CUTHBERT, SAINT (d. 687), bishop of Lindisfarne, though said by Irish historians to have been the son of an Irish king named Muriadach (Libellus de Ortu), a statement adopted by Wessington, prior of Durham in the fifteenth century (Rites of Durham, 64, 65), was probably born of parents of humble condition dwelling in the Lothians. When he was in his eighth year, and naturally fond of childish play, he was amusing himself, so he afterwards told Bishop Trumwine, who repeated the story to Bæda, with other children, by contorting his limbs and making faces, when a little boy about three years old prayed him to desist, telling him that he would hereafter be both priest and bishop (Bædæ Vita S. Cuthberti, 4). As a boy he suffered from a disease in the knee, and he had a vision which led him to believe that his cure was miraculous. His home was probably on the banks of the Scottish Tine, near the monastery of Tiningham; for he was believed to have wrought a miracle there by his prayers while he was still a youth. He next appears as keeping sheep upon the hills near the Lauder, a tributary of the Tweed, in 651. While thus engaged he saw in a vision the soul of Bishop Aidan [q. v.] carried up to heaven by angels, and a few days later heard of his death (Vita, anon. 8). This vision made him determine to enter the monastic life. He went to the monastery of Melrose, which stood about a day's journey from where he was keeping sheep, on a site still called Old Melrose, on the same bank of the Tweed as the famous house of later days. At the time of his arrival the abbot Eata [see art. on Colman, d. 676] chanced to be away, and he was received by the prior Boisil, who, Bæda tells us on the authority of an eye-witness, when he saw him, said to those who stood by, ‘Behold a servant of God,’ and greeted him with the words addressed to Nathanael (Bæda, 10). A few days afterwards, when Eata returned, Cuthbert received the tonsure, and soon surpassed the other monks in prayer, in labour, in reading, and in discipline. When the Northumbrian king, Alchfrith [q. v.], built the monastery of Ripon and gave it to Eata, Cuthbert was one of the party the abbot took with him to his new house, and he there held the office of hostillar, or receiver of guests. Alchfrith, however, adopted the Roman usages, and in 661 Cuthbert and the rest of the Melrose monks who adhered to the customs of the Celtic church were expelled from Ripon, and returned to their old house. Soon after their return the plague broke out in their monastery. Cuthbert was attacked by it, and his life was despaired of. He recovered, but the disease left him with an internal tumour, from which he suffered during the rest of his life. He was somewhat tall of stature, and before this attack had been stout and strong. As soon as he had recovered, his friend and teacher, Boisil, fell sick, and called him to him, and told him that he had not more than a week to live, and bade him learn something from him while he was yet able to teach him. So in the course of the next seven days they read through the Gospel of St. John together, and then Boisil died. Cuthbert succeeded to his office as prior of Melrose, and gave himself with great earnestness to going about from place to place instructing the people, being absent from the monastery sometimes for a week, sometimes for as long as a month at a time, preaching to the ignorant inhabitants of the upland villages. Wherever he went, his loving and persuasive manner and the sweetness of his face brought men to confession and repentance. Visits that he made to Coldingham and to the land of the Picts, probably to Nithsdale (‘quæ Niduari vocatur’), are specially recorded. It is evident that he adopted the Roman usages after the synod of Whitby (664), and Eata, the abbot of Lindisfarne, appointed him prior of his house in order that he might introduce the observance of the Roman rule in the convent, a work which he did not accomplish without considerable difficulty. In spite of the departure of Colman and his company, a strong party in favour of the usages of the Celtic church appears to have been left at Lindisfarne, and Cuthbert often met with rudeness in the discussions held in the chapterhouse. Gradually, however, his loving nature and patient temper overcame his enemies, and won them over to his views. Gentle with others, he was severe with himself, and was unsparing in his acts of mortification and devotion. He wore no robe different from that worn by all the brethren, which was of undyed wool.
In 676, after Cuthbert had been twelve years at Lindisfarne, he determined to adopt a solitary life, and retired to a lonely spot, where he gave himself up to religious meditation. Tradition has identified the place of his first retirement with a cave called St.
