Finnan

Finnan an Irish ecclesiastic whom Oswin, king -of Northumberland, called to the abbacy of lindisfarne, and to superintend the churches in his kingdom. The Venerable Bede says, "He was a man of fierce and rough nature, but very successful in ministerial labors. He baptized Peada, king of the Middle Angles, and sent four priests to instruct his subjects in Christianity." He also consecrated Ceadmon, who afterwards became a very prominent bishop among the East Angles, and baptized Sigebert their king, together with great numbers of the common people. He was very active in promoting the temporal as well as the spiritual interest of the Church. During his superintendency, Bede says " he erected a church on the island of Lindisfarne fit for an episcopal see, which, nevertheless, he built after the manner of the Scatts [Irish], not of stone, but of sawn oak, and covered it with thatch" (Eecles. Hist. lib. iii, c. xxv). Years afterwards, when the Britishm clergy took possession of these churches in Northumberland, Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, required this church to be reconsecrated, and dedicated to the patronage of St. Peter. 'Finnsan, having for ten years superintended the abbacy' of Lindisfarne and the churches of Northumberland under the simple title of "bishop," died A.D. 661. Ha left a treatise entitled Pro Valters-Pasclali Rile, regarding the Irish and Oriental time of keeping Easter as the old and true time, and that of Rome as of recent date. See Bede's Eccles. Hist.; Illust. Men of Ireland, vol. i.' (D. D.),

⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.