or Holy Island
Historic small island 2 mi (3 km) from the English Northumbrian coast.
It became a religious centre in 635, when St. Aidan established a monastery and church there. It was abandoned in 875 because of the threat of Danish raids, but the monastery was refounded in 1082 and survived until the dissolution of the monasteries (153640) under Henry VIII . The manuscript of the Lindisfarne Gospels ( 0441; 696698) is one of the finest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the period. Lindisfarne's present-day parish church may occupy the site of St. Aidan's original monastery.