THE spiritual riches of divine grace were the happy portion of this
saint, who seemed from his cradle formed to perfect virtue. His name
demonstrates him to have been an English-Saxon, not of British
extraction, either from Wales or Cornwall, as Bollandus conjectured. He
was born in the southern parts of England, and, from the example of his
pious parents, inherited the most perfect spirit of Christian piety.
From his infancy he never once transgressed their orders in the least
article, and when sent by his father to keep his sheep, he never failed
coming home exactly at the time appointed. This employment afforded him
an opportunity of consecrating his affections to God, by the exercises
of holy prayer, which only necessary occasions seemed to interrupt, and
which he may be said to have always continued in spirit, according to
that of the spouse in the Canticles: I sleep, but my heart watcheth. By
the constant union of his soul with God, and application to the
functions and exercises of the angels, the affections of his soul were
rendered daily more and more pure, and his sentiments and whole conduct
more heavenly and angelical. What gave his prayer this wonderful force
in correcting and transforming his affections, was the perfect spirit of
simplicity, disengagement from creatures, self-denial, meekness,
humility, obedience, and piety, in which it was founded. We find so
little change in our souls by our devotions, because we neglect the
practice of self-denial and mortification, live wedded to the world, and
slaves to our senses and to self-love, which is an insuperable obstacle
to this principal effect of holy prayer. Cuthman, after the death of his
father, employed his whole fortune and all that he gained by the labor
of his hands, in supporting his decrepit mother: and afterwards was not
ashamed to beg for her subsistence. To furnish her necessaries by the
sweat of his brow, and by the charitable succors of others, he removed
to several places; nor is it to be expressed what hardships and
austerities he voluntarily and cheerfully suffered, which he embraced as
part of his penance, increasing their severity in order more perfectly
to die to himself and to his senses, and sanctifying them by the most
perfect dispositions in which he bore them. Finding, at a place called
Steninges, a situation according to his desire, he built there a little
cottage to be a shelter from the injuries of the air, in which, with his
mother, he might devote himself to the divine service, without
distraction. His hut was no sooner finished but he measured out the
ground near it for the foundation of a church, which he dug with his own
hands. The inhabitants, animated by his piety and zeal, contributed
liberally to assist him in completing this work. The holy man worked
himself all day, conversing at the same time in his heart with God, and
employed a considerable part of the night in prayer. Here he said in his
heart: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, O Lord! this is the place of
my rest for ever and ever, in which I will every day render to thee my
vows." His name was rendered famous by many miracles, of which God was
pleased to make him the instrument, both living and after his death. He
flourished about the eighth century, and his relics were honored at
Steninges. This place Saint Edward {386} the Confessor bestowed on the
great abbey of Fecam in Normandy, which was enriched with a portion of
his relics. This donation of Steninges, together with Rye, Berimunster,
and other neighboring places, made to the abbey of Fecam, was confirmed
to the same by William the Conqueror, and the two first Henries, whose
charters are still kept among the archives of that house, and were shown
me there. This parish, and that of Rye, were of the exemption of Fecam,
that is, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the diocesan, but to
this abbey, as twenty-four parishes in Normandy are to this day. For in
the enumeration of the parishes which belong to this exemption in the
bulls of several popes, in which it is confirmed, Steninges and Rye are
always mentioned with this additional clause, that those places are
situated in England.[1] St. Cuthman was titular patron of Steninges or
Estaninges, and is honored to this day, on the 8th of February, in the
great abbeys of Fecam, Jumieges, and others in Normandy: and his name
occurs in the old Missal, used by the English Saxons before the Norman
conquest, kept in the monastery of Jumieges, in which a proper mass is
assigned for his feast on the 8th of February. In the account of the
principal shrines of relics of saints, honored anciently in England,
published by the most learned Dr. Hickes, mention is made of St.
Cuthman's, as follows: "At Steninge, on the river Bramber, among the
South-Saxons, rests St. Cuthman." See Narratio de Sanctis qui in Anglia
quiescunt, published by Hickes, in his Thesaurus Linguarum veterum
Septentr. t. 1, in Dissert. Epistol. p. 121. See also two lives of St.
Cuthman, in Bollandus, t. 2, Feb. p. 197, and the more accurate lessons
for his festival in the breviary of Fecam. He is honored in most of the
Benedictin abbeys in Normandy.
Footnotes:
1. Bollandus had not seen these charters and bulls, or he could not
have supposed Steninges to be situated in Normandy, and St. Cuthman
to have died in that province. Dom Le Noir, a learned Benedictin
monk of the congregation of St. Maur, and library-keeper at Fecam,
who is employed in compiling a history of Normandy, gives me the
following information by a letter from Fecam: "On tient ici a Feca,
pas une espece de tradition que Hastings, port d'Angleterre, sur la
Manche, dens le comte de Sossex, et dans le voisinage de Rye, est le
Staninges de l'Abbaye de Fecam. Si le nom est un pen different
aujourd'hui on voit des noms des lieux qui ont souffert des plus
grandes alterations." This pretended tradition is an evident
mistake. Hastings was a famous sea-port under the same name, in the
ninth century, and Stening is at this day a borough in Sussex,
situated under the reins of Bramber castle, not far from the river,
which was formerly navigable so high, though at present even
Shoreham at its month has no harbor, the sea having made frequent
changes on this coast, especially in the twelfth century.