Lindisfarne was the name given to the Island by the first Anglo-Saxons to live here and we do not know the meaning of the word. But the monks of Durham, after the Norman conquest, added the words Holy Island when they looked back over the story which began with the coming of Saint Aidan and the building of the first monastery in 635AD, continued with the ministry of the "very popular" Saint Cuthbert and then received a staggering blow from the Viking attack in 793. Both to the Durham monks who died as Christian marytrs in this pagan attack and the earlier saints made the Island was deservedly named "holy".
The period of the first monastery is referred to as the "Golden Age" of Lindisfarne. Aidan and his monks came from the Irish monastery of Iona and with the support of King Oswald (based at nearby Bamburgh) worked as missionaries among the pagan English of Northumbria. In their monastery they set up the first known school in this area and introduced the arts of reading and writing, the Latin language and the Bible and other Christian books (all in Latin). They trained boys as practical missionaries who later went out over much of England to spread the Gospel. Aidan also encouraged women to become nuns and girls to receive education but not in this monastery. In time Lindisfarne became known for its skill in Christian art of which the Lindisfarne Gospels are the most beautiful surviving example. (www.lindisfarne.org.uk)
