The Hexham church thus stands as a memorial not only to Andrew's ordeal, but to Wilfrid's as well.

...In the final chapter of Wilfrid's Life, Eddius [Stephan] writes the following in loving admiration of his late master: 'But now it is for us to believe fully and perfectly that our intercessor [Wilfrid] by the sign of the holy cross has been made equal to the apostles of God, Peter and Andrew, who he specifically loved." ... I suspect that by so ending his Life in ascribing to Wilfrid an apostle-martyr status equal to Andrew's, Eddius was remembering his old abbot to the world in exactly the way that Wilfrid would have wanted." (p. 29-31)

I think Foley's identification of the Latin-Mediterranean model for Wilfrid's life is a very important one. We often write/talk about authors modeling their subjects on this or that, but it is also probable that people really did model their lives on their heroes. Remember that a saint is a hero; a more important hero to a true monastic than any secular hero, real or fictional. Its also not surprising that these two different religious lifestyles would each choose a local model saint that exemplified those ideas, Wilfrid for the Mediterranean model and Cuthbert for the Anglo-Celtic/Celtic model. I think it may be better to talk of Wilfrid in this Mediterranean mode because the term Romanist (which I admit that I use all the time) is charged with many post-Reformation feelings and images that are not relevant for the seventh century.

I wonder if it is likely that two such polar examples of piety could have only developed in direct opposition to one another. Both living in the same kingdom at the same time. Cuthbert is the student of Eata, who was the bishop in most direct contact and conflict with Wilfrid (previously discussed here), and Eata was the oldest and perhaps most trusted English pupil of Aidan of Lindisfarne. Wilfrid was the student of Bishop 'Dalphinus' of Lyon and Bishop Agilbert (later of Paris, originally of somewhere in Gaul).

I think we also sometimes get into this mode of considering Cuthbert to be all goodness and light and Wilfrid to be nasty and political, but that is a trap. Each followed their own model and teacher. I don't doubt Wilfrid's faith, sincerity, or belief that it was right -- and he usually was! Contemporary kings gave him plenty of reason to feel persecuted. I'm sure they did prefer the quiet monks who, as far as we know, very rarely interfered in politics and didn't want their wealth. Yet, Wilfrid's practical approach to politics and endowments to his monasteries got results. Endowments are a necessary thing when your king dies and the throne passes from his lineage, as no doubt Jarrow knew full well. Their endowments ended abruptly with the death of King Ecgfrith. From then on they have to barter with King Aldfrith for additional lands and there are no royal building programs at Wearmouth-Jarrow. I really have to wonder how monasteries like Lastingham survived when their founder was branded a traitor. They must have got help from the episcopal sees of Cedd and Chad. Their political position would have made establishing veneration of Cedd even more important than usual.

This is one of the few passages that tells us anything about Bede's training. Trumberht had been trained by Bishop Chad and was probably a member of his household. Although Chad founded a monastery at Barrow in Lindsey, it seems more likely that he came from Lastingham since he came to Northumbria after the death of Chad. Barrow was probably Chad's primary residence while he was administering to his duties in Lindsey.

Bede tells us that Trumberht was one of those who taught him scriptures as a child. As Trumberht himself had been trained under Chad's direction, we can guess that he was significantly influenced by the Irish in his scriptural interpretation. We can imagine that this story of Chad's Fear of God and of storms would have come up several times in Bede's scriptural studies. We can envision the child Bede sitting near Trumberht listening to stories from his travels and the monasteries that he had lived in. It may be from Trumberht and his stories of Chad that Bede gained some of his initial good will toward the Anglo-Celtic party.

This story of Chad that Trumberht tells Bede reminds me of the Fear of God found in Cuthbert's 'Letter on the Death of Bede'. What we know for certain is that with the help of Trumberht and others, Bede developed a palpable Fear of God. Bede clearly thought that Chad's Fear of God was appropriate. Of the stories that Trumberht told Bede, this is the story that Bede chose to include in his History.

