Feast Day: March 23 (February 12 in some calendars) Canonized: Pre-Congregation — venerated from the seventh century; feast in the martyrologies Order / Vocation: Benedictine-Columban monk — hermit on the Inner Farne Island, Northumbria Patron of: Hermits · The Farne Islands · Those caught in storms at sea
The Island Where Cuthbert Had Lived and Died
When Cuthbert of Lindisfarne died on his hermit island of Farne in 687, he left behind a cell, a chapel, an oratory, and the memory of a man who had shaped the holiness of northern England as thoroughly as any figure of the age. He also left a vacancy — not an administrative position, but a spiritual one, the sense that the island had been prepared for contemplation and should not be left empty.
Ethelwald, a monk of Ripon, knew this. He had known Cuthbert — had, in fact, received from Cuthbert's own hands the gospel book that Cuthbert had used and carried with him. He went to Farne. He settled on the island in the sea off the Northumbrian coast, in the place where his predecessor had prayed, and he lived there for approximately twelve years until his death around 699.
The story that survived him — preserved by the Venerable Bede, who collected accounts from those who had witnessed it — concerns a boat in a storm. Bede's account is in the Life of Cuthbert and in the Ecclesiastical History: a group of monks attempting to cross to the island to visit Ethelwald were caught in a sudden and violent storm. They were in serious danger of drowning. From the shore of Farne, Ethelwald saw them. He went to the water's edge and knelt down and prayed. The storm stopped. The waters calmed. The monks crossed safely. Immediately after they reached the shore, the storm resumed with its original fury.
This miracle — localized, specific, witnessed, and documented within two generations of its occurrence — is the anchor of Ethelwald's veneration. He did not need to be a reformer or a bishop or a founder. He needed to be a man of prayer who had spent twelve years becoming transparent to God on a rock in the sea, and then to kneel at the water's edge when someone was drowning and ask God to stop the storm.
He died around 699. His body was taken to Lindisfarne and buried there, near Cuthbert. He was venerated alongside the company of Northumbrian saints who shaped the golden age of English Christianity: Cuthbert, Aidan, Oswald, Bede.
Prayer to Saint Ethelwald
O God, who gave to Saint Ethelwald the solitude of an island and the power of a prayer that stopped a storm, grant through his intercession that those at sea in danger may be protected, and that those who spend their lives in contemplative prayer may know that their prayer reaches as far as any active work. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint Ethelwald of Farne, pray for us.
| Born | Unknown — Northumbria, seventh century |
| Died | c. 699 — Farne Island, Northumbria — peaceful death as hermit |
| Feast Day | March 23 (also February 12 on some calendars) |
| Order / Vocation | Benedictine-Columban monk — hermit, Inner Farne Island; successor to Saint Cuthbert |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation — venerated from the seventh century |
| Body | Translated to Lindisfarne after death; later history of relics uncertain |
| Patron of | Hermits · The Farne Islands · Those in storms at sea |
| Known as | Oidiluald · Edilwald of Farne · Ethelwald of Lindisfarne (distinguished from Ethelwald of Melrose) |
| Primary source | Venerable Bede, Life of Cuthbert and Ecclesiastical History of the English People |
| Their words | (attributed by Bede) — "If it pleases God to spare them, let the storm cease. If it pleases Him to take them, let His will be done." |
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