|
Commemorated on March 20
'Saint Cuthbert was born in Britain about the year 635, and
became a monk in his youth at the monastery of Melrose by the River Tweed. After
many years of struggle as a true priest of Christ, in the service both of his
own brethren and of the neglected Christians of isolated country villages, he
became a solitary on Farne Island in 676. After eight years as a hermit, he was
constrained to leave his quiet to become Bishop of Lindisfarne, in which office
he served for almost two years. He returned to his hermitage two months before
he reposed in peace in 687.
'Because of the miracles he wrought both during his life and at his tomb after
death, he is called the "Wonderworker of Britain." The whole English people
honoured him, and kings were both benefactors to his shrine and suppliants of
his prayers. Eleven years after his death, his holy relics were revealed to be
incorrupt; when his body was translated from Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral in
August of 1104, his body was still found to be untouched by decay, giving off
"an odour of the sweetest fragrancy," and "from the flexibility of its joints
representing a person asleep rather than dead." Finally, when the most impious
Henry VIII desecrated his shrine, opening it to despoil it of its valuables, his
body was again found incorrupt, and was buried in 1542. It is believed that
after this the holy relics of Saint Cuthbert were hidden to preserve them from
further desecration.' (Great Horologion)
|
Close window |