CUTHBERT
579
CUTHBERT
larch, 687, he was tended by monks of Lindisfarne,
nd received the last sacraments from Abbot Here-
■id, to whom he spoke his farewell words, exhorting
be monks to be faithful to Catholic unity and, the
raditions of the Fathers. He died shortly after mid-
ieht, and at exactly the same hour that night his
•iiMid St. Herbert, tlie hermit, also died, as St. Cuth-
KTt hai.1 predicted.
St. Cuthbert was buried in his monastery at Lindis- irne, and his tomb immediately became celebrated Df remarkable miracles. These were so numerous nd extraordinary that he was callctl the "Wonder- ■orker of England". In 698 the first transfer of the >lics took place, and the body was found incorrupt, luring the Danish invasion of 875, Bishop Eardulf nd tlic monks fled for safety, carrying the body of tv saint with them. For seven years they wandered, earing it first into Cumberland, then into Galloway nd ba'ck into Northumberland. In 88.3 it was placed 1 a church at Chester-le-Street, near Durham, given 3 the monks by the converted Danish king, who had
great devotion to the saint, like King Alfred, who Iso honoured St. Cuthbert as his patron and was a eiiefactor to this church. Towards the end of the ?nth century, the shrine was removed to Ripon, ow- ig to fears of fresh invasion. After a few months it ■as being carried back to be restored to Chester-le- trcet, when, on arriving at Durham a new miracle, radition says, indicated that this was to be the rest ig-place of the saint's body. Here it remained, first 1 a chapel formed of boughs, then in a wooden and nally in a stone church, built on the present site of •urhani cathedral, and finished in 998 or 999. WhUe nUiain the Conqueror was ravaging the North in Oi)!», the body was once more removed, this time to .iiidisfarne, but it was soon restored. In 1104, the Iirine was transferred to the present cathedral, when lie body was again found incorrupt, with it being the cad of St. Oswald, which had been placed with St. iuthbert's body for safety — a fact which accounts for be well-known symbol of the saint.
From this time to the Reformation the shrine re- lainetl the great centre of devotion throughout the forth of England. In 1542 it was plundered of all
- s treasures, but the monks had already hidden the
lint 's body in a secret place. There is a well-known raditicin, alluded to in Scott's "Marmion", to the fi'cct that the secret of the hiding-place is known to ertain Benedictines who hand it down from one gen- ration to another. In 1827 the Anglican clergy of be cathedral found a tomb alleged to be that of the lint, but the discovery was challenged by Dr. Lin- ard, who showed cause for doubting the identity of be body found with that of St. Cuthbert. AJrch- ishop Eyre, writing in 1849, considered that the offin found was undoubtedly that of the saint, but bat the body had been removed and other remains ubstituted, while a later writer, Monsignor Consitt, bough not expressing a definite view, seems inclined 3 allow that the remains found in 1827 were truly be bones of St. Cuthbert. Many traces of the fonner ridespread devotion to St. Cuthliert still sur\'ive in be ninnerous churches, monimients, and crosses li.sed in his honour, and in such terms a.s "St. Cuth- crt's patrimony", "St. Cuthbert's Cross", "Cuth- ert ducks" and "Cuthbert down". The centre of lodern devotion to him is foimd at St. Cuthbert's ■oUcgc, Ushaw, near Durham, where the episcopal ing of gold, enclosing a sapphire, taken from his fin-
- er in 1537, is preserved, and where under his patron-
ge most of the priests for the northern counties of ingland are trained. His name is connected with wo famous early copies of the Gospel text. The j^t, known as the Lindisfarne or Cuthbert Gospels now in the British Museum, Cotton MSS. Nero D ), was wTitten in the eighth century by Ead- cid, Bishop of Lindisfarne. It contains the four
gospels and between the lines a number of valuable
Anglo-Saxon (Northumbrian) glosses; though written
by an Anglo-Saxon hand it is considered by the
best judges (Westwood) a noble work of old-Irish
calligraphy and illumination, Lindisfarne as is
well known being an Irish foundation. The manu-
script, one of the most splendid in Europe, was origin-
ally placed by its scribe as an offering on the slirine of
Cuthbert, and was soon richly decorated by monastic
artists (Ethehvold, Bilfrid) and provided by another
(.^Idred) with the aforesaid interlinear gloss (Karl
Bouterwek, Die vier Evangelien in altnordhum-
brischer Sprache, 1857). It has also a history
scarcely less romantic than the body of Cuthbert.
When in the ninth century the monks fled before the
Danes with the latter treasure, they took with them
this manuscript, but on one occasion lost it in the Irish
Channel. After three days it was found on the sea-
shore at Whithern, unhiu-t save for some stains of
brine. Henceforth in the inventories of Durham and
Lindisfarne it was known as "Liber S. Cuthl>erti qui
demersus est in mare" (the book of St. CuthlxTt tliat
fell into the sea). Its text was edited by Stevenson
and Warning (London, 1854-65) and since then by
Kerable and Hardwick, and by Skeat (see Lindis-
farne). The second early Gospel text connected
with his name is the seventh-century Gospel of St.
