A monk living in the tumbledown hermitage that had once belonged to St Cuthbert reluctantly decided that it needed more than repairs.

Imma claimed to be a harmless peasant, but there was something about him that Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria, found downright uncanny.

When the plague once again visited Northumbria, Bishop Cuthbert of Lindisfarne left his island retreat and brought comfort and healing to the suffering.

After the monastery of St Paul in Jarrow was devasted by an epidemic, the Abbot had only a boy in his early teens to rely on.

In a sermon for the Feast of All Saints, eighth-century Northumbrian monk St Bede explains why it is worth going for the spiritual burn.

Eighth-century Northumbrian monk St Bede urged Christians to think of heaven, and then fight our way there for all we are worth.