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.

18--St. Colman, Bishop, A.D. 676.

On the death of St. Finan, another monk of Iona was chosen to
succeed him in the see of {26} Lindisfarne. This was Colman, who,
like Finan, was of Irish nationality. At the time a fierce
controversy was raging in Britain as to the correct calculation of
Easter. The Roman system of computation had undergone various
changes until it was finally fixed towards the end of the sixth
century. It was adopted gradually throughout the Church, but
Britain and Ireland still retained their ancient method. In
consequence of this it sometimes happened that when the Celtic
Church was keeping Easter, the followers of the Roman computation
were still observing Lent. This was the case in the Court of Oswy,
King of Bernicia, who followed the Celtic rite, while his Queen
E