Finan
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Second Bishop of Lindisfarne; died 9 February, 661. He was an Irish monk who had been trained in Iona, and who was specially chosen by the Columban monks to succeed the great St. Aidan (635-51). St. Bede describes him as an able ruler, and tells of his labours in the conversion of Northumbria. He built a cathedral "in the Irish fashion", employing "hewn oak, with an outer covering of reeds", dedicated to St. Peter. His apostolic zeal resulted in the foundation of St. Mary's at the mouth of the River Tyne; Gilling, a monastery on the sight where King Oswin had been murdered, founded by Queen Eanfled, and the great abbey of Streanaeshalch, or Whitby. St. Finan (Finn-án -- little Finn) converted Peada, son of Penda, King of the Middle Angles, "with all his Nobles and Thanes", and gave him four priests, including Diuma, whom he consecrated Bishop of Middle Angles and Mercia, under King Oswy. The breviary of Aberdeen styles him "a man of venerable life, a bishop of great sanctity, an eloquent teacher of unbelieving races, remarkable for his training in virtue and his liberal education, surpassing all his equals in every manner of knowledge as well as in circumspection and prudence, but chiefly devoting himself to good works and presenting in his life, a most apt example of virtue".
In the mysterious ways of Providence, the Abbey of Whitby, his chief foundation, was the scene of the famous Paschal controversy, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Irish monks from Lindisfarne. The inconvenience of the two systems -- Irish and Roman -- of keeping Easter was specially felt when on one occasion King Oswy and his Court were celebrating Easter Sunday with St. Finan, while on the same day Queen Eanfled and her attendants were still fasting and celebrating Palm Sunday. Saint Finan was spared being present at the Synod of Whitby. His feast is celebrated on the 9th of February.
This saint was an Irishman who became a monk in the monastery founded by St. Columba at Iona. During his monastic life he was distinguished for the virtues befitting his state, especially prudence and gravity of demeanour. {24} He was devoted to prayer and strove zealously to live according to the Divine Will in all things. When St. Aidan, who had been a monk of Iona, passed to his heavenly reward, a successor in his see of Lindisfarne was again sought in that celebrated monastery, and the choice fell upon Finan. His first care was to erect on the island of Lindisfarne a suitable cathedral, and in this he placed the remains of his saintly predecessor Aidan.
During the few years that St. Finan ruled his diocese he exhibited all the virtues of a model bishop. His love of poverty, contempt of the world, and zeal for preaching the Gospel, won the hearts of his people. Under his guidance, Oswy the King was brought to realise his crime in the barbarous murder of the saintly Oswin, King of Deira, and the result was the foundation of monasteries and churches as tokens of his sincere repentance and his desire to obtain pardon from Heaven through the prayers and merits of those who should dwell in them.
The influence of St. Finan extended beyond his own people; for the kings of more southern {25} nations, with their subjects, owed the Faith to his zeal and piety. Peada, King of the Mercians, and Sigebert, King of the East Saxons, both received Baptism at his hands, and obtained from him missionaries to preach to their respective peoples.
The most famous work in which St. Finan was directly concerned was the foundation by Oswy of the Monastery of Streaneshalch on the precipitous headland afterwards known as Whitby. This was to become in later years, under the rule of the first abbess, Hilda, a school of saints and a centre of learning for the whole territory in which it stood, and the admiration of after ages for its fervour and strictness of discipline.
St. Finan died after an episcopate of ten years, and was laid to rest beside the remains of St. Aidan in the cathedral he had built at Lindisfarne. His feast was restored to Scot land by Leo XIII. in 1898.
Sources: Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907 - 1913 and A Calendar of Scottish Saints
