THE CONTENTS OF St. CUTH- 

 BERT'S SHRINE 



PRESERVED IN THE DEAN AND CHAPTER LIBRARY, 



DURHAM 



When St. Cuthbert died on that Fame Island which is now called the 

 'House Island," on 20 March, 687,' he closed a life of pain and suffering ; ^ 

 yet his body had no rest, for it now began a wandering period which lasted, 

 with intervals, till the precious burden finally reached Durham in 995. 



How old he was when he died will never be exactly known. He had 

 been a monk, since 651,* and we are told that he was admitted as such ' ab 

 ineunte adolescentia.' ' Latin dictionaries tell us that ' adolescentia ' begins 

 at 14, lasting to 28. If so, assuming his age on taking the vows to have 

 been 15, he would be about 51 at his death. It is not likely that he was 

 much older than this ; a man of delicate frame and uncertain health, who 

 lived an unwholesome life, ill-fed, recluse, emaciated — how could he attain 

 to what we now call old age? In fact, at 51 or 52 he was already old, 

 bowed down with premature feebleness. It is true that Symeon of Durham 

 tells us of a vision in which a Durham cleric saw SS. Cuthbert and Oswald 

 in the cathedral, and that the former was ' Eetatis medise vir ' ; * yet his 

 infirmities had made him old before his time ; and he died worn out by 

 austerities and suffering.^ 



The Lindisfarne Monks, remembering how he had consented to allow 

 his body to rest with them, would not leave it where he died, but brought 

 him reverently to Holy Island;^ here they placed him in a stone cist, 

 already conveniently lying there, covered him with vestments and wrappings, 

 and buried him under the pavement of their church, on the south side 

 of the altar.' Here he rested eleven years, till 698.^" At that time, 

 says Bede, ' the divine dispensation ' was minded to let the world know 

 how glorious Cuthbert was after his death, and therefore moved the 

 brethren to disinter his remains. To their reverent amazement they found 

 the body still incorrupt. They invested him with new robes, given by 

 Bishop Eadbercht, and placed him in a new wooden coffin, which they had 



1 See R. Surtccs, Hist, and Antiq. of County Palatine of Durham, i. 5 note. 



'On the same day as his friend, the anchorite Herbert. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. cnp. xxvii. 



* Bede, /'';/. Cudb. cap. xxvii. 



♦ When he entered Melrose, having seen a vision of St. Aidan. See Vita Anon. sec. 8 (printed in Bedae 

 Op. Hist. Min., rec. J. Stevenson, Engl. Hist. Soc.) and Symeon of Durham (Rolls Series), i. 21. 



' Bede, Hist. Eccl., lib. iv. cap. xxv. 



« Sym. Dur. (Rolls Series), i. 102. See also ibid. i. 104, 231, 232. 



7 Bede Vit. Cudb., cap. xxr\'ii. * Bede Hist. Eccl., lib. iv. cap. xxvii. 



» 5)'OT. Dur. (Rolls Series), i. 35. 10 Bede, Hist. Eccles., lib. iv. cap. xxviii. 



I 241 31 