As for Chad's fear of storms, this may come from his childhood on Lindisfarne when they would have weathered storms in probably initially insubstantial cells. The monastery was on the side of the island that faced the mainland. This is not high ground like the location of the castle. Indeed, the mainland side is low enough for the sea to flood in making it a tidal island. What high ground there is on Lindisfarne is on the sea side, which makes a great deal of sense for the island's formation. During my visit to Lindisfarne in 2003 we happened to come to the island when a regular storm rolled in over the North Sea. It wasn't a great thunderstorm, just driving rain, but on Lindisfarne it was quite impressive. Feeling the sea charged up by the storm on a tidal island where it seems like the sea could swallow it up at any time, its not hard to imagine where Chad's fears originated. The Christian God of storms is found most strongly in the psalms, particularly psalm 29. We know the tradition set up by Aidan and continued by Chad placed great emphasis on the psalms. Psalm 29 must have felt like it was written particularly for Lindisfarne.

"Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is mighty upon the waters.

The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is splendor.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon;

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare.

And in the temple of the Lord, all are crying, "Glory!"

The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.

The Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 29, p. 620-621.

Royal martyrs to about the year 869 when St Edmund of East Anglia (whose feast day is today) dies: (some of the names below are links)

• King Eorpwald of East Anglia (c. 633): killed by a heathen Ricberht; he kept Christianity out of the kingdom for three years until the kingdom was taken back by Eorpwald's brother Sigibert.
• King Sigiberht of East Anglia (c. 640s): Died in battle because he had taken the vows of a monk and refused to carry a weapon.
• King Oswald of Bernicia and Deira (5 Aug 642): died defending his kingdom and therefore the kingdom of Christ he built therein. Considered a martyr early.
• King Oswine of Deira (15 Aug 651): executed for refusing to fight a battle he was doomed to loose. Questionable martyr, early records just call it an unjust murder. Veneration of Oswine does not seem to begin until his body was rediscovered by Earl Tostig in c. 1065.
• King Anna of East Anglia (c. 653): died in battle against pagan Penda of Mercia, the same king who slew Oswald of Bernicia and Deira. Bede talks about King Anna being very pious and the Addendum on Foillian calls him the "Divine Right Hand of God". The Addendum specifically talks about him defending monasteries from Penda's destruction, making him as much of a martyr as Oswald. There is some evidence of local veneration but it may have been wiped out during the Danish invasions.
• King Peada of South Mercia and Middle Anglia (656): Murdered with the help of his wife, Queen Alhflæd, daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria "during the very time of the Easter festival." Questionable martyr but we know very little about his death or Mercia during this period.
• King Sigiberht the Saint of East Saxons (c. 660s): Sigibert was murdered by two of his kinsmen. "When they were asked why they did it, they could make no reply except that they were angry with the king and hated him because he was too ready to pardon his enemies, calmly forgiving them for the wrongs they had done him, as soon as they asked his pardon. Such was the crime for which he met his death, that he had devoutly observed the gospel precepts." (Bede, HE III:22)
• Princes Æthelred and Æthelberht of Kent (669): Murdered and considered saints immediately. Minister-in-Thanet was given to their sister Eormenburgh, wife of King Merewealh of the Magonsæte, as a blood price for their deaths. St. Mildrith was Eormenburgh and Merewealh's daughter.
• Queen Osthryth of Mercia (697): Murdered by her own thanes; considered a saint at Bardney. Too little is known about her veneration to know if her murder was part of the reason for her veneration or if she was a founder saint due to her support of Bardney.
• King Ælfwald I of Northumbria (788): Murdered, considered a saint almost immediately.
  
• King Æthelberht II of East Anglia (794): Murdered by Offa of Mercia, considered a saint almost immediately. He is the patron saint of Hereford Cathedral.
• King Kenelm of Merica (811): Murdered at about age 25 and considered a martyr almost immediately. His legend has warped to such a degree there is no certainty on the facts of his death.
• King Edmund of East Anglia (869): Tortured and murdered by the Danes after being defeated in battle; considered a martyr and saint almost immediately. Unlike a recent History Channel episode (Barbarians II), there is no evidence that I know of that Edmund got the 'bloody eagle'. This is another elaboration of the myth. The most common story of his martyrdom has him shot full of arrows like St. Sebastian.

Of course not all kings who met violent deaths are listed here. Edwin of Deira is a notable absence because he died at the hands of a Christian, Cadwallon of Gywnedd, in battle. Whatever the ultimate cause of Cadwallon's 'rebellion' it is unlikely to have been due to Edwin's Christianity or his bishop's authority. There is no real evidence that Paulinus of York tried to take control of British churches. For the first couple Christian centuries many, if not most, kings died violent deaths, so this is not a matter of just being a violent death.

