Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

Posts Tagged ‘Northumbria’

Willibrord was born in Northumbria in England about 658, and studied in France and Ireland. In 690 he set out with 12 companions to preach to the pagans of Frisia (a region roughly coextensive with the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, including some adjacent territories and the Frisian Islands in the North Sea). In 695 he was consecrated bishop at Rome. From there, he returned to the mission field, eventually establishing his see at Utrecht (in modern day Holland). Some of those he attempted to convert would later turn against him, destroying churches and killing missionaries. For a time, Willibrord preached to the Danes, but he returned to Frisia after the death of Radbod, and, with the help of Boniface, he rebuilt what had been destroyed. He died in 739.

COLLECT
O Lord our God, you call whom you will and send them where you choose. We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord to be an evangelist among the people of the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel first came to the northern English in 627, but it was soon suppressed by a resurgence of Paganism. In 633, Oswald became the king of Northumbria, and proceeded at once to restore the Christian mission. Because he had been exiled in a monastery at Iona, he selected an Ioniana, Corman, to preach to the people of his kingdom. Corman returned, having had no success, but a fellow monk, Aidan, responded by telling Corman, “Perhaps you were too harsh with them, and they might have responded better to a gentler approach.” At this, Aidan found himself appointed to lead a second expedition. He centered his work, not at York, but in imitation of his home monastery, on Lindisfarne, an island off the northeast coast of England.

With his fellow monks and the English youths whom he trained, Aidan restored Christianity in Northumbria, King Oswald often serving as his interpreter, and extended the mission through the midlands as far south as London.

Aidan died at the royal town of Bamborough on August 31, 651. The historian Bede said of him: “He neither sought nor loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately to the poor whatever was given him by kings or rich men of the world. He traversed both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity. Wherever on his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if pagans, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or if they were believers, he sought to strengthen them in their faith and stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.”

COLLECT
Loving God, you called your servant Aidan from the peace of a cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England, and endowed him with gentleness, simplicity, and strength. Grant that we, following his example, may use what you have given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.