Finan of Lindisfarne (died 10 or 17 February 661), also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

, trained at

Iona Abbey Iona Abbey is an abbey located on the island of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianit ...

in Scotland, who became the second

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

from 651 until 661.

Life

Finan was appointed to Lindisfarne in 651, to succeed Aidan. Originally from Ireland, he built on Lindisfarne, a cathedral "in the Irish fashion", employing hewn oak, with a thatched roof. Later Archbishop

Theodore of Tarsus Theodore of Tarsus ( gr, Θεόδωρος Ταρσοῦ; 60219 September 690) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus, but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After ...

dedicated to St. Peter."Northern Saints", 'This is Durham', Durham County Council
/ref> Finan also founded St. Mary's Priory at the mouth of the River Tyne.Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Finan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 May 2013
/ref> He also participated in the founding of

Gilling Abbey Gilling Abbey was a medieval Anglo-Saxon monastery established in Yorkshire, England. It was founded at Gilling in what is currently North YorkshireBlair ''Church in Anglo-Saxon Society'' p. 187 footnote 20 by Queen Eanflæd, the wife of King Oswiu ...

, established by Queen

Eanflæd Eanflæd (19 April 626 – after 685, also known as Enfleda) was a Deiran princess, queen of Northumbria and later, the abbess of an influential Christian monastery in Whitby, England. She was the daughter of King Edwin of Northumbria and Æth ...

in memory of her kinsman

Oswine of Deira Oswine, Oswin or Osuine (died 20 August 651) was a King of Deira in northern England. Life Oswine succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswine was the son of Osric ...

. He converted the

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

s Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

.Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' pp. 79–80

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

is the main source for Finan's life.Walsh ''New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 203 He is specially noted by Bede as having borne an important part in the conversion of the northern Saxons.Webb, Alfred. ''A Compendium of Irish Biography'', M. H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1878
/ref> The breviary of Aberdeen styles him "a man of venerable life, a bishop of great sanctity, an eloquent teacher ... remarkable for his training in virtue and his liberal education, surpassing all his equals in every manner of knowledge as well as in circumspection and prudence, but chiefly devoting himself to good works and presenting in his life, a most apt example of virtue". Finan ordained St.

Cedd Cedd ( la, Cedda, Ceddus; 620 – 26 October 664) was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from the Kingdom of Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a ...

bishop of the East-Saxons, having called two other bishops to assist at his consecration. The Abbey of Whitby, his chief foundation, was the scene of the

Synod of Whitby In the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite ins ...

, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Irish monks from Lindisfarne. Finan was active for some time at a monastery on Church Island on

Lough Currane Lough Currane ( ga, Loch Luíoch), also called Lough Leeagh, is a lake in County Kerry, Ireland. Waterville, County Kerry, Waterville lies on its western bank, close to the Atlantic Ocean, it empties into Ballinskelligs Bay. Raheen, County Kerr ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

; today it is known as St. Finan's Church. To the south of the lake is Inis Uasal (Noble Island), an island which is dedicated to him. Finan died in 661,Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219 and was buried at Lindisfarne, having held that see ten years.

Veneration

Finan's feast day is celebrated upon 9 January. He is venerated in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

, the

Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland. A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...

(celebrated on 17 February), and the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Citations

References

* * * Walsh, Michael ''A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West'' London: Burns & Oats 2007

External links

*
''Ecclesiastical History of the English People''
Book 1, L.C. Jane's 1903 Temple Classics translation. From the

Internet Medieval Sourcebook The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Medieval Studies. It is a web site with modern, medieval and ancient primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, bibliographies, ...

.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Continuation of Bede (pdf)
a
CCEL
edited & translated by A.M. Sellar.
Catholic Online Saints and Angels

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finan 661 deaths Northumbrian saints Bishops of Lindisfarne 7th-century English bishops Irish Christian monks 7th-century Christian saints Medieval Irish saints Colombanian saints 7th-century Irish bishops People from County Kerry Year of birth unknown Burials at Lindisfarne