Dv/rham Cathedral, by Rev. William Green well. 61 



Saint of the North of England, our patron Saint at Durham — 

 Cuthbert. His genealogy is disputed, but there is little question 

 he was of Anglian and not of Celtic origin. He was probably of 

 humble parentage, although a noble descent has been claimed 

 for him. We hear of him first as a shepherd boy in the South 

 of Scotland, not far from Melrose, the monastery at which he 

 entered, and there received instruction in religion. He 

 ultimately became a great missionary, and preached throughout 

 a large part of Northern Northumbria, then comprising the East 

 of Scotland up to the Frith of Forth. He became Bishop much 

 against his will, and had he chosen his own lot he would not 

 have ruled over the Northumbrian See, but have lived on in re- 

 tirement from human kind as a hermit upon the adjoining island 

 of Fame, to which he had before removed from Lindisfarne. I 

 cannot but think that he must have had other qualities than the 

 ascetic which induced the people to select him. We know that 

 he was a great missionary, and that he preached with much 

 effect, but he must also, like Aidan, have had a conciliatory 

 spirit, kindness, firmness, discretion, and the skill to rule. He 

 became Bishop at Lindisfarne A.D. 685, and died on the great 

 Fame A.D. 687, and his body was taken to Lindisfarne, and 

 there buried. He, therefore, only ruled the Northumbrian See 

 for two years. Eleven years after his death his body was disin- 

 terred, the monks having, in the meantime, prepared a cofiin in 

 which to place it. They naturally expected to find a skeleton, 

 but they found the body incorrupt. They then placed it in the 

 coffin which they had prepared, and, probably with the exception 

 of coffins from Egypt, this is one of the oldest wooden coffins, of 

 which remains still exist. Fragments of large portions of it are 

 still preserved in the Cathedral library. Reginald, the author 

 of a "Life of St. Cuthbert," who had opportunities of carefidly 

 examining it, says it had on it representations of Saints, Apostles, 

 and of various other figures. Many of these still remain on the 

 fragments of the coffin at Durham, and the description given by 

 him so fully agrees with the character of the sculpturing still left, 

 that there cannot be the slightest doubt that in these remains we 

 have portions of the coffin made before A.D. 698. The letters, 

 for some of the figures have the names attached, are also of the 

 form in use at that time. 



I must now mention another great name — that of Beda, or the 



