WHEN the Northumbrians, under the pious king Oswald, had, with great
fervor, embraced the Christian faith, the holy bishop St. Aidan founded
two monasteries, that of Mailros, on the bank of the Tweed, and another
in the isle of Lindisfarne, afterwards called Holy Island, four miles
distant from Berwick. In both he established the rule of St. Columba;
and usually resided himself in the latter. St. Cuthbert[1] was born not
very far from Mailros, and in his youth was much edified by the devout
deportment of the holy inhabitants of that house, whose fervor in the
service of God, and the discharge of the duties of a monastic life, he
piously endeavored to imitate on the mountains where he kept his
father's sheep. It happened one night, that, while he was watching in
prayer, near his flock, according to his custom, he saw the soul of St.
Aidan carried up to heaven by angels, at the very instant that holy man
departed this life in the isle of Lindisfarne. Serious reflections on
the happiness of such a death determined the pious young man to repair,
without delay, to Mailros, where he put on the monastic habit, while
Eata was abbot, and St. Boisil prior. He studied the holy scriptures
under the latter, and in fervor surpassed all his brethren in every
monastic exercise. Eata being called to govern the new monastery of
Rippon, founded by king Alcfrid, he took with him St. Cuthbert, and
committed to him the care of entertaining strangers; which charge is
usually the most dangerous in a religious state. Cuthbert washed the
feet of others and served them with wonderful humility and meekness,
always remembering that Christ himself is served in his members. And he
was most careful that the functions of Martha should never impair his
spirit of recollection. When St. Wilfred was made abbot of Rippon, St.
Cuthbert returned with Eata to Mailros; and St. Boisil dying of the
great pestilence, in 664, he was chosen provost or prior in his place.
In this station, not content by word and example to form his monks to
perfect piety, be labored assiduously among the people to bring them off
from several heathenish customs and superstitious practices which still
obtained among them. For this purpose, says our venerable historian, he
often went out, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, to preach
the way of life to such as were gone astray. Parochial churches being at
this time very scarce in the country, it was the custom for the country
people to flock about a priest or ecclesiastical person when he came
into any village, for the sake of his instructions; hearkening willingly
to his words, and more willingly practising the good lessons he taught
them. St. Cuthbert {626} excelled all others by a most persuasive and
moving eloquence; and such a brightness appeared in his angelical face
in delivering the word of God to the people, that none of them durst
conceal from him any part of their misbehavior, but all laid their
conscience open before him, and endeavored by his injunctions and
counsels to expiate the sins they had confessed, by worthy fruits of
penance. He chiefly visited those villages and hamlets at a distance,
which, being situate among high and craggy mountains, and inhabited by
the most rustic, ignorant, and savage people, were the less frequented
by other teachers. After St. Cuthbert had lived many years at Mailros,
St. Eata, abbot also of Lindisfarne, removed him thither, and appointed
him prior of that larger monastery. By the perfect habit of
mortification and prayer the saint had attained to so eminent a spirit
of contemplation, that he seemed rather an angel than a man. He often
spent whole nights in prayer, and sometimes, to resist sleep, worked or
walked about the island while he prayed. If he heard others complain
that they had been disturbed in their sleep, he used to say, that he
should think himself obliged to any one that awaked him out of his
sleep, that he might sing the praises of his Creator, and labor for his
honor. His very countenance excited those who saw him to a love of
virtue. He was so much addicted to compunction, and inflamed with
heavenly desires, that he could never say mass without tears. He often
moved penitents, who confessed to him their sins, to abundant tears, by
the torrents of his own, which he shed for them. His zeal in correcting
sinners was always sweetened with tender charity and meekness. The saint
had governed the monastery of Lindisfarne, under his abbot, several
years, when earnestly aspiring to a closer union with God, he retired,
with his abbot's consent, into the little isle of Farne, nine miles from
Lindisfarne, there to lead an austere eremitical life. The place was
then uninhabited, and afforded him neither water, tree, nor corn.
Cuthbert built himself a hut with a wall and trench about it, and, by
his prayers, obtained a well of freshwater in his own cell. Having
brought with him instruments of husbandry, he sowed first wheat, which
failed; then barley, which, though sowed out of season, yielded a
plentiful crop. He built a house at the entry of the island from
Lindisfarne, to lodge the brethren that came to see him, whom he there
met and entertained with heavenly conferences. Afterwards he confined
himself within his own wall and trench, and gave spiritual advice only
through a window, without ever stirring out of his cell. He could not,
however, refuse an interview with the holy abbess and royal virgin
Elfleda, whom her father, king Oswi, had dedicated to God from her
birth, and who, in 680, succeeded St. Hilda in the government of the
abbey of Whitby. This was held in the isle of Cocket, then filled with
holy anchorets. This close solitude was to our saint an uninterrupted
exercise of divine love, praise, and compunction; in which he enjoyed a
paradise of heavenly delights, unknown to the world.
