Born in Ireland, Aidan came to England in the 7th century. Oswald, a member of the Northumbrian royal family, had lived in exile with the monks at Iona, during the Mercian invasion. While there he became a Christian, and when he regained his throne by defeating the Mercians in the Battle of Heavenfield, he invited his friends on Iona to send a monk to help him share his faith with his Northumbrian subjects.  Aidan was not the first monk to come, but he got on well with Oswald, who would have welcomed Aidan to the the royal palace of Bamburgh, but he preferred instead the relative isolation of the island of Lindisfarne.

With King Oswald initially assisting him as translator, Aidan was responsible for the conversion of many to the Christian faith. He founded churches and monasteries, liberated Anglo Saxon slaves and educated them. Aidan had a reputation for living very modestly. After Oswald's death, Aidan supported Oswald's brother King Oswin and the two became good friends. One day Oswin gave him a fine horse but almost immediately Aidan gave it away to a poor man. During Lent he went on retreat to the Inner Farne, from where in AD651, he saw Bamburgh being burnt by Fenda, another militant King of Mercia. He prayed successfully for the wind to change, but died later that year.

The Vikings sacked Lindisfarne in AD793 and St Aidan was forgotten for a while, but in the 10th century the monks of Glastonbury obtained his supposed relics, reviving interest in him.

The Venerable Bede praised him for his eloquence, his prayerfulness, peaceful nature, humility and care of the sick and poor.

We acknowledge information provided by the Independent Catholic News and also by Chris Hudson, one of the original Brinkburn Lifepath team.