Month: April 2026

The Lindisfarne trilogy concludes here on a high note.

After the Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery, the surviving monks soon resumed their religious business as usual. There are numerous archaeological relics dated to the time period. The most well-known is the Lindisfarne stone. The partly destroyed stone is actually a tombstone which portrays the Viking raiders. The monks of Lindisfarne continued their ministry for 80 more years before ongoing Viking raids finally forced them to abandon the location. The Viking/Dane invasion is quite complicated (all of history is more complicated than we think), but eventually the Northumbrian kingdom collapsed under the relentless attacks. The monks relocated to the southwest, bringing Cuthbert’s body with them.

Fast forward 200 years to William the Conqueror. William regained political and military control of Northumbria and quickly appointed William of St. Calais as bishop of the area. Yes, two guys named William can be confusing, but it’s England. The new Bishop appropriated lands in the Durham area, including the island of Lindisfarne. Eventually, Lindisfarne castle and priory were rebuilt and business as usual resumed. Except for one tiny thing. A larger priory had been established at the city of Durham, and the powers that be decided St. Cuthbert’s body would remain there instead of being returned to Lindisfarne. Why would they do this? To draw pilgrims to Durham instead of Lindisfarne! The Bishop of Durham was worried Lindisfarne would again become the most important religious location in England. I think Heinlein had it right when he said, “Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” 

Lindisfarne priory continued for another four centuries. Then came Henry the 8th, who broke away from the authority of the church in Rome. Those darn kings and emperors, always interfering in the realm of religion! In any case, Lindisfarne monastery was shut down. Shut down, but not completely shut down. People kept coming on pilgrimage to the site. Even as the buildings fell into ruin over the centuries, people kept visiting. Today, at Easter time, there’s an event called the Northern Cross pilgrimage where people make a week long journey to Lindisfarne. There’s now a cenotaph (empty tomb) where St. Cuthbert was originally buried. There’s a museum. And I suspect there’s a souvenir shop!

One last thing to note. The back side of the Lindisfarne Stone is a counterpoint to the Viking raiders portrayed on the front.

The other side of the stone shows people worshipping at the cross of Christ. Some scholars say this is a scene of the last days, the apocalypse referred to in Revelation. I can see that from the sun and the moon portrayed, and from the idea that every knee shall bow. I prefer to think of it as a counterpoint to the front side. Despite the evils of the world (Viking raiders), Jesus remains in power over the world. It may be as hard for us to believe that today as it was for the Northumbrian Christians to believe it when the Vikings devastated Lindisfarne and occupied their country. But we must believe it.

I mentioned in my last post that Lindisfarne was a key location for the spread of Christianity in Northeastern Britain. Lindisfarne also has the distinction of being the location where the Vikings first invaded western Europe. The ‘pagan’ Vikings raided the Lindisfarne monastery in 793, killing many of the monks and destroying large portions of the abbey. This was a psychologically devastating attack as one of the holiest shrines had been sacked and St. Cuthbert had not intervened to prevent it.

I should mention two things. First, St. Cuthbert had died some 100 years previously. It seems peculiar that anyone would have expected a dead man to stop the Vikings. However, when Cuthbert died, his body seemed not to decay. He was placed in a coffin shrine and venerated as a saint. Soon, miracles began to be attributed to being in the presence of Cuthbert’s body. Lindisfarne became a major pilgrimage site. Kings and nobles supported the monastery financially, making it a place of Christian learning and scholarship. The famous Lindisfarne Gospels were one of the products of that community.

Thus, it came as a great shock that St. Cuthbert had not protected this site from Viking raiders.

There’s one other thing I need to mention, to be fair to the Vikings. (Do the Vikings need to be treated fairly?) The attack on the Lindisfarne community wasn’t just ‘random Viking violence.’ King Charlemagne had destroyed numerous ‘pagan’ Viking shrines during his many campaigns of war throughout Europe. The Vikings were sending a message back to Charlemagne. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they went down in history as heartless marauders. Charlemagne went down in history as the man who united western and central Europe and became Emperor. Charlemagne may have killed far more people than the Vikings ever did, but history isn’t always fair.

Christianity in England survived the ‘failure’ of St. Cuthbert. People had to adjust to the reality that God doesn’t always do what they expect him to do. This problem is ongoing even today. People get disappointed, and even outraged, that God doesn’t behave the way they expect him to. The main reason people leave Christianity is because they become disappointed, even angry, with God for ‘not doing a better job at being God.’ That’s a complicated subject that I can’t really address in this short post. However, I would like to suggest to the Christian world at large that we need to do a better job teaching believers about the nature of God and the realities of the fallen world we live in. It’s good to believe in, and pray for, miracles. But when we don’t get the miracle, it shouldn’t destroy our faith in God.

Lindisfarne Castle is located on a tiny island off the northeast coast of England. By tiny, I mean 3.5 miles long and 1 mile wide. That’s about 1000 acres. The same size as actor/director/celebrity Tyler Perry’s mansion estate in Georgia. However, with respect to Tyler Perry, Lindisfarne has a critically important place in the history of the world. Okay. Let me be fair. Lindisfarne Castle has been around 1400 years. Tyler Perry has been around maybe 40 years. He has some catching up to do!

In the year 635, the Northumbrian king, Oswald (reigned 634–42), summoned an Irish monk named Aidan to be bishop of his kingdom. Oswald granted Aidan and his companions the small tidal island of Lindisfarne on which to found a monastery. This location was essentially in the political heart of the kingdom, giving Christianity great missionary access to the vast northeast territory of England. Some 40 years later, a monk names Cuthbert arrived at the monastery. Cuthbert eventually became Prior of the area and instituted changes to religious practices. At the time, Christianity in England was split between two sets of practices (how very modern of them). First, there were the practices established by St. Patrick and the early Irish believers. Second, there were practices that the church at Rome had put into place.

Explaining the complexities of these various differences would require a textbook. However, I can give a simple example. The earlier practices and the Roman practices had established different dates for celebrating Easter. This meant there were also different dates for Lent. Imagine if you were still fasting during Lent but your neighbors were feasting after celebrating the Resurrection. Imagine a family where Mom was fasting and Dad was ready to eat! Dad is probably always ready to eat, but that’s beside the point. In any case, when Cuthbert became Prior, he chose to standardize religious practices. In doing so, he chose the Roman practices over the earlier version. This did not go over well with many.

Although Cuthbert was able to effectively get the kingdom to make the switch, he was on the receiving end of much negativity from those who opposed the change. Eventually, he simply retired to an even tinier island to be a hermit. Apparently, you don’t need social media to harass a person to despair. In any case, Cuthbert didn’t escape for long. The king simply promoted him to Bishop and forced him back into the world. Cuthbert proceeded to travel the country performing good deeds and healing illnesses.

I think this happens a lot in modern day ministry. People are called to accomplish something for God’s kingdom. They work hard at it, succeeding in spite of the difficulties and resistance. But often those people are overcome by the battle. They step back from God’s work because they’re exhausted or they’re overcome by resistance. But God doesn’t let anyone sit on the sidelines for long. It reminds me of the story of Elijah. After proving God’s supremacy over Baal, Elijah is hounded by Jezebel so badly he finally runs off into a self-imposed exile. But God doesn’t leave him there for long. God lets him rest then gives him strength and encouragement to continue his ministry, which included training his successor.