Anglican Commemoration
Bishop of Lindisfarne
March 20 · d. 687
also known as Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
Cuthbert was the most beloved saint of medieval England north of the Humber — a monk, hermit, and reluctant bishop whose combination of mystical prayer and tireless pastoral care made him the pattern of holiness for the Northumbrian church. Raised in the Celtic monastic tradition, he accepted the Roman customs adopted at the Synod of Whitby without rancor and spent his life bridging the two traditions. After years as a hermit on Inner Farne, he was persuaded to accept the bishopric of Lindisfarne, served for two years of intense pastoral activity, and returned to his island to die. His body, found incorrupt eleven years after burial, became one of the most famous relics in English history.
Cuthbert's years on Inner Farne were attended by remarkable communion with animals. Both the Anonymous Life and Bede record that sea otters dried his feet with their fur after he spent the night praying in the frigid North Sea. Ravens who had stolen thatch from his cell returned it in contrition after Cuthbert rebuked them. Eagles and other birds obeyed his commands. These animal miracles follow the Eden-restoration topos (the saint's holiness restoring prelapsarian harmony with creation) but are independently attested in two near-contemporary sources.
The discovery of Cuthbert's incorrupt body in 698 — eleven years after burial — was the foundational event of his cult. The body was examined again when the shrine was moved to Durham, and again in 1104, with the incorruption confirmed each time. The 1104 examination is documented by Symeon of Durham.
Bede records that Cuthbert foresaw his own death and predicted calamities that would befall Lindisfarne — later interpreted as the Viking attacks of 793 and 875. The seven-year wandering of the Lindisfarne community carrying Cuthbert's body (875–882) before settling at Chester-le-Street became one of the great narratives of English Christian survival.
Cuthbert was born around 634 in Northumbria. According to Bede, he entered the monastic life at Melrose after seeing a vision of angels carrying Aidan's soul to heaven on the night the bishop of Lindisfarne died in 651. He was trained under Prior Boisil at Melrose and then served as prior of Lindisfarne, where his gifts for preaching and pastoral care made him an effective evangelist among the rural Northumbrians.
Cuthbert traveled extensively through the hill country, visiting remote villages that no other priest would reach, preaching for days at a stretch, and earning the trust of communities that were still half-pagan. Bede emphasizes his personal warmth, his gift for reading the spiritual state of those he counseled, and his ability to comfort the distressed.
In 676, drawn to the contemplative life, Cuthbert withdrew to the tiny island of Inner Farne — a windswept rock in the North Sea — where he lived as a hermit for nearly a decade. He built a cell whose walls were high enough that he could see nothing but the sky and devoted himself to prayer and spiritual warfare. Visitors who came seeking counsel found him luminous with the presence of God.
In 685, King Ecgfrith and Archbishop Theodore persuaded Cuthbert — with great difficulty — to accept the bishopric of Lindisfarne. He served for two years, traveling his diocese with the same energy he had shown as prior, but his health was failing. On Christmas Day 686 he felt the onset of his final illness and returned to Inner Farne, where he died on March 20, 687.
Eleven years later, the monks of Lindisfarne opened his tomb and found his body incorrupt — a discovery that launched one of the most important cults in English Christianity. When the Vikings destroyed Lindisfarne in 875, the monks carried Cuthbert's body on a seven-year wandering before settling at Chester-le-Street and eventually Durham, where Durham Cathedral was built to house his shrine.
O God, your blessed Son became poor for our sake, and chose the Cross over the kingdoms of this world: Deliver us from an inordinate love of worldly things, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Cuthbert, may seek you with singleness of heart, behold your glory by faith, and attain to the riches of your everlasting kingdom, where we shall be united with our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.