Letter 2

From: Alcuin of York, scholar and court theologian To: The monks of Wearmouth-Jarrow Date: ~793 AD Context: Alcuin writes to the monks of the great Northumbrian monastery founded by Benedict Biscop, in the wake of the devastating Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery (793) — the first major Viking attack on England and a shock to the entire Christian world. To my dearest brothers at Wearmouth and Jarrow, heirs of Bede and of Benedict Biscop, Alcuin sends greetings and comfort. The news from Lindisfarne has reached us here in Francia and it has shaken me in ways I am still trying to understand. The church of Saint Cuthbert, one of the holiest places in the English world, attacked by sea-raiders; brothers killed, others carried off, the altar desecrated, the library damaged. I knew those people. I learned in those communities. This is not an abstraction. And yet I want to think carefully before drawing conclusions, because the temptation in such moments is to reach for the most dramatic interpretation — that this is God's punishment for our sins, that the end of days is near — and while such interpretations are not without value, they can also become ways of not thinking about what we actually need to do. What you can do: pray for those who suffered. Pray for the souls of the dead. Pray for those who were taken. And consider, carefully and practically, whether the communities on exposed coastlines can be made less vulnerable. I will continue to pray for you all and to maintain the correspondence that connects us across the distance. Your brother in Christ, Alcuin