St. Aidan - His Legacy
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The 31st August sees the celebration of the Feast of
St. Aidan, the patron saint of our community in Manchester. The facts of
St. Aidan’s life and work are well known but there are three aspects
that often escape attention.
First, St. Aidan was not the first monk from Iona to land in the
northeast. The first returned post haste with lurid stories of the
barbarism of the inhabitants and their resistance to the gospel. St.
Aidan was wisely sent as a successor on the grounds that he was able to
distinguish capacity for "spiritual milk" rather than "spiritual meat."
"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to
teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have
come to need milk and not solid food." (Hebrews 5:12)
We do not know much more about this as a practical methodology but we do
know of St. Aidan’s great humility and his commitment to education of
the young, witness his establishment of a school for local youngsters on
the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne which later produced both saints and
bishops of the Church. Perhaps we should say that the saint knew what to
share with the condition and temperament of each person according to the
local culture.
In the conditions of Church and Society today we must follow this same
pattern. We must not simply expect those who know next to nothing about
Christianity to embrace the fullness and richness of Orthodoxy "in one
go." Those who have barely tasted and known that "the Lord is good," (1
Peter 2:2) can hardly be expected to understand the nuances of the "filioque"
or the Orthodox sacramental theology … but they can be Orthodox
Christians! Working out what that means is the Orthodox mission task for
today.
St. Aidan did not do any of this alone though as, initially, he did not
even know the local language … which brings me to my second point.
St. Aidan enlisted the help of others in his great task, no less than
the king (later himself to be a saint, Oswald) who became his
interpreter on his evangelistic journeys through the northeast. He also
had the foresight to know that the Church had to be built through both
sanctity and community … something, in a sense, that would be second
nature to him as a monk of Iona.
Similarly today, our mission task is a collaborative effort, a community
based initiative, enlisting gifts and skills, sometimes from the most
unusual quarters. There exist a plethora of voluntary activities and
organisations today for various charitable causes but the Church cannot
nor should not simply compete with these. Our missionary rationale is
quite different. We serve because He served, we lay down our lives
because He lay down his life, we preach the words of life because we
have been given life. Orthodox missionary work is wholly about God the
Life-Giver and bringing others to know Him and the gift of the gospel,
each according to his own capacity and need.
Finally, and curiously perhaps for our purpose here, the Lindisfarne
monastic community did not survive St. Aidan for more than two
centuries, which is a short time of course in the life of the Church. In
875 AD the monks hurriedly left as the Viking raids along the east coast
became more persistent and dangerous. They fled with St. Cuthbert’s
body, arguably, Lindisfarne’s greatest son. St. Aidan’s legacy, however,
did not die with these terrible events. His witness is not limited to
temporal constraints and human empires and therein lies his greatness
and significance for the Church today.
Our churches may well not survive in their present form. Historically,
they have been closed by Muslims, atheists, communists, fascists. They
have been plundered by invading armies. Their people have been
persecuted, killed, scattered across the globe … just like the scattered
children of Lindisfarne although on a much, much bigger scale. Orthodox
Christianity, however, is not quenched by such attacks, such
impermanence in its earthly foundations. Our life is hid in Christ and
no one can touch that. This is what has preserved St. Aidan’s witness to
this day. Against this faith and life the gates of hell itself can never
prevail. Be of good courage, therefore, Christ has overcome … and so
shall we!
Fr. Gregory
Other Orthodox Churches and Missions
dedicated to St. Aidan
Do you have details of other
Orthodox Churches dedicated to St. Aidan with or without web sites?
Please let me know and I will refer to them or link them here.
Contact:-
St. Aidan Orthodox Mission Station of the Kootenays, British Colombia, Canada
St. Aidan and St. Chad Orthodox Church, Nottingham, UK
