St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (ca. 634–20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop in the Kingdom of Northumbria which at that time included, in modern terms, north east England and south east Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth. Afterwards he became one of the most important medieval saints of England, with widespread recognition in the places he had been in Scotland.

Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast day is March 20.

Origin

Cuthbert was of Northumbrian origin, probably from the neighbourhood of Dunbar at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in modern-day Scotland. While still a boy, employed as a shepherd, one night he had a vision of the soul of Aidan being carried to heaven by angels and thereupon went to the monastery of Old Melrose and became a monk (651). Soon afterwards, however, he became a soldier for several years.

Achievement of fame

After his return to the monastery, his fame for piety, diligence, and obedience quickly grew. When Alchfrith, king of Deira, founded a new monastery at Ripon, Cuthbert became its praepositus hospitum or visitors' host.

Alchfrith, however, adopted Roman usages, and in 661 those monks who followed the Celtic tradition returned to Melrose. Illness struck the monastery in 664 and while Cuthbert recovered, the prior died and Cuthbert was made prior in his place.^[1][2] He spent much time among the people, ministering to their spiritual needs, carrying out missionary journeys, preaching and performing miracles.

After the Synod of Whitby, Cuthbert seems to have accepted the Roman customs, and his old abbot, Eata, called on him to introduce them at Lindisfarne. This was an ungrateful task, but Cuthbert disarmed opposition by his loving and patient nature.

His asceticism was combined with charm and generosity to the poor, and his reputation for gifts of healing and insight led many people to consult him, gaining him the name of "Wonder Worker of Britain". He continued his missionary work, travelling the breadth of the country from Berwick to Galloway to carry out pastoral work and founding an oratory at Dull, Scotland complete with a large stone cross and a little cell for himself, at a site which subsequently became a monastery then later the University of St Andrews.^[1] He is also said to have founded St Cuthbert's church in Edinburgh.^[3]

Hermetic life

In 676 he adopted the solitary life and retired to a cave. After a time he settled on one of the Farne Islands, south of Lindisfarne, and gave himself more and more to austerities. At first he would receive visitors and wash their feet, but later he confined himself to his cell and opened the window only to give his blessing. While on the Farne Islands, he instituted special laws to protect the Eider ducks and other seabirds nesting on the islands; these may have been the first bird protection laws anywhere in the world. Consequently, eider ducks are often called cuddy ducks (Cuthbert's ducks) in modern Northumbrian dialects.

Election to the bishopric of Lindisfarne

In 684, Cuthbert was elected bishop of Lindisfarne, but was reluctant to leave his retirement and take up his charge; it was only after a visit from a large group, including king Ecgfrith, that he agreed to return and take up the duties of bishop. He was consecrated at York by Archbishop Theodore and six bishops, on 26 March 685. After Christmas, 686, however, he returned to his cell on Inner Farne Island, (two miles from Bamburgh, Northumberland), which was where he eventually died. He was buried at Lindisfarne.

Miracles

Legend had it that, when Cuthbert's burial casket was opened a couple of years after his death, his body was found to have been perfectly preserved.^[4] This apparent miracle led to the steady growth of Cuthbert's posthumous cultus, to the point where he became the most popular saint of Northern England. Numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer near his remains. The noted 8th century author Bede wrote both a verse and a prose life of St Cuthbert around 720. He has been described as "perhaps the most popular saint in England prior to the death of Thomas Becket in 1170."^[5]

Relics

In 875 the Danes took the monastery of Lindisfarne and the monks fled, carrying with them St Cuthbert's body around various places including Melrose.^[2] After seven years' wandering it found a resting-place at Chester-le-Street until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon. Then the saint intimated, as it was believed, that he wished to remain in Durham. A new stone church was built, the predecessor of the present grand Cathedral.

In 1104 Cuthbert's tomb was opened again and his relics translated to a new shrine behind the altar of the recently completed Cathedral. When the casket was opened, a small book of the gospels, measuring only three-and-a-half by five inches, now known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, was found. It was also discovered that his vestment was made of Byzantine "Nature Goddess" silk, indicating the extent of the silk trade at this time.^[6]

St Cuthbert and the haliwerfolc

After his death, St Cuthbert became important in defining the identity of the people living in the semi-autonomous region known as the Palatinate of Durham. Within this area the Bishop of Durham had almost as much power as the king of England himself, and the saint became a powerful symbol of the autonomy the region enjoyed. The inhabitants of the Palatinate became known as the haliwerfolc, which roughly translates as "people of the saint", and Cuthbert gained a reputation as being fiercely protective of his domain.^[7] For example, there is a story that at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, the Prior of the Abbey at Durham received a vision of Cuthbert, ordering him to take the corporax cloth of the saint and raise it on a spear point near the battlefield as a banner. Doing this, the Prior and his monks found themselves protected "by the mediation of holy St Cuthbert and the presence of the said holy Relic."^[8] Whether the story of the vision is true or not, the banner of St Cuthbert was regularly carried in battle against the Scots until the Reformation, and it serves as a good example of how St Cuthbert was regarded as a protector of his people.

Trivia

• St Cuthbert's Society, a college-level body at the University of Durham is named after him. The only undergraduate society in the world, it is located only a short walk from the coffin of the saint at Durham Cathedral.
• St Cuthbert is also the namesake of St Cuthbert's College in Epsom, New Zealand, which celebrates St Cuthbert's Day on March 20 as a day of school celebration. The school's "houses" are named after important locations in the life of the Saint: Dunblane (Yellow), Elgin (Green), Iona (Purple), Kelso (Blue), Lindisfarne (White) and Melrose (Red).
• St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society opened its first shop in Edinburgh in 1859, and expanded to become one of the largest Co-ops before amalgamating with the Dalziel Society of Motherwell in 1981 and being renamed Scotmid. Its dairy used horse drawn delivery floats until 1985, and between 1944 and 1959 employed as a milkman one Sean Connery who later became quite famous.

References

• Saint Cuthbert in Orthodoxy
• A Brief Life and History of St.Cuthbert by John Butcher, Melrose Historical Society

1. ^ ^a b St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
2. ^ ^a b Melrose Abbey, Medieval Abbey at Melrose, Scotland
3. ^ St Cuthbert's Website – Edinburgh church.
4. ^ St Cuthbert, Catholic Encyclopedia
5. ^ Dominic Marner, St. Cuthbert: His Life and Cult in Medieval Durham (2000), page 9.
6. ^ Dr G.R. Jones, Anglo-saxon England and the Wider World
7. ^ G.T. Lapsley, The County Palatinate of Durham (1900)
8. ^ The Rites of Durham, being a Description or Brief Declaration of All the Ancient Monuments, Rites and Customs belonging or being within the Monastical Church of Durham before the Suppression, written 1593, ed. J. T. Fowler (Surtees Society 107, 1902)

Preceded by: Saint Eata

Bishop of Lindisfarne 685 - 687

Succeeded by: Saint Eadberht