reflection, prayers and photos by Carol Dixon – feature photo of St Aidan’s statue, Lindisfarne
I was first introduced to St Aidan when I attended the Duchess’s Girls’ Grammar School in my hometown of Alnwick, Northumberland and was put into St Aidan’s House (the other ‘houses’ were St Oswald, St Cuthbert & St Paulinus). I proudly wore my blue sash for 6 years as part of my school uniform and although I wasn’t taught much about him, I did discover that following his consecration on Iona in 635, he came to our area to found a monastery. It was Aidan’s arrival on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne that rekindled the flame of Christianity in Northumbria and his influence was much wider encompassing the whole of the north.
Many years later I discovered more about St Aidan while reading David Adam’s book Flame in my heart – St Aidan for today. David describes how Aidan and his small band of monks first settled on the island and marked out the land for the monastery…
