Holy IslandHoly Island Name for Lindisfarne, the island off the coast of Northumbria which was home to a monastery in the Anglo-Saxon period. The monastery, which housed the relics of St Cuthbert, was sacked by the Vikings in 793. is mainly associated with the hugely-important monasteryMonastery The house of a religious community founded by St AidanAidan, St (d. 651) Monk of Iona, missionary to Northumbria and Bishop of Lindisfarne. in 635 as a base for his ChristianChristian Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church to designate all members of the church. missionMission 1. A group of people sent out to share religious faith. 2. The task of sharing faith. in the north of England. St CuthbertCuthbert, St (d. 687) Celtic monk and hermit. Bishop of Lindisfarne 685. was prior and then bishopBishop Bishops exercised pastoral care over a diocese and authority to confirm and ordain of LindisfarneLindisfarne Also known as Holy Island, a peninsula off the coast of north-east England (Northumbria), this area is cut off from the mainland by the tide twice a day. A monastic community was founded here by St Aidan, in emulation of Iona. From Lindisfarne, missionary activity was conducted in the kingdom of Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon community produced saints, the most prominent being St Cuthbert in whose honour the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels were written. in the late 7th century, and his body was placed in a shrineShrine In origin a Germanic word meaning a chest or reliquary, this term describes something which contains a sacred object. It can thus be applied to an elaborate tomb around the body of a saint, a cabinet containing a relic or to the whole architectural complex where such a body or relic rest in the church after his death. The monastery was destroyed in VikingViking Customarily refers to the Scandinavian explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, and settled in wide areas of Europe and the North Atlantic islands from the late eighth to the mid-eleventh century.There is some debate over the meaning of this word, which is attested but rarely used in the early medieval period. It was revived as a term in Scandinavian languages in the 17th century and in English in the early 19th. In contemporary sources it refers to a raider or pirate, often in association with ships and predatory activity. Some modern scholars try to keep to this restricted definition; others are happy with a wider range of meaning, applying the word to Scandinavians and their culture from approximately 790 to the mid or late 11th century, especially outside the Scandinavian homelands. raids in 875, but the current church of St Mary may contain sections of wall which survived. The dimensions of the church are very similar to other early medieval churches in NorthumbriaNorthumbria Northumbria was an early medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now Northern England and South Scotland.. Several fragments of carved stone dating to the 10th century, mostly now in the Priory Museum, suggest that there was an active Christian church on the island even after the monastery had been destroyed and the monks fled to the mainland.