Cuthbert | |
---|---|
![]() Cuthbert discovers a piece of timber, from a 12th-century manuscript of Bede's Life of St Cuthbert | |
Bishop | |
Born | c. 634 Dunbar, Northumbria (now in Scotland) |
Died | 20 March 687 Inner Farne, Kingdom of Northumbria (now in England) |
Venerated in | Catholic Church; Anglicanism; Eastern Orthodox Church, Church of Scotland |
Major shrine | Durham Cathedral, England |
Feast | 20 March, Catholic Church, Episcopal Church; 4 September (Catholic Ordinariates) |
Attributes | Bishop holding a second crowned head in his hands; sometimes accompanied by seabirds and animals |
Patronage | Kingdom of Northumbria, Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle |
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne[a] (c. 634 – 20 March 687) was 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 the Kingdom of Northumbria,[b] today in northern England and southern Scotland. Both during his life and after his death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March (Catholic Church, Church of England, Eastern Orthodox Church, Episcopal Church[7]) and 4 September (Church in Wales, Catholic Church).
Cuthbert grew up in or around Lauderdale, near Old Melrose Abbey, a daughter-house of Lindisfarne, today in Scotland. He decided to become a monk after seeing a vision on the night in 651 that Aidan, the founder of Lindisfarne, died, but he seems to have experienced some period of military service beforehand. He was made guest-master at the new monastery at Ripon, soon after 655, but had to return with Eata of Hexham to Melrose when Wilfrid was given the monastery instead.[8][9] About 662 he was made prior at Melrose, and around 665 went as prior to Lindisfarne. In 684 he was made bishop of Lindisfarne, but by late 686 he resigned and returned to his hermitage as he felt he was about to die. He was probably in his early 50s.[10][11]
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