So what made some of these kings major saints, and others were nearly forgotten? The early spreading of veneration is of course a major boon to a burgeoning cult. If the veneration had spread west, as it did for Oswald, Æthelberht of East Anglia, and Edmund of East Anglia, then it is more likely to have survived Danelaw. But even before Danelaw there are some obvious differences. King Sigibert the Saint of Essex is a good example. Bede goes out of his way to show that Sigiberht is a saint, in obvious contradiction to the information he got that tried to claim that Sigiberht's death was because he defied Bishop Cedd's orders not to visit kinsmen who had made a marriage that the bishop did not approve. Bishop Cedd's attitudes to royal saints are a vital piece of the puzzle and Lindisfarne in particular did not venerate royalty. Oswald became a saint in spite of Lindisfarne's attitude. Recognition of martyrdom is very much in the eyes of the beholder and we are certainly influenced by our attitudes toward martyrdom when we evaluate the past.

For more information:

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994.

Hild's return to Northumbria from East Anglia in 646 was one of the most important events in the development of the early Northumbrian church. She had been in East Anglia staying with her nephew King Ealdwulf waiting for a ship to take her to Gaul (France) where she could join her sister Hereswitha in the convent at Chelles. Like her sister, Hild was almost certainly a widow. She was 32 years old and for a woman of her time, she would have been expected to either marry or enter a convent long before, particularly since her closest male kinsmen were all dead.

Hild and her sister Hereswitha remind me of Mary and Martha of Bethany. When she was widowed, Hereswitha decided to leave England and enter a convent in Gaul (France) where she could be free to lead a contemplative life, free of all the hassles of royal, secular life or even royal religious life. She left behind at least one son who became a long reigning king of East Anglia. Gaul was a common destination for southern English women before the 650s because there were very few convents or double monasteries in England. Had she remained in the land ruled by her brothers in law, she would have had to found her own monastery as most other royal women of her era did if they wished to remain in Britain. Its also possible that her brothers in law would rather she leave the kingdom than require support from them. So at age 32 Hild goes to East Anglia to wait for a whole year for transportation to join her sister at Chelles when Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne and probably her cousin King Oswine calls her home to Northumbria (Deira?). If she was a widow, then presumably she could have refused and continued to join in her sister in Gaul. If she wasn't a widow, then her cousin King Oswine, the head of her father's kindred in 647, could have demanded that she return home, but it seems likely that King Anna of East Anglia could have seen to it that she made it to Chelles, if they wished. So, there is no reason to believe that Hild didn't return home to a world of work of her own accord. There were no convents in Northumbria; she would have to build everything from scratch.

So why did Bishop Aidan want to to come home so badly that he would make a last ditch effort to catch her before she boarded a ship for Gaul? It was finally time for the Lindisfarne mission to begin to found women's monasteries (convents) and Aidan was certainly searching for capable women. He needed a Martha. I believe that with the help of King Oswine, Aidan identified Hild as just the woman he needed probably because she had a reputation as been a good manager of a household. Aidan had previously given the veil to Heiu, the first nun in Northumbria, but she doesn't seem to have been cut out to be an abbess. Aidan gave Hild the veil at the age of 33, and placed her on one hide of land (big enough to support one family) on the north side of the River Wear (possibly near Abbot Utta's monastery of Gateshead?) where she remained for one year while she was learning to be a nun.

After her year of training, Hild moved on to become Abbess of Hartlepool in her homeland of Deira. Abbess Heiu who had earlier founded Hartlepool retired to Calcaria (Tadcaster?). Bede does not connect Heiu's retirement to Hild's arrival at Hartlepool; he simply says that Heiu retired shortly after founding Hartlepool. Running the first convent, really double monastery (both men and women under an abbess), was not an easy job! Bede tells us that when she came to Hartlepool she set to work establishing the Rule of Life in accordance with that she had been taught by Bishop Aidan with great industry. In 651 her cousin King Oswine was executed by his rival King Oswiu and Bishop Aidan died within a fortnight of each other. Despite the bitterness that Oswine's execution must have held for Abbess Hild, as it did for Oswiu's Queen Eanflæd another cousin of Oswine, Hild seems to have had at least the respect of Oswiu. While at Hartlepool she was entrusted the infant oblate Ælfflæd daughter of King Oswiu and Hild's cousin Queen Eanflæd, whom she raised and eventually succeeded her as abbess of Whitby.

