ST. AIDAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, August 31st

Collect

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God : that the devout observance of this festival of blessed Aidan, thy Confessor and Bishop, may be profitable unto us for our advancement in all godliness, and for the attainment of everlasting salvation. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

For the legend

From the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by St. Bede the Venerable

OSWALD, King of the Northumbrians, had been baptized when he was in banishment amongst the Scots. Afterwards, when he was set on the throne, he sent to the elders of that nation for a Catholic bishop. And they sent him a man called Aidan, a monk of great meekness and godliness, from the Monastery of Saint Columba, in the island of Iona. To him Oswald have a Bishop's See in the Island of Lindisfarne. Now Aidan could not speak English well, and when he was preaching the Gospel, there could often be seen the lovely spectacle of the King himself interpreting the heavenly word to his own officers and servants.

AIDAN had bo thought of seeking or loving anything in this world. He went about everywhere on foot. And when he met any, if they were heathens, he entreated them to almsgiving and good works. It was from his example that the monks and nuns of that time took the custom of eating nothing until after three o'clock in the afternoon, upon all Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year except during the fifty days of Eastertide.

IN this man are many things which I recommend for the imitation of my readers. He was a profound lover of peace and charity, of self-control, and of lowliness ; his soul had risen above anger and avarice ; he looked down upon pride and vainglory. He was very diligent in working and in teaching ; firm as became a priest when it was his duty to rebuke the proud and mighty ; very tender in comforting the sick and relieving the poor ; in short, I may say that it was his use to leave nothing undone which he knew from the Evangelists, or the Apostles, or the Prophets, that he ought to do. He died [in 651, surviving Saint Oswald by only eleven days,] in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, and was buried in the Island of Lindisfarne on the right hand of the altar, as an honour due to such a bishop. He was never formally canonized, but hath the right of an immemorial cultus in the English province of the Church.

From the Anglican Breviary