The first preacher sent in answer to his call obtained little success.

He declared on his return that among a people so stubborn and barbarous as the Northumbrian folk success was impossible.

"Was it their stubbornness or your severity ?" asked Aidan, a brother sitting by; "did you forget God's word to give them the milk first and then the meat ?" All eyes turned on the speaker as fittest to undertake the abandoned mission, and Aidan sailing at their bidding fixed his bishop's see in the island-peninsula of Lindisfarne.

Thence, from a monastery which gave to the spot its after name of Holy Island, preachers poured forth over the heathen realms.

Aidan himself wandered on foot, preaching among the peasants of Yorkshire and Northumbria.