Two years later, in 657, Hild went on to found a new monastery at Whitby (Streanæshalch), one of the greatest monasteries of the age. It was here that the famous Synod of Whitby was held in 664 with Abbess Hild as the hostess. Synods are not usually held at convents or double monasteries; that it was held here is a testament to the respect Hild and her monastery as held by the entire Northumbrian church. Here as Lees and Overing famously entitled an article, she was 'birthing bishops and fathering poets'. Throughout the seventh century, Whitby was the lead training and learning monastery in Northumbria. Among the young men trained at Whitby, five went on to become bishops -- Bosa of York (678-86, 691-706), Ætla of Dorchester (670s), Oftfor of the Hwicce (c. 691-?), John of Beverly (bishop of Hexham 687-706 and York 706-721) and Wilfrid II of York (721-732). Another of Hild's students Tatfrith had been chosen to become bishop of the Hwicce died before he could be consecrated. It was also Hild who recognized that the shy cowherd Cædmon had been blessed by God with the ability to compose songs of praise to God in the English language. Bede considered Cædmon to be the first Christian poet in the English language and he includes a snippet in his History, translated into to Latin. Some of the early scribes who copied Bede's History translated it into Old English and they are the among the earliest examples of Old English poetry (in at least two dialects, if I recall correctly). One of the most impressive modern crosses (below) raised in Britain is dedicated to Cædmon and Hild and placed near modern Whitby. The four panels are from top down: Christ, David with his lyre, St. Hild (surrounded by the faces of her five students who became bishops) and Cædmon near eye level. We know during this time Hild was also expanding her monastic network to include at least another monastery at Hackness and perhaps another monastery near Carlisle.

Cædmon's Cross (modern), Whitby

(available here via a creative commons license)

Hild did not escape being pulled into the politics of her day. She had been baptized by the Roman Bishop Paulinus of York in c. 626 with her uncle King Edwin. Yet, she returned to Northumbrian at the summons of Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, who followed Iona's practices and was, as we would say today, not in communion with Rome. We know that she was on Lindisfarne's side at the Synod of Whitby and consistently was a leader among the Anglo-Celtic party in Northumbria. This made her the rival of Bishop Wilfrid. When Wilfrid was deposed and his see was divided in 678, Hild's student Bosa became Bishop of York with authority over Whitby. According to Stephan's Life of Wilfrid, when Bishop Wilfrid appealed the loss of his see and his exile to Rome (the first such appeal from Britain), much to his surprise when he reached Rome in 679 he found representatives from "holy" Abbess Hild and Archbishop Theodore waiting for him. They lost their case to Wilfrid, but King Ecgfrith would not allow Bishop Wilfrid to return to Northumbria. We don't know if Hild heard the outcome of their case against Wilfrid, she died the following year on November 17th. Despite Wilfrid's various wins and losses over the next 25 years, Whitby managed to keep a bishop of its own training at least through the lifetime of Hild's successor and foster child Abbess Ælfflæd who died about 714.

Hild was considered a saint immediately upon her death. Although Bede does not tell us that she was buried in the Church of St. Peter at Whitby we can probably assume this is so. Her legacy at Whitby became a complicated one that I shall save for another post. However, material in Bede's History, deference given to her memory even by her rivals disciples in the Life of Wilfrid, and the beautiful account of her death in the Old English Martyrology both confirm that information of Hild's life was preserved in detail outside of Whitby. We might suspect that her five bishops and the countless numbers of students who enjoyed her hospitality and instruction ensured her sainthood. The works of Anglo-Saxon England's own Martha have stood the test of time and her memory flourishes today as one of the few early female saints of the Church of England. She is the only female English "Celtic" saint recognized today; books on female Celtic saints must always make room for this one Englishwoman. There are probably more church and school dedications to St. Hild within the Anglican Communion than any other non-biblical female saint.

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Updated 20 Nov 2007

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III Chapter 25 and Book IV Chapters 23, 24. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994.

Stephan of Ripon, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, D. Farmer, Ed. The Age of Bede, Penguin.

Lees, Clare and Gillian Overing. "Birthing Bishops and Fathering Poets: Bede, Hild, and the Relations of Cultural Production." Exemplaria 6 (1994) 35-65.