Seventh-century Ireland is becoming a land of saints, scholars, and spiritual foster mothers as well as warriors. The boy Aidan, a descendant of Saint Brigid, is formed by all of these as well as by a pilgrimage, aborted by an Arab uprising, on which he meets a follower of the Prophet Muhammad. He is transferred to Iona, the mother-house of Saint Columba's family of monasteries, where his character is forged. Aidan becomes guest-master to challenging visitors, one of whom conducts a mysterious affair, suffers a midlife crisis, and develops friendships with royal Saxon exiles at the Dunadd court, the seat of the "real" King Arthur. Iona commissions Aidan to evangelize the original WASPs: the White, Anglo-Saxon Pagan invaders of Britain. Aidan offers a radically different approach to that of the Roman missionaries. His gentle grassroots gospel-sharing through friendship, his villages of God that model God's kingdom, his introduction of spiritual foster-mothers such as Hilda to the English, his soul friendships and heartbreaks with successive saintly and power-hungry kings, and his near-death foresight into the future take us inside the heroic spiritual formation of a person and a people in a story that has contemporary significance. Even Aidan's name, Flame, tells a story of its own

Written in engaging and accessible prose, this book is ideal for study groups and individuals. Prayer exercises at the end of each chapter help readers incorporate into their minds and souls the wisdom Aidan and those of the Celtic period still provide for us today. Also includes poems, blessings, and 17 black-and-white line drawings.

In this rousing book, David Adam celebrates the lives and interweaving stories of the great saints Aidan, Bede and Cuthbert. They have much to teach us, he believes, about vision—about expanding our spiritual awareness and deepening our love for God.

The Reverend Percy Dearmer MA (Oxon), DD, (1867-1936) was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the ordination of women to public ministry but not to the priesthood, and very concerned with social justice. He had a strong influence on the music of the church and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. In 1901, after serving four curacies, Dearmer was appointed the third vicar of London church St. Mary-the-Virgin, Primrose Hill, where he remained until 1915. His works include: Christian Socialism and Practical Christianity (1897), The English Liturgy (1903), The English Hymnal (1906), Socialism and Religion (1908), The Church and Social Questions (1910) and Reunion and Rome (1911).

Aidan of Lindisfarne was a hard-working bishop whom I love and why I call this journal Aidan's Song. What I hope to do with this journal is, every once in a while, catch a few lines of that music and hum along in praise of the One who has made me a priest and who is my rejoicing.' Thus Fr. Aidan Wilcoxson describes his purpose in this chronicle of a mostly ordinary year in the life of a superficially ordinary parish priest. But under that bumbling exterior beats a heart full of a contagious joy that spills over into these pages. For those who are curious how a priest spends his time, this book will be enlightening. For those who tend to get discouraged by the daily grind, it will be uplifting. And for all who love to sing to the Lord-literally or figuratively-Aidan's Song will definitely have you humming along in praise.

Kate Tristam is a well-known island resident whose talks on the history of Lindisfarne hold visitors spellbound. A historian and a priest in the Church of England, she is ideally qualified to tell the remarkable story of this captivating place. From its misty beginnings as part of the mainland in the Stone Age right up to the present day, this popular history covers: its formation as an island, the Roman and Anglo-Saxon eras, the influence of Columba and Iona, Lindisfarne's own apostle, Aidan, the making of the Lindisfarne Gospels, Cuthbert, Cedd, Chad and Aidan's other followers, Hilda and the community at Whitby, Bede and the monastic tradition, the coming of the Vikings, the Benedictine years, the dissolution of the monasteries, and more.