From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 20th - St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, OSB B (RM)   
      
   Born in Northumbria, England (?) or Ireland, c. 634; died on Inner Farne in   
   March 20, 687; feast of his translation to Durham, September 4.   
   Saint Cuthbert is possibly the most venerated saint in England, especially   
   in   
   the northern part of the country, where he was a very active missionary. Yet   
   his   
   real nationality is debated. His biographer, Saint Bede, did not specify it.   
   Of   
   course, the English claim him, but so do the Scottish.   
      
   There is a good likelihood the he was an Irishman named Mulloche,   
   great-grandson   
   of the High King Muircertagh of Ireland because, according to Moran citing   
   documents in Durham Cathedral, the rood screen bore the inscription: "Saint   
   Cuthbert, Patron of Church, City and Liberty of Durham, an Irishman by birth   
   of   
   royal parentage who was led by God's Providence to England." The cathedral's   
   stained glass windows, which had been registered but destroyed during the   
   reign   
   of Henry VI, depicted the saint's life begin with his birth "at Kells" in   
   Meath.   
   This fact is corroborated by an ancient manuscript viewed by Alban Butler at   
   Cottonian Library. One tradition relates that his mother, the Irish princess   
   Saba, set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, left Cuthbert in the care of   
   Kenswith,   
   and died in Rome.   
      
   Thus, Cuthbert, like David, was a shepherd boy on the hills above Leader   
   Water   
   or the valley of the Tweed. Of unknown parentage, he was reared in the   
   Scottish   
   lowlands by a poor widow named Kenswith, and was a cripple because of an   
   abscess   
   on the knee made worse by an attempted cure. But despite this disability he   
   was   
   boisterous and high-spirited, and so physically strong that after he became   
   a   
   monk, on a visit to the monastery at Coldingham, he spent a whole night upon   
   the   
   shore in prayer, and strode into the cold sea praising God.   
      
   According to one of Saint Bede's two vitae of the saint, when Cuthbert was   
   about   
   15, he had a vision of angels conducting the soul of Saint Aidan to heaven.   
   Later, while still a youth, he became a monk under Saint Eata at Melrose   
   Abbey   
   on the Tweed River. The prior of Melrose, Saint Boisil, taught Cuthbert   
   Scripture and the pattern of a devout life. Cuthbert went with Eata to the   
   newly-founded abbey of Ripon in 661 as guest steward. He returned to   
   Melrose,   
   still just a mission station of log shanties, when King Alcfrid turned Ripon   
   over to Saint Wilfrid. It was from Melrose that Cuthbert began his   
   missionary   
   efforts throughout Northumbria.   
      
   Cuthbert attended Boisil when the latter contracted the plague. The book of   
   the   
   Scriptures from which he read the Gospel of John to the dying prior was laid   
   on   
   the altar at Durham in the 13th century on Saint Cuthbert's feast. Thus, in   
   664,   
   Cuthbert became prior of Melrose at the death of Boisil. Soon thereafter   
   Cuthbert fell deathly ill with the same epidemic. Upon hearing that the   
   brethren   
   had prayed throughout the night for his recovery, he called for his staff,   
   dressed, and undertook his duties (but he never fully recovered his health   
   thereafter).   
      
   In 664, when Saint Colman refused to accept the decision of the Synod of   
   Whitby   
   in favor of Roman liturgical custom and migrated to Ireland with his monks,   
   Saint Tuda was consecrated bishop in his place, while Eata was named abbot   
   and   
   Cuthbert prior of Lindisfarne, a small island joined to the coast at low   
   tide.   
   From Lindisfarne Cuthbert extended his work southward to the people of   
   Northumberland and Durham.   
      
   Afterwards Cuthbert was made abbot of Lindisfarne, where he grew to love the   
   wild rocks and sea, and where the birds and beasts came at his call. Then   
   for   
   eight years beginning in 676, Cuthbert followed his solitary nature by   
   removing   
   himself to the solitude of the isolated, infertile island of Farne, where it   
   was   
   believed that he was fed by the angels. There built an oratory and a cell   
   with   
   only a single small window for communication with the outside world. But he   
   was   
   still sought after, and twice the king of Northumberland implored him to   
   accept   
   election as bishop of Hexham, to which he finally agreed in 684, though   
   unwillingly and with tears.   
      
   Almost immediately Cuthbert exchanged his see with Eata for that of   
   Lindisfarne,   
   which Cuthbert preferred. Thus, on Easter Sunday 685, Cuthbert was   
   consecrated   
   bishop of Lindisfarne by Saint Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, with six   
   bishops in attendance at York. For two years Cuthbert was bishop of   
   Lindisfarne,   
   still maintaining his frugal ways and "first doing himself what he taught   
   others." He administered his see, cared for the sick of the plague that   
   decimated his see, distributed alms liberally, and worked so many miracles   
   of   
   healing that he was known in his lifetime as the "Wonder-Worker of Britain."   
   Then at Christmas in 686, in failing health and knowing that his end was   
   near,   
   he resigned his office and retired again to his island cell; but though   
   seriously ill and suffering intensely, he refused all aid, allowing none to   
   nurse him, and finished his course alone.   
      
   In the very act of lifting his hands in prayer "his soul sped its way to the   
   joys of the heavenly kingdom." News of his death was flashed by lantern to   
   the   
   watchers at Lindisfarne. Bede reports: "As the tiny gleam flashed over the   
   dark   
   reach of sea, and the watchman hurried with his news into the church, the   
   brethren of the Holy Island were singing the words of the Psalmist: "Thou   
   hast   
   cast us out and scattered us abroad . . . Thou hast shown thy people heavy   
   things."   
      
   He was buried at Lindisfarne, where they remained incorrupt for several   
   centuries, but after the Viking raids began his remains wandered with the   
   displaced monks for about 100 years until they were translated to Durham   
   cathedral in 1104. Until its desecration under Henry VIII, his shrine at   
   Durham   
   was one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage for the power of healing   
   that Cuthbert possessed during his lifetime lived on after him. The bones   
   discovered in 1827 beneath the site of the medieval shrine are probably his.   
   He   
   is said to have had supernatural gifts of healing and insight, and people   
   thronged to consult him, so that he became known as the wonder-worker of   
   Britain. He had great qualities as a preacher, and made many missionary   
   journeys. Bede wrote that "Cuthbert was so great a speaker and had such a   
   light   
   in his angelic face. He also had such a love for proclaiming his good news,   
   that   
   none hid their innermost secrets from him." Year after year, on horseback   
   and on   
   foot, he ventured into the remotest territories between Berwick and   
   Galloway. He   
   built the first oratory at Dull, Scotland, with a large stone cross before   
   it   
      
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