St. Áedán

Áedán is the gaelic form of our little guys name--Aidan being the Anglicized version. When we had him baptized, we received many wonderful gifts for him, but one was really special, a St. Aidan medallian. This arrived from my sisters in-laws and we have him wear it as often as possible, to church, hoping that it will rub off on him thus making him a little saintly! : )

Sometimes it works. . .

I finally looked up this venerable saint to see what it was about him that made him a saint.

Hi lived in the early six hundreds and was an Irishman from Connaught. He went to a Monestary in Iona, which was then part of Ireland and now part of Scotland, in order to become a Monk. In the 630's he went to be the Bishop of Linisfarne and built a monestary. Not knowing English, he learned and had his monks learn as well so that they could talk to the people of Northumbria on their own level, the result of which that many, if not all, converted from Paganism to Christianity. His work was so well thought of, even though he was Irish, that he became personal friends with the King of England and was deeply respected by the Romish Pope Honorius I. He died on August 31, 651. A biography was later written about him by St. Bede the Venerable. . .The beatification came about due to a story that the town near his monestary was set on fire during an attack of infidels. St. Aidan prayed to protect the town and the wind changed, blowing the smoke and flames back at the enemy, thereby repulsing them.

Not much, but hey, that's more than we knew before! Sounds like he was a pretty awesome dude, none-the-less.

Our little saint was home yesterday with Strep Throat--our first experience with this and thus allowing for the time to look up this information about St. Aidan. Today will be kind of rough because he is feeling so much better already. I hope we can keep him from doing too much without major tantrums! But, after as bad as he was yesterday, I will stick to it!