John (now in possession of the .Jesuit College at Stony-
hurst, England) found in 1105 in the grave of St.
Cuthbert.
Bede, Liber de Vita et Miraculis S. Culhberli; Vila S. Cuth- berti Mdrica. — Both these lives are printed in P. L., XCIV, also in Acta SS. O. S. B. (Paris. lefi'lt: (Ipf-m Hist. Minora, ed. Stevenson (Eng. Hist. Soc, ISo"'. inni lu ihc. various collected editions of Bede's works). The [.i.. .■ Ii;,- i~ printed with notes in Acta SS., IX, Mar. 20. Bei.i., //, ■ / . ,' i;,nlis Anglorum.
IV, x.xvii-xxxii; Anon.. Yiln .< _(,,■/,' il,y a monk of
Lindisfarne, written betwiM'n il'.is ,i)", I I, i- was the founda- tion of Bede's life and Cimi.iin- li iml . -.niiiii il hy him. It is printed in Ada SS., IX, Mar _'(i, an.i l.\ Si i \ ens'on. op, cit.), tr. by Forbes-Leith (EiliTil.nri;h, Issv', Si mfon of Dukham, Hlltoria de Sancto Cuthherlo; In., Ili.ihiria Translaliotlis Sancli Cuthberti (included among Symeon's works, though not written by him. Surtees Soc, LI. London, 1S6.S). See also Brcvis Rdatio de S. Cuthberlo. ibid.. 22.',S.a. The Ilistoria Translationis was printed l.v il(c r.^ni isri^TS (loc. cit.) and Stevenson from an iinpcr!'. rr .m.i , r i , .[,, r ,ii^ copy, and must be used with caution, Uh ir \ii-ii.ii ) .in/ -nperseded by the Surtees edition and that piiiii,.| m iln. Knih , Series. Symeonis Monachi Opera Omni'i i i ■ n . 1^ a I; Reginald of CoL- TilSGHKtA, Liber de B. Cur .//.s- (Surtees Soc, I, Lon-
don. 1835); Spalding il. ! n, 1849), XIX, 329-330;
Anon,, Liber de Ortu .S', ( '>■■■. ' m account of Irish origin, Surtees Soc, VIII, London. l.sliS); .\su}i.. Life of St. Cuthbert, in English verse, a, d. 1450 (Surtees Soc, LXXXVII, London, 1891); John of Tynemouth, in Capgrave, Nova Legenda vlnff/ie (London, 1516; latest ed, Oxford, 1901), I, 216. (This life is edited in Colgan, Acta SS. Scot, seu Hib., I, 679. It is a compilation from Bede, preceded by an extract from the Libellus de Ortu and followed by passages from Symeon and Reginald,) Hegge, The Legend of SI. Cuthbert (1626; 4th ed„ London, 1816); Challoner, Britannia Sancta (London, 1745), I, 18.5-197; Butler. Lives of the Saints (London. 1756). March 20; KA.ISE, St. Cuthbert; with account of the opening of his tomb in 1S37 (Durham. 1828). In connexion with this see Lingard, Remarks on the "Saint Cuthbert'* of Rev. Jame^ Raine (New- castle. 1828): Eyre, History "f St. Cuthbert (London, 1849; 3d ed. 1887); Montalembert, Moines d'Occidcnt (1867), IV. 391- 449; Fryer. C»/A*cr( o^Ltndif/amc (London, 1880); Consitt, Life of St. Cuthbert (London. 1887); Hunt, Diet. Nat. Biog. (London. 1888), XIII, 3.59; Boli^andists, Bibl. Hag. Latina (1889), 304-306; Lessmann. Studicn zu dem Miildenglischen: Life of St. Cuthbert. in Englische Stud. (1897), XXIII, 34.5-365; XXIV, 176-195; Phillips, Usharo Magazine. II. 176-201, in reply to Mohan, Irixh Saints in Great Britain, and IIealy, in Iruih Ecrlr.^ia.^licl h'rrord (1888). See also articles in Dublin Review (1849). XXVII, 512; Quarterly Kev. (1872). CXXXIII, 1-42; Ushaw Magazine, VI and \'II.
Edwin Burton.
Cuthbert, Abbot op Wearmouth, a pupil of the Venerable Bede (d. 735). He w.as a native of Dur- ham, but the dates of his birth and death are un- known. Becoming a monk at Jarrow, he studied under St. Bede and acted as his secretary, writing various works from his dictation. Bede dedicated to him his work "De ■\rte Metrica". He was present when Bede died, and wrote to Cuthwin, one of his fellow-pupils, a detailed account of all that happened.
