St Cuthbert Part 1 Saint Cuthbert (634-687) Generally Cuthbert (C
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St Cuthbert Part 1 Saint Cuthbert (634-687) Generally Cuthbert (c. 634 – 20 March 687) is a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in what might loosely be termed the Kingdom of Northumbria. After his death he became one of the most important medieval saints of Northern England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northern England. His feast day is 20 March (Catholic Church and Church of England), Stained glass depicting St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, from Gloucester Cathedral History of the St Cuthbert era Lots of small areas ruled by Kings. See map above. The population had just become Christian after a visit from Roman priests. Christian/ pagan fluctuation. There was also a conflict between the Irish way of worshiping and the Roman way. The Irish priests came from Iona on the other side of Scotland, the /west coast. New monasteries were founded, Lindisfarne, Melrose and Ripon. Vikings invade and destroy Lindisfarne in 793 and Iona (st Columbia’s stronghold) 2 years later. 1. King Edwin: Converted to Christianity in 627, which was slowly followed by the rest of his People. The politics of the kingdom were violent, and there were later episodes of pagan rule, spreading understanding of Christianity through the kingdom was a task that lasted throughout Cuthbert's lifetime. Edwin had been baptised by Paulinus of York, an Italian who had come with the Gregorian mission from Rome. 2. King Oswald and Alchfrith, king of Deira: King Oswald’s father – king Aethelfrith – was a brutal and heathen warrior king. He fought many battles, and was renowned for his ruthless behaviour, especially towards the Christians. It is told he once massacred 1200 Welsh monks while they were praying to God for victory in a battle. Eventually he was himself killed in a battle, and his four children – three boys and a girl - were taken as hostages and exiled on the Island of Iona. Here Oswald was raised and schooled by the Irish monks in the Christian faith. As a grown man he recaptured his father’s kingdom in Northumbria. King during St Cuthbert's time. 4. Bishop St Aidan of Lindisfarne : Naomh Aodhán (died 31 August 651) The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by the Irish monk Aidan in the year 635 AD. At the time the Christian king Oswald ruled in Northumbria. Aidan could choose himself where to build the new monastery. Together with twelve of his brethren, Aidan set out on his life’s mission – the conversion of the heathen Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. He was offered a horse by king Oswald, but preferred wandering about on his own feet. In his monastery on Lindisfarne he eventually began teaching young boys in the art of reading and writing, Latin and the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures – training and preparing them for the work as missionaries. Aidan also encouraged young girls to become nuns, but it was much later that girls were given permission to go to Lindisfarne. At this time the monastery on Lindisfarne was acknowledged as a centre for the art of illumination of the Holy Scriptures. 5 Bishop Wilfrid,(c. 633 – c. 709) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon He was a quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways and was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. 6. Saint Cuthbert (c. 634 – 20 March 687) 7. Eata was originally taken to Lindisfarne as a boy under Aidan and trained as a monk. He was chosen as one of the 12 monks selected from Lindisfarne to found the new daughter monastery at Melrose. In 651 he was elected abbot of Melrose. Around 658 he left Melrose and founded a new monastery at Ripon in Yorkshire, taking with him the young St Cuthbert, who was his guest-master. In 661 King Alchfrith of Deira expelled Eata from Ripon, because he had appointed Wilfrid as the new abbot. Eata returned to Melrose. The historian Bede described Eata as a gentle and greatly revered man. As an administrator Eata applied his skills at the time of plague, civil disorders and major ecclesiastical change Monasteries Originally Lindisfarne was established, then Melrose, then Ripon. 1. Melrose (Established in 643) Tradition has it that an abbey was founded at Melrose around the end of the 6th century, and that St. Cuthbert was one of the abbots in 643 before he left for Lindisfarne. Ethelwold succeeded St. Cuthbert, and sometime later the monastery was ruined by the Danes. The place where this abbey is supposed to have stood is called Old Melrose, and is a mile and a half from the present abbey. Of interest: St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland. It was Disestablished in 1609. Melrose Abbey Scottish kings and nobles are buried at the abbey. A lead container believed to hold the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce was found in 1921 below the Chapter House site; it was found again in a 1998 excavation. The rest of his body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey. 2. Ripon (Established in 658) The 3rd smallest city in Britain today. Solid evidence for the origins of Ripon can be traced back to the 7th century, the time of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria.The first structure built in the area, was a Christian church dedicated to St. Peter, with the settlement originating in the year 658.This was founded by a Northumbrian nobleman known as Wilfrid, who later became Archbishop of York; he was granted the land by King Alhfrith. 3. The islands of Iona and Lindisfarne The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, also known simply as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert, Eadfrith of Lindisfarne and Eadberht of Lindisfarne. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was reestablished. A small castle was built on the island in 1550. Island Size = 3 miles by 1.5 miles. And 1 mile from the mainland of England. It is accessible, at low tide by crossing sand and mudflats which are covered with water at high tides. These sand and mud flats carry an ancient pilgrims' path, and a modern causeway. As of 27 March 2011, the island had a population of 180. Monastery ( founded in 634) Irish monk Saint Aidan, who had been sent from the Iona at the request of King Oswald. The priory was founded in 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. Finian (bishop 651–661) built a timber church "suitable for a bishop's seat". St Bede, however, was critical of the fact that the church was not built of stone but only of hewn oak thatched with reeds. A later bishop, Eadbert removed the thatch and covered both walls and roof in lead. Lindisfarne became the base for Christian evangelism in the North of England and also sent a successful mission to Mercia. Saint Cuthbert, was a monk and later abbot of the monastery, and his miracles and life are recorded by the Venerable Bede. Modern statue of St Aidan beside the ruins of the mediaeval priory Lindisfarne Gospels At some point in the early 8th century, the famous illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illustrated Latin copy of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was made probably at Lindisfarne and the artist was possibly Eadfrith, who later became Bishop of Lindisfarne. Sometime in the second half of the 10th century a monk named Aldred added an Anglo- Saxon (Old English) gloss to the Latin text, producing the earliest surviving Old English copies of the Gospels. Aldred attributed the original to Eadfrith (bishop 698–721). The Gospels were written with a good hand, but it is the illustrations done in an insular style containing a fusion of Celtic, Germanic and Roman elements that are truly outstanding. According to Aldred, Eadfrith's successor Æthelwald was responsible for pressing and binding it and then it was covered with a fine metal case made by a hermit called Billfrith. The Lindisfarne Gospels now reside in the British Library in London, somewhat to the annoyance of some Northumbrians. In 1971 professor Suzanne Kaufman of Rockford, Illinois presented a facsimile copy of the Gospels to the clergy of the island. ! ! Destruction; Thought now to be Norwegians living on the outer islands of North Scotland. Others attribute it to the Danes in 793 On the seventh of the ides of June, they reached the church of Lindisfarne, and there they miserably ravaged and pillaged everything; they trod the holy things under their polluted feet, they dug down the altars, and plundered all the treasures of the church. Some of the brethren they slew, some they carried off with them in chains, the greater number they stripped naked, insulted, and cast out of doors, and some they drowned in the sea. The island coastline is dominated by low sandbanks – ideal landing places for the slim Viking ships. The Vikings robbed the monastery of all the valuables they could get their hands on, but there were two important treasures they overlooked – the beautiful, handwritten and illuminated bible “The Lindisfarne Gospels”, and the exquisite carved oak coffin containing the relics of St.