Aidan died in the year 651.

Augustine,the first Archbishop of Canterbury, was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great in 597. He began the Christian mission in the southeast of England. In 601, Pope Gregory sent Paulinus to strengthen Augustine's mission.

In 625, Edwin, King of Northumbria, (Northern England) named Ethelburga of Kent and Paulinus was consecrated bishop and went with her to York.

Good work was begun in York, including a cathedral, but in 663 Edwin was defeated by the non-Christian Cadwallon, and the work languished.

Meanwhile Oswald, son of the king that Edwin had displaced in 616, was converted to Christianity by the monks of Iona, a Celtic Christian island off the west coast of Scotland. Iona had been settled by Columba and monks from Ireland about 563. When Oswald was able to seize the throne of Northumbria in 634, he appealed to Iona for missionaries to revive the work of Paulinus, and Aidan was sent to Oswald.

Aidan was consecrated bishop in 635, and established his headquarters at Lindesfarne, a piece of land that was an island at high tide and connected to the mainland at low tide, just off the east coast of northern England, not far from Oswald's main castle ofBamberg. The Christian practices of Aidan were those of Celtic Christianity, which were significantly different from the practices of Paulinus and Augustine, who followed Roman customs. Aidan's asceticism and gentleness won rapid success for his mission, and his personal relations with the Kings of Northumbria were close and intirnate. In fact, since Aidan could not speak English, the king himself often served as his interpreter. Aidan was successful in overcoming paganism and racism in the Kingdom of Northumbria,and is highly regarded in the English Church. His Feast Day is August 31.