Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery
Brother Ealdwin speaks his gratitude to God for each of the monks who escaped the slaughter and here they have come back today. But things can never be as they were before the raid.
The monks are grieving. We are seeing the devastation and the grief. We are told many of the pilgrims who would come to the shrine are waiting on the mainland. Maybe there is a fear with these would-be visitors that, were they to come here, they would be flaunting their own good fortune simply by living — survivor’s guilt.
As a dark-clothed mourners, all of us on this island, move as a group from the burial places to the priory. This oratorio is bleak appropriately matching the hollowness in everyone’s hearts. There are no golden sconces on the walls, and the tables that held the reliquaries are stripped clean of cloth and purpose. The golden boxes are gone. I won’t tell them that I witnessed sacred bones and saintly relics discarded in the beach grass. Knowing that can only transfigure the marauders’ disregard for Christian tradition into more hate. I’ve already gone to that eastern beach, unnoticed by Brother Ealdwin, and gathered up what I could find, then I, alone, buried the discarded relics to lie with the saints properly venerated in the cemetery.[Footnote]
There is concern circulating about the Shrine of St. Cuthbert. Brother Ealdwin assured them no harm was done to the shrine itself. But the earthly treasures brought by pilgrims bearing gifts, were all taken. The treasury was sacked. The specially carved Roman styled chair where the presider of worship once sat as royalty is gone now. The altar itself is still here, but empty of the gilded carvings. What will pagans do with a carved relief of Jesus ascending? They took the altar clothes and raided the vestry. Someone remembers there was a carpet under the altar which is probably already being traded as a rare treasure with no mention of the Christian source.
Does no one wonder that the gospel remains here? It was surely the greatest treasure of Lindisfarne, and yet it is still here.
Brother Ealdwin is sent to the tower to toll the dead. He did that when we buried the monks, but these men didn’t hear it, so he goes again to toll the bell. And I should feed the fires here, and start a pot of porridge. People will be hungry later.
[Footnote]https://rumblinginthewind.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/veneration-of-saints/
(Continues Tuesday, July 22, 2025)
Lazarus Ink 