Lindisfarne Priory?

Lindisfarne Priory?
I need your help with my Social Studies homework. I've been trying to figure this out for weeks? Here's the question I've been asked: "Look up Lindisfarne priory. What was it? How might it have been important to Christianity and civilization in the region it was located? Explain what happened to it and how this occurrence may be important. "
Homework Help - 1 Answers - 2007-02-08 17:48:24

Best Answer
Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island was one of the most important centres of early Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. It is still a place of pilgrimage today, the dramatic approach across the causeway adding to the fascination of the site. St Aidan founded the monastery in AD 635, but St Cuthbert, Prior of Lindisfarne, is the most celebrated of the priory's holy men. After many missionary journeys, and 10 years as a hermit on lonely Farne Island, he reluctantly became Bishop before retiring to die on Farne in 687. Buried in the priory, his remains were transferred to a pilgrim shrine there after 11 years, and found still undecayed - a sure sign of sanctity. From the end of the 8th century, the isolated island with its rich monastery was easy prey for Viking raiders. In 875 the monks left, carrying Cuthbert's remains, which after long wanderings were enshrined in Durham Cathedral in 1104, where they still rest. Only after that time did Durham monks re-establish a priory on Lindisfarne: the evocative ruins of the richly decorated priory church they built in c.1150 still stand, with their famous 'rainbow arch' - a vault-rib of the now-vanished crossing tower. The small community lived quietly on Holy Island until the suppression of the monastery in 1537. Its religious importance grew with the cult of St Cuthbert, prior of Lindisfarne from 664 to 685. His body was found undecayed eleven years after his burial, and subsequently he was worshipped as a saint of the Ionan Church. The rich Christian heritage and religious history of Lindisfarne were the reasons why the name Holy Island was attributed to the place. The two branches of English Christianity came together in the Synod of Whitby (664). Representatives of the Northumbrian Church (Celtic influence) and the southern Roman Church discussed their diverging religious traditions, which were seen as an obstacle for a future religious and political unification of England. King Oswy, brother of Oswald of Northumbria, who presided over the synod, was eager to adopt the Roman tradition and to become a member of the Roman, “European� church. The synod finally agreed upon imposing essential elements of the Roman tradition on the Christians in Northumbria. The most important issue discussed was the method of dating Easter, for to this point the two Churches had celebrated it up to two weeks apart, according to the respective interpretation of the moon cycle. After the Synod of Whitby, the Roman method was adopted in Northumbria and all over England. .