(A.D. 661.)
[Anglican Martyrology. Colgan in his Acts of the Irish Saints notes
him on the same day. Same day in the Aberdeen Breviary, but Dempster
says he was commemorated in Scotland on Feb. 16th. Among the Irish,
Jan. 9th was regarded as a day on which S. Finan was honoured.
Authority:--Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. c. 17, 21, 25, &c.]
England was Christianized from two quarters; Kent and all the south
received the Gospel from Rome through the mission of S. Augustine; but
the whole of the north-east of the island, called Northumbria,
including the modern Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, was
Christianized from Iona, the great monastery of S. Columba.
The first four successors of Augustine at Canterbury were all chosen
from the Italian monks who had accompanied him to England; but they
all belonged to that first mission; whereas the See of Lindisfarne, as
it became vacant, was filled from Iona. The Scottish monks, thus
placed during thirty years at the head of the Church in the North of
England, showed themselves worthy of the saintly school whence they
issued, and of the glorious mission to which they were consecrated.
The first monk sent from Iona to replace the noble Aidan, (Oct. 22nd),
was S. Finan. His episcopate was prosperous; it lasted ten years, and
was not interrupted by any melancholy event, such as those which had
troubled the life of Aidan, by taking from him his two royal friends.
S. Finan always lived on good terms with king Oswy, and before going
to join his predecessor in heaven, he had the happiness of introducing
to the Church the heads of the two great Saxon kingdoms. Sigebert,
king of the East Saxons, and Peada, king of the Midland English, came
to seek baptism at the gates of Lindisfarne. This made way to the
conversion of their respective provinces, which this holy prelate
furnished with proper missioners; and after some time, he ordained the
Scot, Diuma, bishop of the Midland English, and S. Cedd (January 7th),
bishop of the East Saxons. In the island sanctuary of Lindisfarne, S.
Finan caused a cathedral to be built, not of stone, like that which
Paulinus and Edwin had commenced at York, but according to the Keltic
custom, and like the churches built by Columba and his Irish monks, it
was made entirely of wood, and covered with bent, that long rough
sea-grass, whose pivot-like roots bind together the sands on the
seashore, and which is still found in great abundance on the island,
as well as on the sandy beach which has to be crossed before the
traveller can reach Lindisfarne.
Vast as was his diocese, which embraced the two great Northumbrian
kingdoms, and great as must have been his influence over the other
Saxon provinces, S. Finan seems to have preserved and exercised an
authority not less complete over the country of his origin, the
kingdom of the Dalriadian Scots. The Scotch annalists all speak of a
certain king Fergus, who, by his violence and exactions, had raised
the indignation of the Scottish clergy, and called down upon himself a
sentence of excommunication from the bishops of Lindisfarne, Finan and
his successors. Bede, who is prejudiced against this holy prelate,
because of his adhesion to the Keltic ritual, and resistance of the
introduction of the Roman usages in vogue in the South of England,
nevertheless admits his great virtues, his contempt of the world, love
of poverty and disinterestedness, and great diligence in preaching the
Word of Life.[53]
[48] Portion lost.
[49] A mistake of a copyist for Polychronius, apparently.
[50] Lanigan, i. p. 222.
[51] Lanigan. ii., p. 345.
[52] Whence it appears that S. Fintan was a native of Ross, (in
Wexford), for Ross is _Ros_-mhic-Trein; _i.e._, Ross of the Sons of
Trein.
[53] Montalembert: "Monks of the West."
[Illustration]
February 18.
S. SIMEON, _BM. of Jerusalem_, A.D. 107.
SS. LEO AND PAREGORIUS, _MM. at Patara (commemorated by Greeks only)_.
SS. MAXIMUS, CLAUDIUS, PRÆPEDIGNA, ALEXANDER, AND CUTIAS, _MM. at
Rome_, A.D. 295.
SS. CONSTANTIA, AUGUSTA, ATTICA, AND ARTEMIA, _VV. at Rome, 4th cent._
S. FLAVIAN, _BM. of Constantinople_, A.D. 449.
S. HELLADIUS, _B. of Toledo_, A.D. 632.
S. ANGILBERT, _Ab. of S. Riquier, in France_, A.D. 814.
S. THEOTONTIUS, _Prior of S. Cruz, at Coimbra_, A.D. 1166.