In a synod of bishops, held by St. Theodorus at Twiford, on the river
Alne, in the kingdom of Northumberland, it was resolved that Cuthbert
should be raised to the episcopal see of Lindisfarne. But as neither
letters nor messengers were of force to obtain his consent to undertake
the charge, king Egfrid, who had been present at the council, and the
holy bishop Trumwin, with many others, sailed over to his island, and
conjured him, on their knees, not to refuse his labors, which might be
attended with so much advantage to souls. Their remonstrances were so
pressing, that the saint could not refuse going with them, at least to
the council, but weeping most bitterly. He received the episcopal
consecration at York, the Easter following, from the hands of St.
Theodorus, assisted by six other bishops. In {627} this new dignity the
saint continued the practice of his former austerities; but remembering
what he owed to his neighbor, he went about preaching and instructing
with incredible fruit, and without any intermission. He made it
everywhere his particular care to exhort, feed, and protect the poor. By
divine revelation he saw and mentioned to others, at the very instant it
happened, the overthrow and death of king Egfrid, by the Picts, in 685.
He cured, by water which he had blessed, the wife of a noble Thane, who
lay speechless and senseless at the point of death, and many others. For
his miracles he was called the Thaumaturgus of Britain. But the most
wonderful of his miracles was that which grace wrought in him by the
perfect victory which it gave him over his passions. His zeal for
justice was most ardent; but nothing seemed ever to disturb the peace
and serenity of his mind. By the close union of his soul with God, whose
will alone he sought and considered in all things, he overlooked all
temporal events, and under all accidents his countenance was always
cheerful, always the same; particularly in bearing all bodily pains, and
every kind of adversity with joy, he was invincible. His attention to,
and pure view of God in all events, and in all his actions, arose from
the most tender and sweet love, which was in his soul a constant source
of overflowing joy. Prayer was his centre. His brethren discovered
sometimes that he spent three or four nights together in that heavenly
exercise, allowing himself very little or no sleep. When St. Ebba, the
royal virgin, sister to the kings St. Oswald and Oswi, abbess of the
double monastery of Coldingham, invited him to edify that house by his
exhortations, he complied, and stayed there some days. In the night,
while others were asleep, he stole out to his devotions according to his
custom in other places. One of the monks who watched and followed him
one night, found that the saint, going down to the seashore, went into
the water up to the armpits, and there sung praises to God. In this
manner he passed the silent time of the night. Before the break of day
he came out, and having prayed awhile on the sands, returned to the
monastery, and was ready to join in morning lauds.
St. Cuthbert, foreseeing his death to approach, resigned his bishopric,
which he had held two years, and retired to his solitude in Farne
Island, to prepare himself for his last passage. Two months after he
fell sick, and permitted Herefrid, the abbot of Lindisfarne, who came to
visit him, to leave two of his monks to attend him in his last moments.
He received the viaticum of the body and blood of Christ from the hands
of the abbot Herefrid, at the hour of midnight prayer, and immediately
lifting up his eyes, and stretching out his hands, sweetly slept in
Christ on the 20th day of March, 687. He died in the island of Farne:
but, according to his desire, his body was buried in the monastery of
St. Peter in Lindisfarne, on the right side of the high altar. Bede
relates many miracles performed at his tomb; and adds, that eleven years
after his death, the monks taking up his body, instead of dust which
they expected, found it unputrefied, with the joints pliable, and the
clothes fresh and entire.[2] They put it into a new coffin, placed above
the pavement, over the former grave: and several miracles were there
wrought, even by touching the clothes which covered the coffin. William
of Malmesbury[3] writes, that the body was again found incorrupt four
hundred and fifteen years afterwards at Durham, and publicly shown. In
the Danish invasions, the monks carried it away from Lindisfarne; and,
after several removals on the continent, settled with their treasure on
a woody hill almost surrounded by the river Were, formed by nature for a
place of, defence. They built there a church of stone, which {628}
Aldhune, bishop of Lindisfarne, dedicated in 995, and placed in it the
body of St. Cuthbert with great solemnity, transferring hither his
episcopal see.[4] Many princes enriched exceedingly the new monastery
and cathedral, in honor of St. Cuthbert. Succeeding kings, out of
devotion to this saint, declared the bishop a count palatine, with an
extensive civil jurisdiction.[5] The great king Alfred, who honored St.
