Northumberland can justly claim the title of "Cradle of Christianity".
Until the country was unified in Saxon times, the ancient kingdom of Northumbria stretched from the Humber (in south Yorkshire) to the Forth (near Edinburgh). This wild land was ruled by the Kings of Northumbria, one of whom, Edwin gave his name to Scotland's capital Edinburgh.
Before the Christian missionaries arrived, the kingdom was largely inhabited by people who lived by a very different code. It was the early Queens-Consort who influenced their husbands and converted them to the Christian faith. This faith prompted King Oswald to send for a man called Aidan, a friend of Oswald, who came from a Christian settlement on the island of Iona, and who converted many Northumbrians.
St. Aidan settled at Lindisfarne, an island which lies close to the "lordly strand of Northumberland", and is now known throughout the Christian world as Holy Island. Lindisfarne was then part of Bamburghshire, and its mighty fortress, Bamburgh Castle, dominates the coast to this day.
It is recorded that the man from Iona had difficulty understanding the Northumbrian speech and had to rely on an interpreter. No change there! But undeterred, St Aidan and his followers laid the foundations of the Priory Church on Holy Island, the magnificent ruins of which can still be seen and enjoyed for their special atmosphere of sanctity and continuity. The parish church of St. Mary near by dates partly from the 12th Century.
King Oswald, who brought St. Aidan to his kingdom, deserves the description of the "rocker of the cradle". In 633 the King achieved a great victory at the Battle of Heavenfield (near Wall), over the forces of the Welsh King Cadwalla. A wooden cross at the top of Brunton Bank on the Military Road marks the spot where it is said that the Christian King prayed before the battle and the tiny church of Heavenfied is named after him. Oswald died in 642 in a battle against Penda of Mercia, near Oswestry. He was a hero deserving the title saint, and his veneration spread to many parts of Europe.
After the death of Aidan in 651, many followed in the footsteps of the Saint. One of those was to become greatly loved and vividly remembered, the shepherd boy Cuthbert. Watching the sheep on Dod Law, a hill in Glendale which overlooks the little town of Wooler, the boy had a vision in which he saw the angels bearing St. Aidan to heaven in their arms. Cuthbert decided that he would devote his life to the preaching of the Gospel, studying for a time at Melrose under St. Eata. In 684, at the invitation of King Egbert he accepted the Bishopric of Hexham. Very shortly after he exchanged this Bishopric with that of Eata at Lindisfarne, where he spent the rest of his comparatively short life, teaching, preaching and counselling, before dying on the Inner Farne in 687.
After a series of Viking raids, the monks at Lindisfarne took Cuthbert's coffin away, stopping at many churches from Northumberland to Yorkshire until a resting place was finally found for him at Durham. Today the finest Norman cathedral in Europe stands on the site. Many of the churches where the Saint's body rested are dedicated to his memory, and Cuthbert as described by the Venerable Bede, appears to have been a very human saint. He loved birds and today on Holy Island some breeds are known as his "Cuthbert's chicks" while the tiny round pebbles found at Lindisfarne are known as St. Cuthbert's beads.
Paulinus is famous for his "mass" baptisms. Tradition has it that thousands of people were received into the Church at Pallinsburn, on the Wooler road, at The Lady's or St. Ninian's Well at Holystone in Coquetdale. There are also reports of similar baptisms by Paulinus near the Roman Wall north of Haltwhistle.
Life in Northumberland has changed greatly since those days, but Christians here still revere the legacy of Aidan, Cuthbert and Paulinus, and seek to follow their example of devotion to the Christian way of life.
