Aidan, Bede, Cuthbert

Aidan, Bede, Cuthbert by David Adam was published by SPCK in March 2006 and is our 14806th best seller. The ISBN for Aidan, Bede, Cuthbert is 9780281057733.

In this rousing book, David Adam celebrates the lives and interweaving stories of Aidan, Bede and Cuthbert. Recalling, in a personal introduction, his ordination to the pastoral ministry in Durham Cathedral (the burial place of Bede and Cuthbert) and his thirteen years as Vicar of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne (where Aidan lived), the author communicates clearly his appreciation of these three great saints. They have much to teach us, he believes, about vision - about expanding our spiritual awareness and deepening our love for God.

St Aidan was Irish by birth and was a monk at lona before being selected as the first Bishop of Lindisfarne in 635. In time he became pastor to all of Northumbria. The chapters on his life cover the topics ‘Aidan and the open door’, ‘On firm foundations’, ‘Open hearts and hands’ and ‘Feet on the ground’.

St Bede was born in 673 near Sunderland, and was a monk at Jarrow on the Tyne. He is revered for his scholarly output of commentaries on the Scriptures and his famous Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is such an important source of our knowledge of the development of Christianity in Britain. The chapters on his life cover the topics ‘Bede at St Peter’s, Wearmouth’, ‘St Paul’s, Jarrow’, ‘The loss of a friend and mentor’ and ‘Candle of the church’.

St Cuthbert, when he was sixteen, received a vision of the soul of St Aidan being carried to heaven by angels. This vision may have convinced him to enter holy orders at Meirose where he became Prior. Later, having lived for some time as a hermit on the island of Fame, he was reluctantly persuaded to become Bishop of Lindisfarne in 685. Two years later he resigned his see and retired to Fame Island where he died on 20 March 687. The chapters on his life cover the topics ‘Cuthbert and the angels’, ‘Reaching out’, ‘Lindisfarne’ and ‘The last days’.