Cuthbert as his particular patron, and ascribed to his intercession some
of his greatest victories, and other blessings which he received, was a
special benefactor to this church.[6] The present cathedral was built in
1080. When the shrine of the saint was plundered and demolished by the
order of king Henry VIII., the body of St. Cuthbert, which was found
still entire, as Harpsfield testifies, met with greater regard than many
others; for it was not burnt, as were those of St. Edmund, king and
martyr, St. Thomas, and others. After the king's officers had carried
away the plunder of his shrine, it was privately buried under the place
where the shrine before stood, though the spot is now unknown. His ring,
in which a sapphire is enchased, was given by lord viscount Montaigne to
the bishop of Chalcedon,[7] who had long been sheltered from the
persecution in the house of that nobleman,[8] and was by him left in the
monastery of English canonesses at Paris, which is also possessed of a
tooth of St. Cuthbert. A copy of St. John's gospel, which, after the
example of his master St. Poisil, he often read to nourish the fire of
divine love in his soul, was put into his coffin when he was buried, and
found in his tomb. It is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Philips,
canon of, Tongres, on whom the present earl of Litchfield bestowed it.
The copy is judged undoubtedly genuine by our ablest Protestant
antiquaries, who carefully examined it.
* * * * *
The life of St. Cuthbert was almost a continual prayer. There was no
business, no company, no place, how public soever, which did not afford
him an opportunity, and even a fresh motive to pray. Not content to pass
the day in this exercise, he continued it constantly for several hours
of the night, which was to him a time of light and interior delights.
Whatever he saw seemed to speak to him of God, and to invite him to his
love. His conversation was on God or heavenly things, and he would have
regretted a single moment, which had not been employed with God or for
his honor, as utterly lost. The inestimable riches which he found in
God, showed him how precious every moment is, in which he had it in his
power to enjoy the divine converse. The immensity of God, who is present
in us and in all creatures, and whom millions of worlds cannot confine
or contain; his eternity, to which all time coexists, and which has
neither beginning, end, nor succession; the unfathomed abyss of his
judgments; the sweetness of his providence; his adorable sanctity; his
justice, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love, especially as displayed in
the wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, and in the doctrine, actions,
and sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer, in a word, all the
incomprehensible attributes of the Divinity, and the mysteries of his
grace and mercy, successively filled his mind and heart, and kindled in
his soul the most sweet and ardent affections, in which his thirst {629}
and his delight, which were always fresh and always insatiable, gave him
a kind of anticipated taste of paradise. For holy contemplation
discovers to a soul a new and most wonderful world, whose beauty,
riches, and pure delights, astonish and transport her out of herself.
St. Teresa, coming from prayer, said she came from a world greater and
more beautiful beyond comparison, than a thousand worlds, like that
which we behold with our corporal eyes, could be. St. Bernard was always
torn from this holy exercise with regret, when obliged to converse with
men in the world, in which he trembled, lest he should contract some
attachment to creatures, which would separate him from the chaste
embraces of his heavenly spouse. The venerable priest, John of Avila,
when he came from the altar, always found commerce with men insipid and
insupportable.
Footnotes:
1. Cuthbert signifies Illustrious for skill: or G{}bbertus, Worthy of
God.
2. Bede, Hist. b. 4, c. 30.
3. L. 4, Pontif. Angl.
4. Dunelm, or Durham, signifies a hill upon waters, from the Saxon
words Dun, a bill, and Holme, a place situate in or among the
waters.
5. See Dugdale's history of the cathedral of Durham; and Dr. Brown
Willis on the same.
6. See Hickes, Thes. Ling. Septentr. Praef. p. 8.
7. Bp. Smith, Flores Hist. Eccles. p. 120.
8. Dr. Richard Smith, bishop of Chalcedon, relates in his life of
Margaret lady Montaigne, that queen Elizabeth, out of her singular
regard for this lady, from the time she had been lady of honor in
the court of queen Mary and king Philip, tacitly granted her house a
kind of privilege, by never, allowing it to be searched on account
of religious persecution; so that sometimes sixty priests at once
lay hid in it.