Today, the Church remembers St. Cuthbert, Monk and Bishop.
Ora pro nobis.
Cuthbert (c. A.D. 634 – A.D. 20 March 687) is a saint of the early Northumbrian British Church when it was on the verge of the merging of the British Church with the Roman Church that had recently been established by missionaries sent from Rome under the leadership of St. Augustine of Canterbury in the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
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 in the North East of England and the South East of Scotland. After his death he became one of the most important medieval saints of Northern England, with a place of pilgrimage centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northern England.
Cuthbert was perhaps of a noble family, and born in Dunbar in the mid-630s A.D., some ten years after the conversion of King Edwin to Christianity in A.D. 627, which was slowly followed by that of the rest of his people. The politics of the kingdom were violent, and there were later episodes of pagan rule, while 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, but his successor Oswald also invited Irish monks from Iona to found the monastery at Lindisfarne where Cuthbert was to spend much of his life. This was around 635 A.D., about the time Cuthbert was born.
The tension between the Roman and British Churches, often exacerbated by Cuthbert's near-contemporary Wilfrid, an intransigent and quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways, was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. Cuthbert himself, though educated in the British tradition, followed his mentor Eata in accepting the Roman forms without apparent difficulty after the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D.
He was evidently indefatigable as a travelling priest, spreading the Christian message to remote villages, and also well able to impress royalty and nobility. Unlike Wilfrid, his style of life was austere, and when he was able to do, he lived the life of a hermit, though still receiving many visitors.
It was Cuthbert’s habit to walk alone down to the seashore after dark. Intrigued, one of the monks followed him at a discreet distance, hoping to see what it was that Cuthbert did at dead of night.
From his hiding place he watched Cuthbert wade out into the slate-black sea until the waters reached his neck, and then begin to sing psalms, a performance which he kept up until dawn.
The monk was still watching when back on the sands, Cuthbert became absorbed in prayer again. Suddenly, two otters scampered over to him and chafed his feet, numb with North Sea cold, and dried them with their fur. Cuthbert gave them his affectionate blessing, and they made off back to their homes.
The monk-spy could barely collect sufficient wits to find his way back to the monastery. Next morning, after confessing the whole story to Cuthbert, he promised to tell no one until after Cuthbert’s death.
Almighty God, you called Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people: Mercifully grant that, as he sought in dangerous and remote places those who had erred and strayed from your ways, so we may seek the indifferent and the lost, and lead them back to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
