Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Find this and other wonderful icons at the website of British iconographer Aidan Hart.


I am not planning on turning this into a blog of saint's tales, but March just happens to be particularly crowded with some of my personal favorites. March 20th belongs to Saint Cuthbert, who is sometimes called the English Francis of Assisi-- or, for the Orthodox, the English Seraphim of Sarov. This because of the plethora of animal tales about the 7th C. Anglo-Saxon hermit, bishop and abbot.

Here is an excerpt from Bede's life of the Saint, illustrated in this icon:

.....he would go forth, when others were asleep, and having spent the night in watchfulness return home at the
hour of morning-prayer. Now one night, a brother of the monastery,seeing him go out alone followed him privately to see what he should do.

He went down to the sea, which flows beneath, and going into it, until the water reachedhis neck and arms, spent the night in praising God. When the dawn of day approached, he came out of the water, and, falling on his knees, began to pray again. Whilst he was doing this, two quadrupeds,called otters, came up from the sea, and, lying down before him on the sand, breathed upon his feet, and wiped them with theirhair after which, having received his blessing, they returned to their native element. Cuthbert himself returned home in time to join in the accustomed hymns with the other brethren. The brother,who waited for him on the heights, was so terrified that he could hardly reach home; and early in the morning he came and fell at his feet, asking his pardon, for he did not doubt that Cuthbert was fully acquainted with all that had taken place. To whom Cuthbert replied, What is the matter, my brother ? What have you done? Did you follow me to see what I was about to do? I forgive you for it on one condition,-that you tell it to nobody before my death. In this he followed the example of our Lord, who, when He showed his glory to his disciples on the mountain, said, See that you tell no man, until the Son of man be risen from the dead. When the brother had assented to this condition, he give him his blessing, and released him from all his trouble.The man concealed this miracle during St. Cuthbert's life; but, after his death, took care to tell it to as many persons as he was able.

Cuthbert figures as an off-stage but highly influential character in one of my current WIPs (that's writerspeak for Work In Progress), a historical fantasy novel set in England during the Viking invasions. I'm also planning an article about St. Cuthbert for an upcoming issue of AGAIN magazine.

And I have yet another Cuthbert-project germinating. Since my novel's plot veers away from one of the most fascinating aspects of the St. Cuthbert vita before it can play out, I'm thinking of incorporating it into a book for younger readers. This is the story of Cuthbert's folk, the combined company of monks and layfolk of all ages who fled his monastery lands on and around Lindisfarne (aka Holy Island) more than a hundred years after his death. But they did not go without their Cuthbert-- they took his body with them, and carried him in procession all over the North of England before settling down many years after.

Talk about a pilgrimage!

Joyful Play in the Face of Death

It's been an age since I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but the article from which this post is excerpted made me decide I must do so again soon:

"Something happened between the Iliad and “Sir Gawain,” something that left a profound mark on the Western soul, something that no amount of political or social change can account for. Somehow, sometime, a shadow lifted, and in the light of day, men and women began to play, and play joyfully, in the face of death. Somehow, somewhere, men (especially men) learned to smile and even, like Hamlet’s gravediggers, sing at the edge of their graves." Peter Leitheart, on First Things reposted at Kick Against the Goads.

A search took me to some interesting Gawain sites. Here's another quote I quite liked:

"Gawain is, naturally, more fully drawn than any other character. Not only do we observe him ourselves, we are told how he impressed other people in the story and how he himself thought and felt. We see him behaving, as all expect him to do, with exquisite courtesy; but we also see what is not apparent to the other characters, that such behavior does not always come easily to him. All the time that he is parrying the lady's advances, we are aware that he feels himself to be on a knife-edge between discourtesy and compliance." (Dorothy Everett)


Want some more fun and games? Try these Gawain and the Green Knight paper dolls!

Saint Patrick-the Steadfast Man

My own copy is sans this great dustjacket from the UK first edition, but inside Paul Gallico's life of St. Patrick are many echoes of that Story about the cup, the sword, the tree and the green hill.

Included are the only extant primary sources (in translation of course): the Confessio, in which he defends himself against slanderous charges, recounting the story of his conversion and missionary labours; and Patrick's Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, demanding repentance of a Welsh chieftain who had slaughtered a band of the newly-baptized.

A small sample from Gallico's comments on these writings of the saint: "Patrick at no time trod an easy way. And the true modesty of the man is gleaned not from his professions of unworthiness and denigrations of himself, but from the manner in which he skips over the trials and hardships that beset him from his sixteenth year until the end of his days, and which he dismisses with a few words, not wishing to bore his readers."