Orphaned
early in life, Cuthbert was brought up by a widow who loved him like a
son. According to St. Bede, he was a Briton. One night, while working as
a shepherd, he had a marvelous vision of angels carrying the soul of
St. Aidan to heaven. This occurrence seems to have impressed him deeply,
though he went on to soldiering and possibly fought against the
Mercians.
It was as a soldier that he knocked at the gate of
Melrose Abbey. As a monk, he went on to become prior of the abbeys of
Melrose and Lindisfarne. After some years at Lindisfarne, wishing to
grow even closer to God, he retired as a hermit first to Holy Island,
today named after him, and then to an even more remote location among
the Farne Islands. Still, people persisted in following him even to this
isolated place, and he graciously built a guest house near the landing
stage of the isle to accommodate them.
Illustrations taken from the Venerable St. Bede’s Life of Cuthbert
Later, at the insistence of the Abbess St. Elfleda, a daughter of
King Oswiu, he reluctantly accepted a bishopric and was consecrated
Bishop of Lindisfarne. The two years of his episcopate were spent
visiting his diocese preaching, teaching, distributing alms and working
so many miraculous cures that during his lifetime he was known as the
Wonderworker of Britain.
Weakened by his labors and austerities,
Cuthbert sensed death approaching and again retired to his beloved
retreat in the Farne Islands. He received the last sacraments and died
peacefully, seated, his hands uplifted and his eyes raised heavenward.
The Venerable St. Bede also records in his life of the saint that when
Cuthbert's sarcophagus was opened nine years after his death, his body
was found to have been perfectly preserved or incorrupt.
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